I can’t open an Audacity file of a music recording. I have the most recent version of Audacity so that’s not the problem. Nut not sure about the whole NULL thing. Is there a way to open the file or save the recording somehow? Thank you!
Are you opening from Audacity…File open Menu … OR are you using windows explorer to go to the folder and double clicking it and is opening with some other wrong software that shows you a page of “NULL things”.
If in windows explorer go to the file, Right click it , you will get small drop down menu with an option “Open With” and pick Audacity or if Audacity is not listed pick option use other apps and find Audacity program file and click on it and also click… Always use this app to open file.
Thanks for replying. When I try to open the file by clicking Open and then double clicking the file, I get an error message that AUP3 files can’t be imported. I tried open with Audacity but got the same message. Is what you suggested a different method? I can try it when I get home. I’ll let you know if it works. Thanks again!
I’d tried it both from the Audacity window and from opening the folder and double clicking the file. I got the same error message that AUP3 files can’t be imported.
If running from the file folder with file explorer… Do Not double click on it except the Icon to the left of the filename is the coloured Audacity lightening headset Icon. OR in any case right click the file and “Open with” … click on Audacity if it is listed if not listed click the option to use other apps and go and browse for the Audacity program file and click it… also click the option to always use this app when opening this type of file.
Audacity should now open the AUP3 file.
I think the problem is that AUP3 files are not registered with your system so that is why you have to go through this procedure… but you will only have to do it once…it will be OK from then on.
Thanks but I tried that and it doesn’t work, still getting the same error message that it can’t import AUP3 files
I searched the entire folder, but can’t find any data files, only all my Audacity files. But I know what you mean, I’ve seen them before. Any idea where they all might be? Are they in a separate folder somewhere?
just ran a search for any of my Audacity data files and they’re not turning up, which is strange. They must be being automatically stored in a folder somewhere but I already checked my Documents and don’t see them. Do you know where they might be?
It is telling you you cannot Import AUP3 files because Audacity Knows Itself that it cannot import AUP files and it is Probably also telling you to use File Open instead. So go to menu File Open and it will probably open first in the common default folder you have been using and you will see the files there. The ones you have already saved as a project will have a small file with an Audacity Icon LHS of it and and will have .AUP3 extension but you will not see the extension except your windows setting allow it. There are also data folders with the same name for all the data associated with the .AUP file. If you have saved before they will be also be listed in recent files in the menu and you can see the files path of you recent saved pointing to all the folders you have used recently.
If you have preferences Directories set up the folders names will be there…if blank it will use the last folder you were in except you change when saving the project or exporting.
When you find them make sure the Icon on the file name is the Audacity Icon, if not do the procedure outlined in my 2 posts above…AUP files need to be registered to Audacity with the Icon if you are going to double click them… but why not simply open them in audacity…wav or mp3 not necessarily and will open with file open… or open in their registered application if you double click from explorer
Another way to see where they may be saved is to open any wav or mp3 in audacity and save it as and watch where it goes to put it… it will use the last folder you used except you change it.
The heading to this thread is confusing you want to save a file that Audacity is not opening…so how do you know it is an Audacity file… and what makes you think Audacity will open it. Has it ever been in or opened in Audacity or saved from Audacity even an earlier version. Has someone just renamed a file with a .AUP extension
Gennerally Audacity installs to the C: ProgramsFiles folder and also creates a folder called Audacity in C: Users/ Documents for all your music projects and data. It may also use C:\ users \ Appdata folder (this is a hidden folder) for saving all sorts of stuff
I am trying to open an Audacity file, a music project I’ve been working on. I opened it last Saturday to make an edit and after I’d closed it, it can’t re-open. Don’t know if I shut down the computer too early or not.
I initially had tried going to use File then Open and then right clicking over the icon to “Open With” and choosing Audacity but it doesn’t work.
I am also trying to find the data files but they are not in the folder with the Audacity files, or they are hidden somewhere and I can’t see them. I checked the few other folders in the main project folder where I’ve saved everything but again, I don’t see them. I also looked in my Audacity folder in Documents but it doesn’t contain anything past December of 2023.
i also tried saving a test project in Audacity and saved it on my Desktop. Then I saw on my Desktop two white file icons with aup3.wal and aup3.shm, but now that I went back to check again, they are no longer there! It’s very weird.
I checked the file size of the Audacity project that won’t open and the file size is 4! Whereas, all other Audacity files are 6 digits in size (example 721,456). I must have accidentally done something last Saturday, maybe Saved over it or something, I don’t know. But it should be a bigger file size than 4.
The storey is getting longer…break it down to separate steps…
In the quote above you are initially using File explorer. So first of all when you see the files you think is the audacity file what does it look like before opening it… Has it the blue headphones with orange Icon at the LHS of the file name…??. Don’t click on it or do anything. There is a View option on your explorer screen with a drop down menu of a list of how you view files and a option to show more…Find the option that says “show File Extensions” and click it and you shold see all your files with extensions. The Audacity files containing music projects should have an Audacity headset icon to the left and the AUP or AUP3 as extension to the right. The newer AUP3 files contain data themselves and not in a separate folder as was the older AUP.
Post back if that is the case…??
yes, they are Audacity files. yes, there is the Audacity icon. They are Audacity project files.
Yes, all the extensions are showing. All my Audacity projects are in one folder, all with aup after the name
Perhaps if I could find the data file I could do something. But you said the data files are now made to be part of the project and are not created separately? So then how would I find them?
If they are all .AUP files then there will be FOLDERS not files in the same folder as the .AUP files having the same filename with the word data appended on to the filename eg. filename.aup is what Audacity opens and filename_data is a folder or collection of small wave type file pieces each with a numeric filename and extension “.au”
The filename.aup can be opened with a text editor like notepad to see if it is readable but Do Not Edit OR Do Not Save it except you know what you are doing. It is a XML type files and will show the list of data files that would be in the folders in the same directory… no path names are given
.AUP3 files are a SQLlite type database file… not easily read in notepad and no folder is associated
with it.
Maybe a simple question… have you other Audacity file in this same folder… and do you not see the folders associated with them… and can you open them…?
yes, I can open all my other Audacity files. With the one in question, I must have done something wrong last Saturday when I was editing the music and perhaps didn’t save properly. It has a file size of 4, which makes no sense when all other files are 6 digits
Clarification: I see all my other Audacity files that I can open, but I do not see any data files anywhere at all in the folder.
And they are all aup3 files, not just aup. They all have a “3” at the end
As I have said in earlier posts AUP3 files are the newer versions and are SQLlite database files so there will not be any folders for these… That is why you do not see any.
You will only see AUP files and folders for older versions.
You now 2 days after your first post have discovered you can still open your other Audacity files and I assume edit and save them, so that would mean Audacity is working OK … So the problem must be with this single file that you cannot open (probably corrupted some way)
But in any case before you loose any more you should take a backup of you working files and Export them out to .WAV lossless so You know you have a copy that you can open in any software. Backups saved as Audacity projects are OK but can only be opened in Audacity.
With all the “To and Fro” I am not sure you have actually tried to open the problem file or any file from within Audacity using Menu, File Open and see what error it gives… Do Not try to Import it… Can you try that