Disconnected audio file

[kenact]

Very strange occurrence tonight. I've been running lights & sound for a play for the past 2 weeks, making minor adjustments along the way. It's a fairly simple workspace with one Chase for most of the lighting and a second Chase that added incidental lighting and a number of audio cues.

QLC+ 4.13.1
Dell M6700 with Windows 10 x64
Enttec DMX USB Pro
All fixtures are single channel incandescent

I had some minor changes to make this evening, having to with the intensity of 1 fixture and the Fade In and Hold on several steps, none affecting the audio cue in question. The audio cue is the 14th step in the audio Chase. The step that was changed was number 36.

Before I made my changes, I did step through every step in the Chase. Every audio cue played. I made my minor adjustments and retested those steps. In hindsight it would have been prudent to rerun all of my audio cues.

The 14th step is strictly an audio function, not a Show. It's set to 5s702ms Hold/Duration with 0ms Fade In & Fade Out. When I stepped into Step 14, it ran for the 5s702ms but there was no sound. As the actors were waiting to hear that cue, I stepped back into that cue. Again, it ran for 5s702ms, but no sound.

After the show, I went into the Functions Tab and tried to play the file directly from the audio function, again no sound. Looking at the audio function, it was pointed to the proper file. I play the file directly in Media Player and it was fine. Going back to QLC+ and playing it from the Audio Function, still no sound. I clicked the 3 dots on the File name line and reselected the same audio file, played it again, and now there's sound.

There's nothing special about this audio file. It's 1 of 11 voice overs. It shows up as:
Audio name SFX08-VC 3 5s702ms (I put the length in the name so I can copy and paste it to the duration in a Chase)
File name C:/QLC+/Prior 55/Cues/SFX08-VC 3.mp3
Duration 5s702ms
Channels 1
Sample Rate 48000 Hz
Bitrate 83 kb/s
Fade in 0ms
Fade out 0ms
Volume 100%
Audio device Default device
Playback mode Single shot

The other 10 are different Durations and Bitrates, but they're all other settings are identical.

I have no clue how this happened or how I can possibly recreate it. I'm just hoping someone else has seen this and has a way to avoid it going forward.

[GGGss]

non-qualified answer: Could it be that the audio-playing process was stuck somewhere? By trying and stepping through the chaser? By resetting the audio file, it might be that you killed the hung process.

[kenact]

non-qualified answer: Could it be that the audio-playing process was stuck somewhere? By trying and stepping through the chaser? By resetting the audio file, it might be that you killed the hung process.

Unlikely, since all of my other audio cues, before and after, played.

[kenact]

It just happened again, with a different audio file. My show is still running, so I won't be able to test anything for about half an hour. There were no edits today, so I can rule that out.

I copied the running project, and I'll reload after the house closes. If the audio comes back there may be a bigger problem.

I'll get back to you soon.

[kenact]

I reloaded the project and all the cues are working.

The only thing I can think to try is restart the program just before we open house tomorrow.

This is scary. After 2 weeks of running a workspace, two nights in a row, two different audio cues don't play, with no way to reproduce the problem.