Strange things happen when copying banks and settings from one device to another.

[painkiller]

Hi. I own two Axe-Fx III devices.
One is at home (#1), the other is in the rehearsal room (#2).
Now it has happened quite often (and it's becoming more frequent) that when I transfer banks and system settings from device #1 to device #2 (via Fractal Bot backups), that something is not as it should be on device #2.

Most of the time, it's the FC layouts that are missing (which I then restore using a separate FC layout backup), occasionally the color of the tuner on #2 is different, and now I've even had a case where a block disappeared in a preset. It was there on #1 and is missing on #2.

This never happens when I transfer banks and settings from #2 to #1, only when transferring from #1 to #2.
Does anyone else had this? What could be causing it?

 

[Domct203]

Are they (FC & AxeFX) the same generation (MKI or MKII)?

And the obvious question, same FW revision?

 

[painkiller]

It's exactly the same. Same firmware (29.00, but it happened before), same generation (MK I), same Fractal Bot (3.00.21), same FC-12 (MK I)

 

[Domct203]

Interesting….

I know it’s a stretch, but are you using the same USB cable? Maybe try a new one?

 

[painkiller]

The only difference is the USB cable and the computer.
It would be worth trying to replace both USB cables.

 

[Domct203]

Or at the least use the same cable you use for unit #1.

 

[yek]

The USB cable cannot cause this.

 

[Dave Merrill]

The USB cable cannot cause this.

Agree, very very unlikely.

 

[Domct203]

Yeah, that’s why I said it’s a stretch…

What else would affect this? Are there system settings are not included in the backup that could cause this?

 

[painkiller]

I'll change the USB cables anyway. You have to start somewhere.
And you've seen horses vomit in front of the pharmacy (German idiom, translation into English probably doesn't make much sense ).

 

[Zedhed]

I'd perform a factory reset on device two, then transfer backup to device two.

Then perform a factory reset on device one and transfer backup to device one.

 

[painkiller]

Factory Reset is a good idea!

 

[jimmynorrisjr]

Are you using globally linked blocks? If so, you must unlink them before exporting.

 

[painkiller]

Yes I do, but I never unlinked global blocks before. Why should I do that, if I export banks and the according system settings?
I use global blocks since they were introduced during the Axe-Fx II days and never had any problems.

And how do linked/unlinked global blocks explain the missing FC layouts and the wrong tuner color?

I'll do complete backups of both devices and then factory reset #2. I'll report back on what came of it.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Yes I do, but I never unlinked global blocks before. Why should I do that, if I export banks and the according system settings?
I use global blocks since they were introduced during the Axe-Fx II days and never had any problems.

You might (re)scan the Global Blocks page in the Wiki and see if anything jumps out. There are lots of little gotchas to using them.

If you use them a lot…

The system uses internal storage to save the Global blocks data. It's possible to exceed the available storage space when saving too many global blocks. In that case the system will no longer save additional Global blocks, or all values will be reset to minimum. So use them wisely.

And how does it explain the missing FC layouts and the wrong tuner color?

By possibly corrupting the global data?

I'd follow the recommendations to do factory resets on both units, then restore using the backups from whichever unit you trust the most. That could reintroduce the problems though. The only way to sidestep possibly reintroducing them is to do a factory reset to both units then set the global settings by hand then do a backup on one unit and restore the system+gb+fc settings and presets to the other unit. That'd be extreme and a PITA but it'd avoid transferring any corruption.

 

[painkiller]

Yes, I will follow the recommendations. My plan is to factory reset #2 in a first step since I absolutely trust #1.

 

[unix-guy]

Are you using globally linked blocks? If so, you must unlink them before exporting.

No... Only if you don't want to overwrite the ones on the receiving side.

If he's trying to duplicate everything then he actually wants to not unlink.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Since they're both Mk I units, could it be time to replace their internal batteries?

[37] The Axe-Fx III uses a battery for system data backup. Whenever the user changes any global data that data is flushed to battery-backed storage. We use battery-backed SRAM instead of EEPROM or FLASH because it's very fast and unlimited endurance. EEPROM is very slow and there's a risk that the user turns the power off before the flush is finished. FLASH has limited endurance (as well as being slower the SRAM) and there's a risk of wear-out. The battery should last 10 years under normal conditions and is user replaceable.

 

[jimmynorrisjr]

No... Only if you don't want to overwrite the ones on the receiving side.

If he's trying to duplicate everything then he actually wants to not unlink.

Any time I have imported presets with global links still linked, those blocks parameters are at 0. Just my experience.

 

[unix-guy]

Any time I have imported presets with global links still linked, those blocks parameters are at 0. Just my experience.

Thinking about it more, you really need the system settings from the original unit.

That's where global block values are stored.

If you don't replicate that then the recieving unit will use whatever values it has stored... Those could be all 0 or they could have values from being set on that unit.