Terrible problem. Cannot save a BIAB session - a feature in BIAB2017 might have crashed everything (on a late model 2015 MacBook Pro).
I cannot save a BIAB session. When I try I get the message ""Error: Cannot save to root of drive" - - -NOW HERE IS THE CRAZY THING - I have my BIAB program on a peripheral drive and on a backup drive. I get the same message no matter which drive I use even though I disconnect each drive when I boot up the other. I do not have the BIAB 2017 program installed on my MacBook hard drive. IT WAS WORKING FINE until I tried a feature of BIAB - that was to save/render a video of my session to YouTube. The computer said it rendered but it did not save to my hard drive. It was after this that the problem started. So let me re-state something - I have BIAB full install on one drive - it worked. But now when I try to save a session I get the error message. I then disconnect that drive from the Mac and plug the other one in - I get the same message. I CAN SAVE FILES OF EVERY OTHER PROGAM MY MAC RUNS - THIS IS BIAB SPECIFIC. What could possibly be the problem? HERE IS ANOTHER CRAZY THING - I Google the problem and there are not even any Error: Cannot save to root of drive" problems for the Mac mentioned - only for PC's. I am going crazy here - BIAB no longer usable for me.
If this was happening to me, I'd be contacting PG Music.
In the meantime....
Does the Mac version of the program have "Return to factory settings". On the Windows program, this is found under the Options menu. If so, this is worth a try.
You beat me to it, Noel. I was just going to suggest that....the Mac version does indeed have Options > Return to Factory Settings, which is what I would try.
UltraPAK 2021, 27" late 2012 iMac, 16 GB RAM, OSX 10.15.7 Logic Pro X 10.6.3
I will try that. BUT HERE IS THE MOST INSANE THING! I have BIAB fully installed on a peripheral hard drive. I plugged it into my older Mac Mini. I opened a session and was able to save the session (as a BIAB 2017). Then I tried it again, and it failed to save!!!! I got the same notice. NOW HERE IS WHERE IT GETS EVE STRANGER - - - I disconnected the peripheral hard drive and opened BIAB 2015 which was stored on the hard drive of the Mac Mini. I tried to save a session and it failed with the same warning - "Error: Cannot save to root of drive" - - - - so whatever is wrong migrated into the BIAB on the Mini and now that computer is all screwed up. I talked to Apple support. "Error: Cannot save to root of drive" is not even a recognized Mac problem - it is not in their manuals! Apple has never heard of it before!
Well, I tried Restore to factory settings and that did not work. I even pulled the peripheral hard drive off my MacBookPro, installed BIAB 2017 directly onto the MBP and I still get the same "Error: Cannot save to root of drive" - ALL MY OTHER PROGRAMS, Word, Excel, Photoshop will save files - it is just BIAB - and not it is BIAB 2015, 2017, 2017, on the MBP, on the Mac Mini, whether trying to use from a peripheral drive or installed on the computers themselves, all thing BIAB for "saving" or "naming" are just toast. Whatever this is killed BIAB on all the computers for all BIAB versions.
I talked again to Apple Support - they have never heard of anything like this.
Even reinstalling Sierra OS did not help.
I can't wait for PG.music to open in the morning but I have a sick feeling they are not going to be able to help either. I am thinking something deep has happened to my root systems in both Macs - I could zero foam the drive in the older Mac but you cannot zero format SSD's. If the problem is down deep in the lower levels of root/Hades then I am never going to be able to run BIAB on my MBPro - and I'd be scarred to buy another expensive SSD until the "root" cause of this problem is found. Been working with Macs and BIAB since the earliest days and have never dealt with a problem like this.
Very strange! If even the fresh install of BIAB onto your internal drive has the same issue, I'm not really know what else to suggest except.....have you checked your permissions for BIAB?
Right-click on the Band-in-a-Box.app and click on Get Info. Look at the bottom of the pop-up window for access privileges. If any of them say "read only" you should change them to "read & write."
Actually, instead of checking the app itself it would make more sense if you check permissions on any of the drives you are trying to save to.
Last edited by Guitartist; 05/01/1704:27 AM.
UltraPAK 2021, 27" late 2012 iMac, 16 GB RAM, OSX 10.15.7 Logic Pro X 10.6.3
PARTIAL SOLUTION - Thank God - I don't know why this is - PGMusic might want to look at it - - - I was finally able to save my .SGU file - BUT -now it will only save to the BIAB folder. It will not save to the Desktop. It will not save to the peripheral drive, it will not save to the "HD" (Hard Drive) - it will only go into the BIAB folder. How BIAB changed this I have no idea - but whatever it is (and it resides on the peripheral drive) it changed the setting on my Mac Mini too - and like I said, even if I disconnect the peripheral drive COMPLETELY from the Mac Mini and use my legacy BIAB 2015 or 2016 that is on my Mini's Hard drive I still get the "Error: Cannot save to root of drive" - so whatever this thing is, it acted like a worm and got into all of my BIAB stuff and drives.
Strange, everything was working fine for the past three days....go figure.
Not enough information. Am I correct in assuming a Macintosh?
Without knowing a) what mac OS and version plus b) what version of BIAB, where and how you installed it, everyone is just guessing. Did you download it, install from a thumb drive or is your version on a PG supplied hard drive?
I know what the error means — easy. I can only guess about 10 ways you can get it without knowing the above.
You should not be able to save to the root of a drive on a Mac since OS 10.7 — you can't since 10.11 but no developer will write such an app anymore.
The question is not whether it's an installation error; it's how you made the error that is unknown.
The most obvious guess is that you ran it from a usb thumb drive but you didn't run a complete installation specifying your hard drive for saving work files. The app is trying to save your file to the thumb drive instead of your hard drive. Just because it's the most obvious answer doesn't mean I am right.
Last edited by Mike Halloran; 04/30/1712:57 PM.
BIAB 2025 Audiophile Mac 24Core/60CoreGPU M2 MacStudioUltra/8TB/192GB Sequoia, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP Digital Performer11, LogicPro, Finale27/Dorico/Encore/SmartScorePro64/Notion6 /Overture5
It is a Mac - Retina MacBook Pro 2015-late-model edition running Sierra 10.12.4. with a 2.2Ghz Intel Dual Core i7 on an SSD drive.
BIAB 2017 for Mac. I installed all of it from the download access I was given by PGMusic by electronic delivery when I bought BIAB2017 three days ago. I simply uncompressed all the .dmg's and did the installation exactly as instructed. No thumb drive or mini-drive came from PG. I even re-downloaded all the Real-Tracks again so that everything was fresh. All the RT's, Real Drums, and Styles went to the right folders. For the first three days everything ran perfectly I could save my .SGU's to the desktop, internal hard drive, peripheral hard drive, whatever. Suddenly, today, I can only save to the BIAB folder. I spent hours downloading Sierra from Apple for a fresh system install. Spent a lot of time with my old Mac Mini and doing installs there....now my Mac Mini is as bad off as my rMPB. If I had not tried one last time on the rMBP to save and took a swipe at saving to the BIAB folder itself I would still be in a bind. As long a I can save my files to the BIAB folder I will be OK. For me it is all about getting the work done and archiving it....but where this root directory/drive glitch came from I have no idea.
Hi Kevin, Now my memory isn't what it used to be, but somehow I think that not being able to save to the root directory of the drive was done intentionally. A few years back (BIAB 2015) there were issues, either because of permissions, or volume names having certain alpha-numeric characters in them that created problems when saving from BIAB to the root directory of the startup drive. Sorry, I don't remember the exact cause of why this was done, but I think that message is normal saving to the root.
- Fixed: There is no error message when user attempts to save a file to the root of a drive.
Having said that, this does not explain why you can't save to any other directory, especially your desktop.
If you select the "Desktop" folder in your home folder and hit "Command & I" keys to "Get Info...", do you see your account name in the permissions list ? Does it have "read/write" access listed ?
- Jay
Last edited by JayO; 04/30/1705:25 PM.
MacPro 5,1/12 core@3.46GHz -- OS X 12.7.6 -- ATI 7970 -- 32 Gig RAM -- Crucial 500GB OS SSD -- Samsung EVO 1TB Audio/Sample SSD -- BIAB 2025 -- Logic Pro X -- Cubase Elements 14 -- Too many plugins
Yes, I do have permissions there for all! Thanks for the reply. I will read the link you sent. OK - read the link. There is an update for BIAB 2017. It does mention a fix to the "Save As" command. I installed the update - the problem still exists.
Remember, as I posted above - I have all of the BIAB 2017 install on my peripheral hard drive. I plugged it into my Mac Mini, opened a session and saved the .SGU to the desktop. then, I tried it again and got the "Error: Cannot save to root of drive." It is as if by running the program my root structure got changed or corrupted on the Mac Mini. SO, I unplugged the peripheral drive completely and opened BIAB 2015 which wholly resides on the Mac Mini hard drive. Then I opened a session and tried to save it - got the error message again! It is like my BIAB207/periperal drive is like a carrier - changing everything it touches. I was on the phone with Apple Support for half an hour yesterday - they could not explain it. Even a complete re-install of OS Sierra did not help!
Hey Kevin, I'm sorry that you are having all this trouble, but as far as saving to the root directory, I get this error dialog when I try to do so. Like I said, it has been that way for as long as I remember, so I'm thinking that your problems may lie elsewhere. Knowing that I can't save there I have always saved the project I am currently working on to the desktop. I just tried to save a file to the root directory of my 2 other attached volumes, and got the same error dialog. However if I created a new folder in the root directory of any volume I am able to save to those new folders.
It definitely sounds like you have a permissions problem though, you should always be able to save into any folder inside your "Home" folder. A clean install of Sierra should have reset the default permissions, but I'm not 100% sure since it mostly overwrites the system folder permissions, and not the user's folders.
I do know that the ability to repair permissions, was removed from Disk Utility in the last few versions of OSX. I have used Onyx, to repair permissions since Apple took it from disk utility, with good results. Maybe it would be worth a try to see if Onyx, could possible restore permissions on folders other than the system folder. https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html
Just be sure to download and use the exact version of Onyx for the system software version that you are running. Hopefully this is of some help.
- Jay
MacPro 5,1/12 core@3.46GHz -- OS X 12.7.6 -- ATI 7970 -- 32 Gig RAM -- Crucial 500GB OS SSD -- Samsung EVO 1TB Audio/Sample SSD -- BIAB 2025 -- Logic Pro X -- Cubase Elements 14 -- Too many plugins
OK - read the link. There is an update for BIAB 2017. It does mention a fix to the "Save As" command. I installed the update - the problem still exists.
Oops sorry missed this part, in my last longwinded reply. Yes there was a problem with the "Save as" in 2017, but this was a separate issue concerning the file name not being saved with the new file. This fix was to address a totally different issue than you are describing.
Sorry I can't be of more help, but possibly Onyx will be able to sort out the issues, I know it has helped me in the past. Also when you do run Onyx, it will create a report in the main window and will note any permission problems it can not fix. Sometimes this information can be useful too, possibly seeing a screen shot of that log may help.
- Jay
Last edited by JayO; 05/01/1710:22 AM. Reason: added screenshot
MacPro 5,1/12 core@3.46GHz -- OS X 12.7.6 -- ATI 7970 -- 32 Gig RAM -- Crucial 500GB OS SSD -- Samsung EVO 1TB Audio/Sample SSD -- BIAB 2025 -- Logic Pro X -- Cubase Elements 14 -- Too many plugins
Onyx is crapware. Do NOT run it till this issue is solved. Better yet, remove it from your system.
Sierra has no ability to Repair Permissions. The OS does not contain the components necessary for that to be an issue.
Hi Mike, Welcome to the forum ! Although there is a lot of Mac "Crapware" out there (MacKeeper etc...), the thing about Onyx is it is just a GUI for running Apple's own built in command line utilities. So when you issue a command through Onyx, you are doing nothing more than running one of Apple's own command line utilities. This is why you have to be very careful in selecting the proper version Onyx for your OS.
That being said, you can still do serious damage running the wrong command line scripts, but "diskutil: resetUserPermissions" is a pretty innocuous command. Although Apple has removed the ability of Disk Utility to repair permissions, the underlying commands are still there.
For those who are afraid to to use a utility such as Onyx, the information can still be found on Apple's website about accessing those commands. Here is one the OP may be interested in checking out, if he is hesitant to try Onyx, this is just for your "Home" folder : https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203538
Of course, me, I hate typing. These replies take me forever.
- Jay
MacPro 5,1/12 core@3.46GHz -- OS X 12.7.6 -- ATI 7970 -- 32 Gig RAM -- Crucial 500GB OS SSD -- Samsung EVO 1TB Audio/Sample SSD -- BIAB 2025 -- Logic Pro X -- Cubase Elements 14 -- Too many plugins
PARTIAL SOLUTION - Thank God - I don't know why this is - PGMusic might want to look at it - - - I was finally able to save my .SGU file - BUT -now it will only save to the BIAB folder. It will not save to the Desktop. It will not save to the peripheral drive, it will not save to the "HD" (Hard Drive) - it will only go into the BIAB folder.
How about if you create a folder on your root HD like \testsongs and try to save the file in there, what happens then?
The error message does come from Band-in-a-Box so it's not surprising that Google / Apple doesn't address that exact message.
But it should only occur if indeed you are saving to the root HD, and I don't know why it would otherwise come up. Maybe the answer to the above question will shed some light.
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