Hi,
 
I updated to Sonar Professional and have been using it for a couple weeks now. Few issues have risen during that time. First I started to notice that some of the effect plugins would reset to their default settings when loading a project. It's not a show stopper since I can just save the plugin settings individually and then load them after the project has opened. It's time consuming though...
 
The second issue is a bigger one. Earlier today I was working on a project, then saved it and closed the program to do other stuff. Just now when I loaded the project again, all the MIDI notes and track automations were gone. Every one of them. And yes, the Show Notes is on. Hours of work lost.
 
I think getting the notes and automations back for the project won't happen. What might be the cause of these issues and is there a fix or do I have to go back to Sonar 8.5?

The only way I can imagine you can loose your data is to create it and close a program without saving it. This is true of all software. It's hard to do because all software will ask you if you want to save your work first. 
Are you saying all the midi tracks are now gone? I'm not sure what you mean by show notes? 
Sonar has not changed as far back as I have used it as far as having midi and audio tracks. They can be archived or hidden but you have to do that and it would have to have happened before your saved the project. 
 
Are you using simple instruments tracks or good old midi tracks? And your automation can be hidden in the automation lane , look for it ( arrows)  below the track, this is new if your coming from 8.5. 

I have been working on the project for days now. Editing, saving, closing, opening it and so on. No problems except that some of the effect plugins settings reset to default on opening. What I mean by showing notes is when you open the Piano Roll view on a MIDI track and then draw notes there. Like so:
 
So earlier today I saved the project and then closed the program. Then later when I opened the project again, all of the notes were gone. Moreover I had added several automation lanes for various synths. Those lanes were also gone. It's like somekind of reset happened except all the synths and plugins that were added to the project were still there.
 
Edit: I had also added several .wav files to the project. Those are not present either anymore.

Are  you having the "Allow only one project open at a time"?
If not, many projects may be open - and question to save may refer to one not in front of you.
 
I noticed that just changing parameters in plugins does not make project dirty.
 
And which location on drives are holding projects?
Nothing under \Program files, or?
Thinking of authorization to save.
 
And if external usb drive, power saving options may kick in and it's not available when saving.
Never allow power managing to kick in, see to that it's not allowed in device settings.
 
How many saves do you have on project, it should be a backup for each save?
From timestamps you should be able to tell a little more about what happend.
It could be the new save is done in another location from opened project.
You may be looking in the wrong place. 
 
Just a bunch of things that may inflict in your case...

I've only ever opened one project at the time and I have the permission to save where I save the files (not external USB drive). I used only one save file so my bad there. I think the issue might be somehow related to the plugins reseting back to the default settings. Only this time almost the whole project reset.
 
Anyway, thanks for the help. I'm back to using the 8.5 since can't be sure that the data loss won't happen again with the new Sonar.

I have never ever heard of this happing (the missing MIDI). I have seen on this forum users saying that a plugin has reset but I have not seen this in any of my projects.  
 
 

Things I discovered, having many projects originally made in Sonar 4 Studio, and also Sonar 8.5 - are that X-series and visibility of tracks get's screwed up. Open track manager and see what is there and check everything to be visible.
 
Timestamp on project you have on disk, should tell if any update was made.

Yeah all tracks are visible. There's just not any data on them anymore. Maybe I've stumbled on some bug that happens only on my computer configuration. Or maybe I did something just prior of saving and closing and didn't realize it at the time. I don't know.

So it's not just the clear Picture Cache folder, to let those rebuild.
That could be one reason you don't see anything on tracks.
 
It can be a mess with those and different versions of Sonar pointing in different places on disk.
I would definately have new Sonar have it's own project folder - then it builds piccache there.
I think this is it, then....

Yeah maybe I should have used a completely new folder for the new project files. Oh well, at least I can go back to the 8.5. Maybe I'll try my luck again with the NEXT Sonar version whenever that comes out :)