Using Sonar X3 Producer, and while recording today, a message I've never seen before popped up, "RIFF File Open Failure," and the project stopped. I was able to save, then shut down, restarted computer. However, after reopening the project, it won't play. Pressing the spacebar or the play icon has no effect, and if I then try to close the project, it hangs and the program crashes. Other projects work fine. 
 
Any help on resolving this would really be appreciated. Should I try opening in Recovery mode (holding down SHIFT key, right?), or is there a better solution? Thanks in advance. 

http://forum.cakewalk.com/X2-I-Waited-to-Post-This-RIFF-File-Open-Failure-SOLVED-m2690113.aspx
 
Please review the above post - scroll to the last post.  Hope it applies to your situation, as it was the ONLY returned search result.
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks much, Bob. I actually found that one in a Google search, but unfortunately it did not help. I thought it might be something related to the Picture Cache as mentioned in that post, so I deleted the contents of that folder, made sure the settings in the config file were within specs, but unfortunately, same issue. 
 
A little more detail, though. Once opened and "Play" pushed, the project will begin playing after about 10 seconds. It will play for another 5 or 10 seconds, then I'll get the "audio engine stopped" message, and the project won't play again after that. 
 
As you alluded to above, can't seem to find much info about this "RIFF error." Not even sure what it's referencing, to be honest. Is there any way to simply rebuild/repair a project like this?

http://www.fileformat.info/format/riff/egff.htm
 
http://www.topherlee.com/software/pcm-tut-wavformat.html
 
What happens with other projects?  Same problem, or just the one project?
 
What happens if you do a 'Save As', and have it copy over the audio to the new location - making sure you create a new project folder and I suppose a new sub-folder called Audio first?  I am thinking maybe the files are OK, and maybe something is corrupted in the project itself.  I would think if other projects are opening and playing OK that tihs might bolster that theory, but in any case trying out the Save As could be telling.
 
Lastly, what detail can you recall as to what you were doing when this first occurred?  Perhaps something in that might be of assistance - reaching here, but you never know.
 
Bob Bone
 

Other kinds of applications that use the RIFF format have occasional troubles too, and it appears that there are different formats for the format, silly as that looks when I type it.
 
Is there any associated code or further error text when this occurs?
 
Bob Bone
 
 

That's where I have to hang my head in shame, I'm afraid. There was a good bit of extra verbiage there, but I closed the error without thinking, and by the time I realized what I'd done, the only thing I'd seen clearly was the "RIFF Open Failure" message. Been mule kicking myself in the spleen ever since. 
 
As for other projects, they open and play fine. I did try the "Save As," and copied all audio into a new folder, etc. Unfortunately, same result. Thinking about maybe creating a new project and copying/pasting the files into that project and seeing if that helps. 
 
When the message popped up, I was recording a vocal. It actually happened in mid-record. 

Can you play that project's WAV files outside of SONAR?
 

Hi and thanks, Steve
 
Yeah, the .wav files do play fine. I didn't go through all of them (there are many), but tried a variety of them and they all play without a problem. 

It's probably just one corrupt file out of many in your project. To salvage the project, you're going to have to identify which one it is and rename it. That will entail testing each wave file by loading them one by one into Windows Media Player or something like it.
 
Repairs are not impossible, but are neither trivial nor easy. Your best bet is to get rid of the offending file by renaming it - don't delete it in case the issue is an unreadable block on your hard drive, in which case you don't want to put it back into the pool. Worst-case scenario is you'll have to re-track one clip but the rest of the project should be intact.
 
This would be a good time to check the Sunday paper for sales on external hard drives, for backing up your projects.
 

I would start with checking the clip that was being recorded when the message popped up, if that clip was written to the hard drive, and the prior clip if not.
 
Bob Bone