Dear Audacity Community,
I deleted the .aup project file of an audacity project of mine, but the _data folder is still intact. I can imagine that only the information where the files in the data folder are placed and how they are composed is lost. So is there any way to recover the aup file from the data folder? Or is there any other way to recreate it?
I’m using the Version 2.1.2 of January 2016.
Sincerely,
InformaTiger
Is the Project a raw, unedited capture, or after production, corrections and editing?
Koz
No it’s just a raw recording without editing and stuff like that. 
I think it’s this posting.
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recovery.html
Scroll down to manual recovery.
The AUP and the _DATA folder are very much a married couple. If you did that to an edited production, the chance of rescue is zero. As it is, it’s not zero.
Koz
Here is the direct link http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recovering_crashes_manually.html.
informaTiger won’t be seeing any Automatic Crash Recovery dialogue.
Gale
Thank you for your quick help.
But I think I have got another problem: in which order should I import those files?
Sincerely,
InformaTiger
in which order should I import those files?
That’s the problem. The filenames are intentionally randomized and the only clue how they’re supposed to go is each individual time and date stamp. Even if you do get those right, the Left/Right sound channel alternation may get scrambled.
A reading from the manual posting:
Open Audacity’s temporary or project _data folder in your system file manager. Sort the files by timestamp order (earliest first), then rename them using a consecutive alphanumerical sequence, lowest number first. An arrangement looking something like this should work:
b001.au 15:56:02
b002.au 15:56:02
b003.au 15:56:10
b004.au 15:56:10
Any chance at all of getting that AUP file back?
Koz
You and I have an additional curse. Mac OS-X is based on the Linux operating system which doesn’t do File Deletion UNDO very well, or sometimes at all. So accidentally deleted work tends to stay deleted.
Koz
Do you have “live” Time Machine? If you have a constantly operating Time Machine backup, I think it will try to do a ten minute backup and you might be able to use that to get a slightly older AUP file back. That’s the tiny clock in the desktop top menu bar.
I don’t do that. I do a weekly backup and manual file copies to an external drive or thumb drive sooner if I’m doing something important.
Koz
Time and date only works on a clean, fresh recording.
If you lose the AUP file on an edited show, the time and date stamps stop working and that’s the end of the show.
Koz
They will get scrambled on Mac because it doesn’t yet have a file system that shows you times in less than whole seconds. So you can’t tell which of b001.au 15:56:02 and b002.au 15:56:02 got laid down first and is really the left channel.
But if you have a mono project it doesn’t matter.
Gale