Choose File > Save Copy In, tick All Audio Files under Items to Copy, and save the copy to your backup drive. Save Copy In writes a new session folder with the session file and every audio file the session uses, while your original session stays open. Without All Audio Files ticked, the copy references audio that still lives in the old folder, and the backup is incomplete. Audio you recorded or imported and then removed from the session is not copied, which also makes Save Copy In the cleanest way to hand a session over.

Back up a session

In the Save Copy In dialog:

1. Pick the Format. Latest writes a .ptx for Pro Tools 10 and later; older formats exist for older systems.
2. Pick the audio File Type (BWF .wav or AIFF), Sample Rate and Bit Depth. Save Copy In is the only way to change a session's sample rate; going to a lower bit depth applies dither for you.
3. Under Items to Copy, tick All Audio Files. Add Session Plugin Settings Folder and Root Plugin Settings Folder if you saved plugin presets you will want on the other system.
4. Tick Enforce Mac/PC Compatibility when the session is going to someone on the other platform.

Plugins themselves are never copied. Pro Tools runs AAX plugins only, so the other system needs the same AAX plugins installed.

Version a session and roll back

Turn on Enable Session File Auto Backup in Setup > Preferences > Operation. Pro Tools then saves backups of the session file while you work into the Session File Backups folder inside the session folder. Keep n Most Recent Session Backups sets how many it keeps, and Backup Every sets how often. These are backups of the session file only, not of the audio.

For a version you want to keep, use Save Copy In with a new name: Avid lists versioning as one of its uses. Inside a session, alternate playlists hold other takes or edits of a track without a new session.

Send a session to another studio

Save Copy In with All Audio Files to a new location, zip the session folder and send it. Main Playlist Only leaves alternate playlists out to keep the handoff small, and Selected Tracks Only (or File > Export > Selected Tracks as New Session) sends only what the other engineer needs.

Export stems for mixing or mastering

1. Select the tracks to export and choose Track > Bounce (or right-click a track and pick Bounce, or press Cmd+Option+Shift+B on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B on Windows).
2. In the Track Bounce dialog, choose whether to render Volume and Pan automation. For a mix engineer, leave volume automation off so they get your raw levels.
3. Click Bounce. With no timeline selection, each bounce runs from the session start to the last sample on the track, so every file lines up.

Audio, Auxiliary Input, Master Fader and Instrument tracks can all be bounced this way, without routing anything to a bus. For the full mix, use File > Bounce Mix.

Doing it in Aden

Pro Tools session files are a closed binary format. Aden syncs and versions them, but it cannot read inside them, and its plugin does not load in Pro Tools. Here is what works.

• Your sessions, listed. The desktop app finds .ptx sessions (and older .ptf and .pts) on your disk and lists them on Home.
• Sync the session folder to a track (Max plan). Every save is pushed. A collaborator clicks Pull for the latest files; a pull never overwrites their local edits, it saves the incoming file as a versioned copy beside theirs. Every synced file keeps its version history, downloadable from the track's Project files page. Combined with Pro Tools' own Session File Backups, an old session file is never more than a download away.
• A check before you send. Send as a transfer zips the session folder into a link that expires in 30 days. When the folder holds little more than the session file, it tells you to run Save Copy In with All Audio Files first.
• What the web shows. The Project files page lists the session's files and who has pulled them. It does not preview the session or play its tracks; it plays the bounce linked to the session, or the track's final version, and you can record a vocal over it. Takes are saved as 24-bit WAVs in an Aden Takes/ folder in the session folder, named by the bar they start on.
• Feedback on the mix. Bounce the mix and the desktop app notices it: named after a track you have, it offers it as that track's next version. Send a share link and people comment at a timestamp or on a section of the waveform, with no Aden account needed on a link with comments turned on. Send for review asks them to approve it or request changes, and Compare flips between mixes at the same playhead.
• Stems on a version. Upload your track bounces to the version's Stems tab to line them up and play them under the mix.
• No plugin in Pro Tools. Aden's DAW plugin is VST3, Audio Unit and CLAP. Pro Tools only loads AAX, so use the desktop app or the web beside it.

Sources: Avid Pro Tools Reference Guide 2025.6 (Save Copy In, Session File Backups Folder, Operation Preferences, Bounce Track). See also how other DAWs version projects.