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Session Database

PT Peek Pro

The Session Database and Multi-Session Search are PT Peek Pro features.

PT Peek Pro keeps a session database — a catalog of the Pro Tools sessions stored on your drives. Once a folder is being watched, PT Peek scans it for .ptx files, reads each session's metadata (session name, sample rate, bit depth, tracks, clips, audio files, plug-ins), and stores it locally so you can search across every session at once in Multi-Session Search — without opening the files.

The Session Database window is where you tell PT Peek which drives and folders to catalog, and where you see what it has found.

Open it with Window → Show/Hide Session Database (Cmd+Shift+D). The same command hides it again when it's frontmost. The window remembers its size and position, and reopens at launch if it was open when you quit.

Watch Locations

PT Peek never scans your whole system on its own. You add watch locations — a folder, or an entire volume — and only those are cataloged.

The window is split into two panes:

  • This Mac (left) — every volume PT Peek knows about: your internal drive, connected external drives, and any drive you've previously added that is currently offline.
  • Watch Locations on "volume" (right) — the folders being watched on the selected volume, each with its indexing status.

Adding a watch location

  1. Select a volume in the left sidebar.
  2. Click + at the bottom of the right pane.
  3. Choose a folder to watch — or select the volume itself to watch the whole drive.

Because you pick the folder yourself, macOS grants PT Peek access to it without a separate permission dialog. Scanning starts immediately in the background.

Removing a watch location

Select it and click −, or right-click the row and choose Remove Watch Location…. PT Peek stops watching that location and drops its sessions from search — unless another watch location still covers them. Nothing on disk is touched.

To force a fresh scan of a location, right-click it and choose Rescan Now.

Offline volumes

A drive that isn't connected stays in the list, marked Offline, and its sessions remain searchable — you can still find a session on a disconnected archive drive and see where it lives. To forget a drive entirely, select it and click − under the sidebar (or right-click it and choose Remove Offline Volume…). That removes the drive, its watch locations, and its indexed sessions.

Status and Counts

Each watch location shows a status icon and a session count:

Icon State Meaning
Green check Indexed Read successfully and up to date
Spinner Scanning A scan is in progress — the count reads indexed / found
Orange triangle Partially accessible PT Peek can read the folder, but macOS is blocking some items inside it. Click it for details and a list of the blocked items
Red lock Blocked by privacy macOS is blocking the location. Click Grant Access…
Gray drive Offline The volume isn't connected. Last known counts are shown

The footer under the list summarizes the selected volume — for example, "3 watch locations • 412 sessions indexed".

Session File Backups

Pro Tools writes auto-backups into a Session File Backups folder next to the session. PT Peek indexes those too, but counts them separately — a second line under the main count reads, for example, "1,204 backups". Real sessions are always indexed first, so useful results appear before the backups are worked through. Backups are hidden from search results unless you turn on Include Session File Backups in Multi-Session Search.

Full Disk Access

Folders you add yourself are readable without any extra permission. But macOS protects some locations (Desktop, Downloads, other apps' data) and blocks them even inside a folder you chose — that's what the Partially accessible state means.

To index sessions anywhere on your system, grant PT Peek Full Disk Access:

  1. Click Open Settings… in the window's header (or Open Privacy Settings… in a status popover).
  2. In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access, turn on PT Peek.
  3. Return to PT Peek and click Recheck in the status popover.

macOS gives no notification when you grant access, so the Recheck step is what makes PT Peek notice.

Keeping Up to Date

Once a location is watched, PT Peek keeps it current on its own:

  • Live changes — saving, adding, moving, or deleting a .ptx file inside a watch location updates the database automatically, within a few seconds.
  • Unchanged files are skipped — a file is only re-read when its size or modification date changes, so rescans of a large drive are cheap.
  • Reconnecting a drive — plugging a watched drive back in catches up on whatever changed while it was disconnected, rather than rescanning everything.
  • Background work — scanning runs at low priority so it stays out of the way of Pro Tools and the rest of your system.

Console

Click Show Console in the bottom bar to open a live log of what the indexer is doing: scans starting and finishing, file changes detected, drives mounting and unmounting. It has an Auto-scroll toggle plus Copy and Clear buttons. Click Hide Console to put it away.

Report a Problem

If indexing behaves unexpectedly, click Report A Problem… in the bottom bar. This opens a bug report with a diagnostic attached: a snapshot of every drive and folder being watched, its access and index status, file counts, any blocked items, and the recent event log — so the behavior can be diagnosed without a lot of back-and-forth.