After replacing my broken mac with a new one, I had all of my data transferred from the old computer to the new. After it was transferred I found that my audacity file was fine and completely playable, but I tried to open it today and it says that it is missing audio. I have all of the data so there are fragments of the audio, but I NEED them all together. Is there anyway to recover or restore my original file?
Since it played correct the first time, it must be something you did. Audacity Projects can be configured not to make personal, internal copies of music. If you use a tune in your show, Audacity just points to it at the right time, wherever it is on your computer, and it plays.
If you delete, rename, or damage that external music file, that portion of the show will drop dead.
This almost always happens when somebody “cleans up” or “organizes” their computer. The music files need to be exactly where they were and in perfect order to work.
Also, the Audacity File (aup) is only the Project Manager. It has to point to the _data folder for the actual music and voices. Both of those are required to be in the same place or folder to work.
Koz
So what are you insinuating I do? The only way anything could have been changed was through a virus scan or something, otherwise I did not do anything to change it.
So what do you suggest I do?
Files don’t (or shouldn’t) just disappear off a hard drive. If they do then the hard drive is probably broken. Unless you are finding that other files are also disappearing I doubt that is the problem, which leaves us with the question - what happened, what changed? We don’t know the answer to that.
Could you say what the exact error message is - that may give a clue.
I’m not quite sure what changed. I may be confusing opening it with my first computer, but I don’t think so. The message says, “project check of ‘class_data’ folder dejected 2304 missing audio data (.au) block file(s) probably due to a bug, system crash, or accidental deletion. There is no way for Audacity to recover these missing files automatically.”
So you’re trying to open a project called “class.aup” and there is a folder called “class_data”.
If you right click on the “class_data” folder and select “Properties”, how many files and folders does it say are in there and what is the total size?
Exactly. There’s the one class.aup file, a class_data folder and an e00 folder. The e00 folder has 2,310 items
Try selecting the second option: “Treat missing audio as silence (this session only)”, then click “OK”.
The project should then open, but some, or all of the audio may just be silence.
If there is enough of the project working to be worth saving, go to the “File menu” and use “Save As” to save the project with a new name.
The audio that you manage to salvage this way (if any) is probably the best that you will be able to do with this project.
It is most likely that the data was damaged or lost, either when your previous machine broke, or when the data was transferred over to the new machine.
The e00 folder should not have 2,310 files in it. It should contain a number fo “d00” folders, and each of those should contain a maximum of 256 AU files.
This may be a way to possibly recover your file, but it is tedious, and I have never tried it.
If you open the class.aup file in TextEdit, you will see something like this:
<waveblock start="0">
<simpleblockfile filename="e00000aa.au" len="262144" min="-0.04007" max="0.044556" rms="0.006232"/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start="262144">
<simpleblockfile filename="e0000b80.au" len="262144" min="-0.06601" max="0.076019" rms="0.011953"/>
</waveblock>
<waveblock start="524288">
<simpleblockfile filename="e0000f56.au" len="262144" min="-0.079529" max="0.075073" rms="0.012621"/>
</waveblock>
See those “filename=” bits? Reading down through the file, the first 256 of the the AU files referenced should go in a “d00” folder inside the “e00” folder, then the next 256 in a “d01” folder, etc.
Make a copy of your “class_data” folder, allowing it to be named “class_data copy”.
Now open the original “class_data” folder, open the “e00” folder and create a “d00” folder inside it. With the TextEdit document visible, find and move the first 256 AU files from the e00 folder to the d00. Then create a “d01” folder inside the e00 folder, and move the next 256 AU files into it. Proceed until there are no more AU files in the e00 folder.
When you’re done, close the TextEdit document and try opening your project in Audacity.
– Bill