.St3 file help

Excalibur

Just a quick question as a newly. If I create a full back up, rather than using apple cloud etc,etc, can I just copy the *****.st3 back up file , to memory stick, or ssd drive and keep a safe copy of my settings that way. Then , if I have any issues, all I have to do is copy that file back into stagetraxx , and simply restore it back to that restore point. Does that make sense.

Damir

Excalibur thats exactly correct.
And a very good thing to regularly do.

peter

And if you use an iOS compatible usb stick you could even bring the backup with you to the gig. But personally I prefer an independent backup device. I always have 2 iPads available when gigging.

Excalibur

Thanks, that’s great. I am assuming the full back up contains all the text/ lyrics-formatting/ & parameters for each track/ key etc etc.

My aim is to use my iPad for gigs rather than my laptop, which is bulky.
All my tracks have time stamped lyrics and also have tabs which I use for the Sax.
Stagetraxx seem perfect for this.

Each track takes some time to set up, to the way I prefer it,
that’s why these backups are so crucial.

Cheers Dave

peter

The full backup contains everything.

Excalibur

Thanks Peter

Excalibur

Just performed a test full back up. The back up size is 2.02gb, iPad states that stagestraxx is using 11.91gb ? Is something wrong ?

peter

Maybe you have some hanging temporary files in there. These automatically clean up after a restart of the app. 2GB would mean about 5MB per song with 400 songs which would indicate you are using stereo mp3 files.

Excalibur

Ok , I Restarted the iPad 10, opened stagetraxx , whilst in stagetraxx , went to settings/show files, then looked at info .
It States 512 items 13.9gb. ?

There are x97 pdf files / x3 back up ***.st3 files each approx 2gb / x 412 stereo mp3 files ?

Question : When you perform a full back does it also save any previous .st3 back up files, if they are different names of course.

If it does, then in my case ,the next back up should be 6gb + , is that correct ?

Hope this makes sense , thanks

AnthonyB

Excalibur A full backup is always a full backup, not incremental (i.e. not just the new stuff since last full backup).

E.g. (simplfieid)

You have 10GB ST data - backup is _10GB
2 months later after you've added another 1GB of stuff into ST (i.e. ST overall now 11GB) - backup is _11GB.

Previous backup files are not included in the backup (@peter to confirm as that would be very bad if it does!).
I.e. in above scenario, the 2nd backup isn't 10GB (original) + 10GB first backup + 1GB new data.

Damir

Excalibur Ok , I Restarted the iPad 10, opened stagetraxx , whilst in stagetraxx , went to settings/show files, then looked at info .
It States 512 items 13.9gb. ?

You probably saved your backups in to the ST3 folder.
NEVER DO THAT.
This increases your next full backups greatly and is not a safe place to keep a backup as it will be erased if you fully reinstall ST3.
This is a big trap.
I suggest have a close look at your ST3 folder and shift any files that you have there that don’t belong to a different location like DOWNLOADS folder as it’s easily found. This will reduce your full backups size to normal expected size and actually be a safer way to keep a full backup. Then you can copy and paste the full backups to other locations for long term safe backups not to loose huge hours of work in one instant of reinstalling ST.

AnthonyB

Damir Hang on - so you're saying that if you save a backup file into your Stage Traxx 3 folder (e.g. My Full Backup.st3) then that backup file will be included in your next subsequent full backup?

That is not my experience.

I've regularly saved my full backup file into the Stage Traxx folder, where I can see sub-folder for Multitrack-Files and PDF-Documents, and a month later my next backup file was only 100MB more in size which was what I expected based on new songs added (my full backups were _7GB).

Damir

AnthonyB no, I’m saying saving a backup file is not good to have in ST3 folder as it’s dangerous practice , you can rename full backups to any name this is great but you can end up with multiple full backups which chew up your memory very quickly, I have 23gig full backups this can really suck up your memory if you have multiple versions.
Don’t save your full backups in the ST3 folder, that’s all I am trying to point out.

Excalibur

Cheers guys, Yes, my backups are in the st3 folder, so I will save these somewhere else.
Like someone said earlier, there’s a lot of hours of work put into these files, and I always like to be on the safe side.

Thanks for your advice. Dave

Excalibur

Sorry for asking basic questions.
I have now deleted the old backup files, and created a new one ,saved it in downloads st3 folder, is now 2.02 gb

I have always used Microsoft Windows so I am a new convert to apple ipad, and still learning.

The file states that it is waiting, and is syncing with icloud.
I am assuming this is also normal.

Excalibur

Doh! , The reason why stagetraxx showed 11.9gb storage was that, although I deleted the old backups / files etc , they were still in the recently deleted folder on the iPad, and were still added to the Stagetraxx by the iPad.
Now that these have been permanently deleted, the stagetraxx folder is 2.02gb, which is my back up size.
That’s why I was confused,and thought the full back up was not done correctly.
Once again, apologies for my simple questions.

thanks for your help guys

Damir

Excalibur we’ve all been caught by that trick. 🤣
At least once.

peter

Guys, a clarification: A full backup contains a database dump (with metadata and your lyrics), all pdf files attached to songs and all audio files attached to songs. Any other files in the ST3 folder (old backups, your latest holiday pictures, who knows what 😉) are not stored in a backup. I always store backups first in the ST3 folder and after I Airdrop it to my MacBook, I delete the files and empty the trash (very important to reclaim space).

Damir

peter I always store backups first in the ST3 folder and after I Airdrop it to my MacBook, I delete the files and empty the trash

That’s the problem, if you don’t realise this as a new user you could think you made a backup and you are safe but if you reinstall ST3 it erased all your ST3 folder including your full backup you need to reinstall ST3.
I think it would be safer to give us a default folder outside the ST3 folder to save full backup files that way they are immediately safe as you save them.
I would give us an option to create a new folder that we can name like ST3 Full Backups or if you don’t do that a default saving folder like DOWNLOAD folder which is easily accessible already used as default folder for airdrop , this way a new user simply creates a full backup which immediately appears in DOWNLOAD folder and is safe from the reinstall processor ST3.
I have thousands of files in my ST3 folder, it is awkward to find the full backup folder amongst all other files , it’s a lot simpler going to ON MY IPAD finding ST3 Full Backups folder and seeing the actual SAFE full backup file and easily copy or transfer to other devices or users. I would like this folder to become my default backup folder so I don’t need to go through the long process to get it out of ST3 folder.
This then creates a fast, reliable, simple process.

AnthonyB

I'm not an Apple person either, so I have to ask, where does Apple expect a user to store their files by default outside of the App folder structure?
Is it iCloud (which I do not use, and could not use without paying them more money as 5GB default is not enough for my ST3 backups)?
If I draw the parallel to the Windows world, apps will generally default to storing stuff in the user's "My Documents" folder on the local device, which in current veresions of Windows is usually being backed up to OneDrive. What is the equivalent on iOS?

Like Damir, on Windows and Android devices, I just create my own folders on these OS's to put stuff in a consistent, reliable, 'won't be deleted by app uninstall' location. I'll probably do same on my iPads.