Backups (Alt+5)

One list of everything you can put the unit back from, and one button that makes another.

• What a backup holds, and where it lives: Channels, processing, routing, the fader layout, the unit's own settings, and every SMART pad with its sound. Two things are left out on purpose: which channels are muted, since putting a mute back could silence somebody at the worst moment, and passwords, so your wifi is never stored and never restored. Underneath, a backup is kept in two places at once when it can be. The unit writes its own complete copy to the card or drive, which goes back in seconds, and this computer keeps a copy of the settings and pads, which survives the drive being pulled, erased or filled. You never have to choose between them: one name covers both. Restoring uses this computer's copy, because asking the unit to load its own can crash it - see Known issues, "The unit can lock up when it restores its own backup". The unit's copy is still made, and is still there if it is ever needed.
• Back up the unit now: Opens a dialog that starts on the name box. Type a name and press Back up. Backing up is quick: the unit's own copy and the settings are both a matter of seconds, and the pads add about a second each. Restoring is the slow direction, not this one. Saving to a name you have used before replaces that backup. With no card or drive in the unit there is nowhere for its own copy to go, and the backup is made on this computer alone; the line under the button says which you are getting.
• The list, and what each entry says: Every backup you can restore from, whichever half holds it. An entry marked "made on the unit" was taken at the touchscreen or by RODE's own software, so there is no copy of it on this computer - which makes it the one kind that still has to be restored the unit's own way, and the dialog says so before you press anything. One may be marked "as found": that is how your desk was before this app changed anything.
• Restore selected backup: Opens a dialog naming the backup, which tells you how it will be put back and roughly how long that takes. Pressing Restore there is the confirmation, and a progress dialog reports each step. Restoring moves the monitor speaker level, so turn speakers down first. What comes back: MIDI, every channel with its levels and, on mics, phantom, polarity, mic type and effects, the full processing chain, all routing including the fader layout, the virtual fader levels and the monitor level, the output mixes and every output's own source levels, what the recorder makes and whether it writes WAV or MP3, auto-mutes, each headphone output's type, the Master Compellor and output delay, and the unit's own settings from the Device page. The SMART pads come back too, each with its play mode, a mixer pad's trigger and which channels a Back Channel pad carries. Mutes are left out on purpose, and passwords are never stored, so wifi is not restored.
• Settings the backup does not cover: Your saved settings go back and nothing else is touched. There used to be a "reset the unit to factory first" option here, which cleared everything the backup does not hold before restoring on top. It has been removed: it used the same part of the unit's firmware that crashes it, and that is not a risk worth carrying on an everyday action. Resetting to factory settings is still available on its own, where choosing it is the whole point.
• Rename selected backup: Changes the name on this computer, keeping everything in it including the pad sounds. If another backup already uses the name, the dialog stays open and tells you, so nothing is overwritten by accident. A backup made on the unit cannot be renamed: the unit names its own after whichever show was loaded and offers no way to change it.
• Delete selected backup: Removes it from both places at once, this computer's copy and the unit's own, so you are not left with a copy on the drive under a name the app no longer lists. You confirm in a dialog that names it first. It cannot be undone, and it changes nothing about how the unit is set up now. The as-found backup asks twice, because it is the only record of how your desk arrived.
• The as-found backup: The first time AccessCaster meets a unit it offers to back it up exactly as it was, before the app has changed anything. It is an ordinary backup, just marked as this one, and it is the only record of how your desk was set up before you started. A line under the list says whether you have one, and lets you add the SMART pads to it later if you skipped them at the time.
• While a backup or restore is running: The progress dialog cannot be dismissed: there is no Close button and Escape does nothing, because the unit is being read or written and stopping half way would leave it in a state nobody asked for. Close appears as soon as the job finishes, and the result is left on the page after you close it. If the app loses contact with the device service, or the unit reports nothing new for over two minutes, the dialog gives up waiting and lets you close it rather than holding you there.
• Start again from factory settings: Puts every setting and every SMART pad back to how the unit left the factory. Your wifi, the language and the analytics answer are not part of it, and neither are the recordings on the drive. The unit backs itself up first, ticked by default, and that backup is the only way back, so leave it ticked unless you are sure. It also rebuilds RODE's eight factory pad sounds from the unit's own firmware, which is the only way to get those back once a pad has been replaced: the app does not carry copies of them. This is not the unit's own factory reset: that one runs a setup wizard afterwards that only works by touchscreen, which is exactly the thing this app exists to avoid.
• While a save or restore is running: The progress dialog cannot be dismissed: there is no Close button and Escape does nothing, because the unit is being read or written and stopping half way would leave it in a state nobody asked for. Close appears as soon as the job finishes, and the result is left on the Backups page after you close it. If the app loses contact with the device service, or the unit reports nothing new for over two minutes, the dialog gives up waiting and lets you close it rather than holding you there.
• This app's own settings: Last on the page, and the one part of it that is about AccessCaster rather than the unit. Your keyboard shortcuts, your announcement preferences and your level warnings belong to the app, so no backup of the desk carries them and reinstalling would lose them: "Save this app's settings to a file" writes them all into one small file you can keep somewhere safe or copy to another computer, and "Restore these settings" reads one back, with your shortcuts working again straight away and no restart. The file holds nothing about the desk and no access link, so it is safe to email to yourself. Anything in it naming a voice or an audio output this computer has not got is left alone and said out loud rather than applied to nothing. There is also a switch here to start AccessCaster when you sign in to Windows, which is the same thing the installer offered to set up, for your own Windows account only: it starts in the system tray without opening this page, so your shortcut keys work from the moment you sign in.