Utility to Cleanup those Unused Audition Media Files!

Like others on this and other forums I have experienced the frustration of chewing up disk space as well as wondering exactly which files belong in the session that I have just finished mixing.

We all know the benefits of using Adobe Audition® but one drawback is the numerous files which can be created during a recording session. It is cumbersome to identify the unused files and this can result in large amounts of wasted disk space (I just saved 14gb using this application).

While we all experience similar problems in this regard sometimes the requirements of the solution are understandably not exactly the same.

This is why myself and another have taken a little time away from recording to develop a solution that certainly meets our needs and hopefully the needs of others on this forum.

The utility we have developed identifies and assists in the management of unused files from your AA3, AA2, AA1.5 and Cool Edit Pro 2.0 sessions.
It identifies and optionally moves these files to another location for easy deletion or backup.
The application has been tested on a wide range of session files and while not exhaustive it was found that in all cases tested the utility identified both the files used within the session as well as all other files not in the session that were located in the session file folder as well as the '_Recorded' folder if it existed.

Version 1.02 now caters for network and cdrom drives and now, for added safety, MediaSweeper tries to put the unused 'deleted' files in the Recycle Bin and then physically delete them after moving them to the location of your choice.

It has been tested on both XP2 and Vista.

The application is free to download and use and all feedback is welcomed.

http://www.suitespotstudios.com/MediaSweeper.htm

In answer to a few requests I have now updated this file management utility to cater for multiple session files in the same folder
Version 2.00 of MediaSweeper© is now available to be downloaded for free from http://www.suitespotstudios.com/MediaSweeper.htm

As in previous versions it caters for (just about) all audio files not just wav files so you should really be able to cleanup those audio (and video) files with this utility.

I didn't realised that this feature would be useful to me as well but I just saved over 700mb in just one folder 

MediaSweeper version 3.0 is now available for free download. 

http://www.suitespotstudios.com/MediaSweeper.htm

You can now create a custom list of file specifications that will be excluded from being moved out of your project folder.

If you always create a 'lyrics.doc', or a 'songname mix.wav' or 'notes.txt' or anything else you might use then you can setup file specs like *.doc, lyrics.doc, * mix.wav, * master.wav or Notes*, etc etc.

In this way you can quickly select a session file select all unused files to move and be confident that the specific files for the session which you normally create outside of the session are excluded from being moved and then accidentally deleted.

I have found this a very productive addition to the application.

Well I still don't know what unused files you're talking about, and second, I don't care how useful it is, this has to be spamming or advertising and why has it been allowed?

Well I still don't know what unused files you're talking about, and second, I don't care how useful it is, this has to be spamming or advertising and why has it been allowed?

It's not spam, and although it's 'advertising', it's for a free product, that has benefited from direct feedback, certainly from users of the Adobe forum - and me. And as it adds functionality to a product we support, I can't see any reason at all for why we shouldn't include threads about it in relevant places.

Agreed, Steve.

BFM - what is your problem?

Having spent an afternoon with Runaway at his studio, I can tell you that he is quite passionate about Audition and its capabilities. He had a need for this utility and the ability to create it. That he chooses to share it with the rest of us is to our advantage - there is no downside. As Steve points out, the sharing has resulted in valuable feedback to the benefit of all.

BFM, you may care to retract your earlier statement re spamming.

I raised an eyebrow at the same message being repeated in several places.  I can see why, given the structure here, and don't mind myself; but most forums I know would be down on that like a ton of bricks.

Paul

I did think about reducing the number of messages, but since this seems to apply to any of the relatively current versions, I left it as it is. It's only a pain if you use the 'unread posts/replies' buttons, after all.

As Steve points out, the sharing has resulted in valuable feedback to the benefit of all.

I gather that he's still working on it as a result of further comments about sub-folders.

I really don't see what the point of BFM knocking this is at all - runaway is clearly doing good work, and making it freely available. What's to complain about? 

Thanks heaps for your support Steve, Alan etal.

Yes I am an enthusiastic Audition user and have been since Cool Edit.  I certainly had no intention of annoying anyone and was extremely concerned with where to post my message and thought long and hard before posting in each version's area and being extremely conscious of the potential for annoyance.  I also balanced the potential for annoyance with the value of the utility before posting.

Personally, I have far less interest in the earlier versions now that I am using AA3 and (like many others) would only look in the AA3 forum and not AA2 etc.

If I post in AA3 many users would not get the benefit of the utility, same with AA1.5 etc  So you can see my dilemma.

To some degree I can understand BFM's passionate if not eloquent outburst.  I too had been using AA2 for a long time not realising that I was accumulating these 'unused files' - literally gigabytes over a long time - and I was doing all my recording using a portable DAW (Korg D16) and transferring to AA for editing etc.  If I had been recording full bands using AA at the time then this would have been exponentially greater.

Yes, you are correct Steve I am just making some cosmetic adjustments to the next version which incorporates some quite good user feedback regarding optional subfolders and this will be ready sometime tomorrow.

At that time I will make one more reply in each of the forum's versions (as well as the adobe forum) and then leave it at that and hopefully enough users will have been informed of its availability and its benefits.

As I mentioned previously I certainly do not want to annoy anyone so I would appreciate some guidance when it comes to submitting some other utilities that I have considering putting together.

Version 3.10 has just been uploaded and is now available for download.

As mentioned in my last post this version makes the creation of a sub-folder (with the same name as the session file) a user selectable option.

This should be the final version unless I get some brainwave or someone has some really useful suggestions or improvements.

Thanks to all of you who have downloaded and offered constructive and encouraging comments.

I'm running AA1.5 on Windows 2000 Pro, not XP.  I'm getting a message box about updating system files, and would I let the install process do it.  This seems mighty strange.  For one thing, it doesn't list what files are to be updated, and for another, how can I know that updating is going to be safe?  Where are the files coming from?

Which version did you download?

The system files the app requires are comdlg32.ocx, msvcrt.dll & scrrun.dll. These are usually located in c:\windows\system32.

To avoid this situation from version 3.01 onwards I defaulted to installing these files into the application folder (C:/Program Files/MediaSweeper).

If you are installing a version earlier than 3.01 you can choose not to install those files and the application will use your existing system files but grab the latest version (3.10) if you haven't already.

Let me know how you get on.

I got the newest version.  I allowed it to update the files, rebooted, then reinstalled.  Still no success.  It still comes up with the "files needing updating" message. This is on Windows 2000 Pro.