So I've posted about and seen similar posts about this in the past, but it was just in my mind so I thought I'd re-open the discussion.
 
In recent years, I've been using per-project audio folders, which makes life much better.
 
But for the first decade or so of being a Cakewalk user (going  back to Pro Audio 4.0), I had the big Audio Data folder. Actually I have an "Audio Data" folder which holds 4,721 files making up 25.9GB, and then from some point in my musical history, I must have for a while accidentally changed the Audio Data folder to just the root Cakewalk Projects folder, and so I also have another 2,250 files making up 34.7GB in there.
 
Am I just going to have to take those 60GB of audio files with me from computer to computer forever? Haha. Seems so ridiculous.
 
I'd imagine, taking a wild guess, we're talking a total of...maybe 500 projects (that's definitely rounding up) that make up all those files. Some could have one little guitar track added into all the MIDI, some can be a song with vocals with like a dozen tracks and multiple takes of each track taking dozens of audio files to make it up.
 
Anyway who knows if I'm even going to take the weekend off that I'd need to clean this up any time soon... But just curious if anyone has any suggestions for going back to clean up old projects.
 
One thing I've already thought of is just one by one, opening projects and saving Cakewalk Bundles and then deleting the whole damn thing. But I'm so worried I'd lose something in the process. But it is an option I think would work.

the CWAF tool is a better option for batch clean up.
I how ever do use the clean audio folders tool quite often and it takes for ever and a life time but it does in deed work.
 
get in to the habit of good house cleaning while projects are in progress. rather then letting a slew of them pile up.
after you complete all tracks for example, bounce to clips all your tracks, then use the Clean audio folder tool.
I started doing this a few years ago and it is a G Send. I like to be organized and find files within folders so all named tracks in folders are there.
 
the downside is, I don't have little clips to choose from. but I don't consider that a downside to be honest. if I need an audio clip, its typically the whole clip, not just the bridge or chorus of that clip.
if you need to save clips within a track, copy those a side, than bounce all your tracks to clips.
it really does make a huge differential.

1. Use "Utilities-Consolidate project Audio". This will create a folder named for the project within the main Audio folder.
2. Using Win File Explorer create a new folder named for your project.
3. Drag the Consolidated Audio folder from step 1 to your new folder in step 2. Rename the Consolidated folder "Audio".
4. Drag the project file into the new folder.
5. Open the project from the new folder and verify it is referencing the correct audio path (to your new folder [right click any audio clip and select "associated audio files"]) and plays properly.
 
Repeat for all relevant projects.
 
This is also the quickest way to "clean" audio folders.
Use step 1 then drag the consolidated folder up to the project folder. then rename the old "Audio" folder to "Whatever" and rename the Consolidated folder "Audio".
 After verifying that the project plays properly, you can delete the "Whatever " folder.
 

OK a couple follow up questions...
 
1) I am not certain, but I suspect that some of the files in my root "Cakewalk Projects" and my "Audio Data" folder are the same files that somehow at some point just got copied. Maybe not all, but definitely at least some. Do you think I'd run into problems if I drag moved them all to the same "Audio Data" folder and chose to skip the ones it finds and then compare/delete the ones that were in both?
 
2) When working with the CWAF tool, I think my biggest problem is that lets say I have "Song 1" then "Song 1 (Version 2)" and "Song 1 (Version 3)".... If I just go to "Song 1 (Version 3)" and bounce lets say the lead singers vocals all to one clip so it cuts down on the amount of audio files needed for that project, they're still going to be all split up in the first and second versions, right? Seems like the only way to make that tool effective is to give in and delete all older versions of project files... Is that right?
 
3) Base57's suggestion is something I had never heard of before... I had never tried the Consolidate Project Audio command before... That is really interesting in that I can kind of wrap my head around that... so if I did that for every projects (at least starting with the important ones)... In theory I could do that for every song and make it like as if I had been doing Per-Project Audio folders from the beginning... And then I can delete the big catch all "Audio Data" folder because I've made copis of any audio that would have been in there anyway by using the Consolidate Project Audio command on a million different projects haha.
 
It's a huge job but that's an interestingly new way of looking at it...

polarbear
 
 
 In theory I could do that for every song and make it like as if I had been doing Per-Project Audio folders from the beginning... And then I can delete the big catch all "Audio Data" folder because I've made copis of any audio that would have been in there anyway by using the Consolidate Project Audio command on a million different projects haha.
 

Yes. If you have a million projects it could take a while. But I believe my way is faster than using bundles or anything else I can think of.
 
Credit where it's due. The method I wrote about above is a variation of one of Craig Anderton's tips from several months ago.

I just finished my second cup and the brain is slightly more engaged. Save Copy As...
 That could be a little quicker for a lot of projects. The thing I don't like about Save Copy As... is it resets the stats in the info page as if a project that is ten years old was created today.

Wait so if I Save Copy As, and if Per Project Audio is selected, it will Save a new copy in its own folder with its own audio folder? Then I can delete the old?
 
Wow, that would be REALLY easy...
 
And yea I can see how the stat reset would be annoying for most but every project I ever make has the date in the name, AND is in subfolders by year... so I'm kind of set on that.
 
Wow I might have to really try that...
 
Thank you.

Do you really need all those 500 projects? Couldn't you take, say, the twenty most relevant ones and fix those in one of the ways described above?

Then if you're still insecure, backup the remaining projects and both audio folders to an external disk and forget about them.

Sanderxpander
Do you really need all those 500 projects? Couldn't you take, say, the twenty most relevant ones and fix those in one of the ways described above?

Then if you're still insecure, backup the remaining projects and both audio folders to an external disk and forget about them.

Unfortunately I'm a digital hoarder so yes haha... but I'm a digital hoarder who likes order so I'd like to get it better organized :-)
 
 

25 or 50 or 100 gigs of messy storage is nothing to worry about. 
 
My self I would put the whole thing on a data drive and forget about it. This is more or less what happens to older files I have.  Then one day if I decide I want to re do that project, I just browse and open and then use "save as" with copy audio and save to my working drive. The old copy remains as a back up and the new copy starts fresh in my uncluttered storage space.