Auto-Save is impossible to set properly.
 
I have a complex project which takes 10-15 seconds to save. I have Auto-Save on for safety. I set it for every few minutes, but soon discovered that if I am doing nothing, say playing back, for over the length of time between saves, then every time I go to make some edit, Sonar sees the time span has elapsed so it Auto-Saves again, wasting another 10-15 seconds. Then I listen to the piece again, make a single change, and it happens again.
 
So I switched to auto-save every 100 edits. What I discovered was that if you select say, 50 tiny clips and copy-paste them, that counts as 50 edits. Do it twice and Auto-Save is engaged. I was doing a lot of that kind of editing and again waiting out the 10-15 second save. Really annoying.
 
I guess I have switch back and forth depending on what I'm doing at the time. Wish that was unnecessary. Auto-Save should be MUCH smarter.

I have never relied on automation to save something that is of importance to me.
in other words, use the key command CNTR+S for saving.
 
it becomes a force of habit after a while, you work a little bit, you save, you work a little bit, you save.

chuckebaby...use the key command CNTR+S for saving...

Big +1 to that reply.  I save several times every minute, basically every time I do an edit.  I do it without thinking, but I'M in control of it, not some funky auto-save thing which can get in your way - as per your experience, jko.
 
Randy B.
 

+2...  My hand can do Ctrl + S like playing a C chord on the guitar.  Easy peasy.  When I have talent over, basically after every take, I play a *C chord* on Sonar.  Ctrl + Z is pretty close to the same thing physically... , but big difference.  So watch out for that.
  However, I use that a lot too.

chuckebaby
I have never relied on automation to save something that is of importance to me.
in other words, use the key command CNTR+S for saving.
 
it becomes a force of habit after a while, you work a little bit, you save, you work a little bit, you save.

Another +1. I have auto-save engaged for "x" number of minutes just in case I get so wrapped up I forget to hit ctrl+S. Also, I do my own versioning. Every now and then I'll save as projectname2, projectname 3, etc. That way if I did some horrible keyboard shortcut faux pas that nuked the entire second half of the song or whatever, I can go back to a previous version.
 
Auto-save is your "court of last resort" in case you haven't implemented your own saving regimen that's optimized for how you work, because it will in fact save something that would hopefully be of use.

I find autosave works fine for really very large projects that have no midi.
 
When you include a lot of midi, the save time moves way up. There are times that I then need to change the settings.
 
You can do it by time or by change count. I also keep 10 versions of the files, but it has almost never mattered. I just figure if it ever helps me, it was worth having.

Save early save often...that is my mantra in every computer related task I do. And I do it with <Ctrl><s>.
 
Simples.
 
Regards.

rbowser

chuckebaby...use the key command CNTR+S for saving...

Big +1 to that reply.  I save several times every minute, basically every time I do an edit.  I do it without thinking, but I'M in control of it, not some funky auto-save thing which can get in your way - as per your experience, jko.
 

Same here. Whenever I am doing mouse edits, my left hand hovers near the keyboard, poised ready to hit Ctrl-S.
 
AutoSave has never really caused any problems for me, but if it started getting in the way then I would probably disable it.

Yeah, I've always  the same way with Ctrl-S, it's almost like I put a period at the end of something I like. Ctrl-S is my way of saying Yesss!! to myself. It's a habit I'll probably never lose, so maybe the auto-save is unnecessary. 

Yes. Auto save has never been great because it interrupts work flow when the project is large.
It's a great idea, but I think it would need to be re coded from scratch to really get it right.
Ideally it should run as a subtle and unnoticeable background operation that can't be seen and doesn't stop us from doing what we're doing.
I have to have it disabled because I can't stand the interruption in my work flow.
CTRL+S as often as possible is the safest way.

As for version numbers as in songname_001, songname_002 etc.
"Blender" (3d software) has a great feature that ups the version number by one ... 003, 004 etc.
When saving ... hitting the "+" on the numbers pad changes the 004 to a 005 and on up ever new save.
It's a very slick time saver.