I have an issue that I’ve not been able to find how to resolve. Hope someone here can help!
I update a dozen or so mp3 files every day with new audio and save over the previous file. Not every time, but about half the time Audacity will create a new file and name it the same as the file I’m recording over with an added “0” at the end. I end up with two files -
the original file name with the new audio in it,
a new file with the old audio in it.
For example - suppose I have an existing file named “CC.mp3.” I record new audio and hit “file” > “export audio.” I find the existing “CC.mp3” file. I get the warning message that says "A file named “CC.mp3” already exists. Replace? I hit “yes” and the file is saved. When I go back and look for the file that has been saved about half the time a new file with the same name and an added “0” will have been created.
Is there some way to prevent this second file from being created?
Are there any conditions where you export and you have made no changes?
What is a typical filename that failed?
Audacity 2.1.0 hasn’t been current for a while. Has it been doing it all that time?
This may be one of the oddball things that got cured in 2.1.1, 2.1.2 or 2.1.3. I would upgrade…although if you do, you may get 2.2.0 which I believe just got rolled out. We would be troubleshooting across different versions which may not be useful.
I’m using the same version on a desktop and on a laptop and getting the same results. I’ll update one of them with the latest version and report back.
To answer your questions -
No, I have no conditions where I export with no changes.
The example used is one of the actual files. The last one to exhibit the problem when I posted “CC.mp3”
I’ve been updating these files for many years now and have used Audcacity off and on the entire time. I just started using it again a couple of months ago and it has been only in these last two months that I’ve encountered this problem.
Perhaps some of your “MP3 files” are actually WAV, AIFF or FLAC files?
If you import uncompressed file types into Audacity, and have the option to “load on demand” (which I think may have been the default in Audacity 2.1.0), then Audacity creates backups of those files so as to not destroy the current project. (More info in this section of the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_projects.html#dependencies)
Well… I upgraded my laptop to 2.2.0 this afternoon and went through my routine of recording over the same mp3 files. Here’s what I found:
The renaming of the file as described was not being done by Audacity, but by a sync program I use that works similar to dropbox. (I use “sync” at sync.com). I never was able to find any documentation at sync.com for this, but I repeated the procedure in a folder that was not being synced and the secondary file was not being produced with either version of Audacity.
HOWEVER, with 2.2.0 sync renames the old file with a “0” added and then creates a new file with the original file name. Then it deletes the newly created file with the “0” after it. Somehow with 2.1.0 sync was not able to delete the file, so I ended up with two files. 2.2.0 and sync are getting along fine.