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This week’s tip comes from Will Murphy: Technical Support in our NJ office, and it’s one of the most important things to know about the console.

It has probably happened to us all at least once; you sit down to work on your show and discover all, or some, of your show data is missing, and you scratch your head to wonder why. You also may have found yourself in a situation where all your shows and sequences were there, but none of your views or user defaults were available. Maybe I can clear up some confusing aspects of the backup menu and how show files are managed to help you avoid future troubles.

If you tap the Backup key you will be presented with the Backup Menu as follows:

You can use the five buttons on the right side of this menu to specify what location you would like to point to in relation to saving or loading a show.
• Internal Only: Points to the internal hard disk
• Demo Shows: Pertains to seven “Read Only” shows that are saved on the internal hard disk
• Internal & File Server: Points to an external FTP server where you can either save or load shows
• Internal & USB Device: Points to a USB device that is plugged in to the USB port
• Import Export: Points to either a USB device or a floppy disk

Most of the buttons in the backup menu are fairly straight forward, but what is confusing is how the console saves to a USB stick.

A show file by itself only contains show information; cues, sequences, presets, etc, but it does not contain views and default settings. Views and default settings are a part of user profiles, and these user profiles are saved in a different file than the show file.

If you choose the Internal and USB Device button, the console will essentially treat the USB device as an extension of the internal hard drive. When you choose Save under this menu, only the show file will save to the USB device, but it will not save any users or user profile information. Your show file will be saved on the USB stick in a folder called “GMASHOWS.” In this folder you will find two files associated with every show. One file will be title “nameofshow.sho” and the second file will be “nameofshow.tar.gz”

To save a copy of your show including user profiles and defaults, you should use the Import Export menu. This is also the menu you should use if you would like to transfer your show to another console, or to grandMA onPC. Exported shows will be saved to a folder titled “CompressedShows.” In this folder you will find another folder that is titled “nameofshow.sho” In your show folder you will find at least four files that will be titled as follows: “data_version#.bz2”
“nameofshow.sho”
“show.inf”
“show_.inf”

If you want to save your show for transferring, archiving, and backup purposes, the Import Export menu is the way to go.

Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.