Autosave
There is no Save to remember and no “Save changes?” when you close. A song saves itself a couple of seconds after your edits settle, and again at once when you close it, quit, or switch to another app. What’s saved is everything: the notes and sounds, and how the song’s panes are laid out.
Songs save themselves
Available on every platform.
When a song saves
- As you work: about two seconds after your last edit. While you keep editing, it waits until you pause.
- When you leave it: closing its window, going back to the home, quitting, or switching to another appleaving the page, or switching to another tab saves it first.
To save at once, choose Save (⌘S)Save (Ctrl+S)Save (not on Web) (the File menu—). It’s rarely needed, but it’s there before you copy the file somewhere yourself.
The web app keeps no files: a song in Stab Cloud saves itself to Stab Cloud the same way, a couple of seconds after your edits settle. See Songs in Stab Cloud.
What doesn’t save
- A demo, Welcome included, and a file opened from outside your songs, open read only. Keep in My Songs makes it one of your songs, which then saves like any other.and a file dropped on the web app, open to try: change them freely, but nothing is kept unless you choose Keep It to put the song in Stab Cloud. See Free songs.
- A song you’ve joined while playing together is the host’s; it saves on the host’s device. See Roles and copies.
When it can’t save
If a song can’t be saved (the device is full, the folder can’t be written), a note in the corner says so, “Couldn’t save “Riff” · trying again”, and Details gives the reason. Stab tries again after your next edit. Still failing after a minute, a strip under the title bar says so until it saves, with Save a Copy….
Closing the song then asks first, with the reason and when it was last saved: Save a Copy… (Save a Copy…Save a Copy… (not on Web), to put the song somewhere else), Keep It Open so you can make room, or Close Without Saving, which loses the changes since it was last saved.
A song changed elsewhere
When the song’s file changes on disk while it’s open (saved by Stab on another computer through a synced folder, say), a song with nothing unsaved takes the new version in place, its windows and panes as they were. When both have changes, the last to save wins. Songs kept in Stab Cloud handle this for you instead: see Versions.
Every save keeps your undo history in the open song, so you can still undo past the last save until you close it.
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Save | ⌘S | the File menu |
| Command | Keys | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Save | Ctrl+S | the File menu |
Not on Web: Save.