Interesting learning curb for something that should be simple enough?...Hello...I have a problem with this kind of thing myself...I can write, and pencil in volume automation...but it does not get read on playback,  as well...Tried the button... R..all colours...no go.
Not doing any complex grouping ...Just on individual tracks....So I will also check out some of this info....

...Thanks for posting, and all the others trying to help!

Sorry for delay...interrupted by the reality of my day gig. Are your screen shots from X2? I can't find anything that looks exactly like that - looked in track and console views. There are similarities, but I haven't been able to make the picture correspond to what I'm seeing - nor have I ever been able to get the R to turn blue - only gray and white. Is the "mix module" part of a buss in console view, or a separate entity? The picture you gave me for the "Read button" doesn't look like anything in one of my buses (two buttons next to each other). Sorry to be so dense, but Scott G. also said he hasn't seen this problem, and had no suggestions. May be my descriptions of the problem are not clear. Thanks for your help.

Yes - screenshots are X2. Top one is my master buss header. The other one is the "Mix module" in the control bar. Right click on the control bar and show it if you can't see it.

The "R" and "W" can be found in the console view, the track view or the inspector.  If the "R" in the control bar (the one up top) is white, the "R" in the buss will turn blue when you left mouse click on it. If the "R" in the control bar is gray, the "R" button in the buss will not turn blue. When blue it will read automation when it is gray it will not.

Yes - sorry I wasn't very clear in my post. The top screenshot is the header control which is per track/buss. The mix module control is the "Global" control. The global must be on for the track/buss to read automation.

If no tracks or busses follow automation then chances are global read is disabled. If it's only some tracks or busses then it's probably those tracks/busses individual read buttons.

In both cases - global and individual, the tracs are not disabled.

Does this happen in all projects or just one?

I'm beginning to think that there may be some corruption of some sort. Ref. the colour of the buttons.... the only way I can get a grey button is turning global automation read off and even then it has a diagonal line through it to indicate that it is off.

TBH I'm head scratching now.

I'm waiting on a response from Cakewalk. Will keep you posted.

That was going to be my next suggestion.

The end result of this problem is it went away just as it came - for no apparent reason. I was going back and forth with Sonar supt., and the problem just went away - so we couldn't chase it down any further. Kind of an anticlimactic ending to this thread, but I'll take it. Thanks for everybody's help.