Transferring Pro Tools Sessions from Windows laptop to Mac?

[khan88]

bizzump

[Bob Olhsson]

You need to copy the session to a FAT 32 USB key or a Mac format hard drive which pro tools supports.. You could also zip the files and copy them that way. The problem is with macs reading PC drives.

[The Oracle]

I've never used Pro Tools on a PC. However, I have also enquired about this and my friend who uses Pro Tools on both PC and Mac said that the session files will play in either machine.

So I guess you just need to use an external HDD that can work on a PC and Mac.

[Bob Olhsson]

The only thing that won't play on a PC is an SD2 audio file. Apple has been threatening to pull the plug on them for the mac platform for over a decade but thus far haven't. Still it's a really bad idea to use SD2 for an important project.

[work2do]

Easiest way without any hard drive hassles is to use a USB Flash drive. PT sessions are seamless PC/Mac as long as no old SDII files are used on Mac side.

[khan88]

The thing is, with a cheap hard drive like a USB flash drive or something, will there be any loss of quality with the pro tools sessions?

[EtherealEntity]

A file is a file.

[psycho_monkey]

Originally Posted by khan88

The thing is, with a cheap hard drive like a USB flash drive or something, will there be any loss of quality with the pro tools sessions?

Data is data. It's not analogue tape. So no.

Whoever informed you your sessions would not be readable is wrong, and you should probably stop listening to their advice re computers and pro tools. PC pro tools sessions are just about always readable by macs, assuming the drive they're on is readable (and Macs can read just about any PC formatted drive, they just can't write to NTFS ones). As has been pointed out, PCs can have issues with older PT sessions from Macs, but only under specific circumstances - and it won't affect you as you're going the other way.

FWIW you should have a backup of all your sessions anyway. Do that NOW before anything else.

If your glyph drive is empty, you can format it to FAT32 and both PC and Mac will be able to read and write to it. If you're then going to use it for audio work, I'd copy the data onto the mac and reformat for GUID for the mac. If you've already got data on the glyph, just get a cheap USB drive as suggested.

[EtherealEntity]

It's funny - I have my 64GB usb stick formatted to FAT32 now after reading all that stuff months ago, but before then I never had ANY problems writing/reading as NTFS, transfering sessions from Mac to PC and vice versa daily.

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by EtherealEntity

I never had ANY problems writing/reading as NTFS, transfering sessions from Mac to PC and vice versa daily.

That's encouraging! Maybe the newer Macs are more universal than they used to be.

[PlatinumSamples]

It depends on which version of Pro Tools your sessions are saved as... Since Pro Tools 7 (if memory serves) they are cross-platform and you can simply open them on either platform... unless you used AutoTune in your session... If you have an AutoTune instantiated the session will crash on the other platform.

Pro Tools up 'til version 10.2 includes MacDrive... which lets you mount HFS formatted drives on Windows... otherwise OSX can natively read NTFS and read & write FAT32. There are free utilities available to read/write NTFS.

Rail

[khan88]

Ok guys heres the new problem:

My old laptop with the PT sessions can't open up the PT sessions without freezing, so I can't save them to the flash drive (unless there is a way to save without having to open PT?) and it can't connect to the internet either (so I can't save with dropbox)

Anyone know how to help me out with this dilemma?
Thanks so far everyone

[Bzagaja]

Just find the files on your hard drive and copy them to a flash drive. As long as you copy the session data, audio files, fade files and everything you should be fine. Then when you open the session on your new Mac you can have pro tools automatically find the correct files associated with the session.

[khan88]

Well I need an internet connection to register the USB flash drive. WTH

[Webb]

Originally Posted by khan88

Well I need an internet connection to register the USB flash drive. WTH

I've never in my life heard of registering a USB flash drive. Just plug it in and use it.

[csauter]

I've been on a PC for years, just bought a new Macbook Pro Retina and i installed a program called "Paragon NTFS for Mac OSX" which acts like a translator between PC file system (NTFS) and Mac file system (HFS+)... i can open up, read & write to any windows formatted disc on my mac and you'd never know the difference.. i'm even running pro tools sessions off my NTFS formatted glyph drive on my Mac... It's working so far!!


I am having one hicckup though, plugin settings that i made on my PC for programs like Altiverb & Ozone are NOT transferring to the Mac when i open them up, instead of my preset, it just goes to the default preset... i can't find information anywhere on how to preserve the plugin settings between my Mac and PC... i did the whole "copy session as" thing, checked the plugins root folder and all that, but it's still not working...

Well check out that program, it's made my transition between PC & Mac SO MUCH EASIER and i didn't have to reformat any of my NTFS hard drives to HFS...