I’m using Audacity 2.1.3 and my computer is a MacBook Pro, running macOS Sierra version 10.12.4
I saved my project right before Audacity crashed, and when I opened it there were no “recent projects.” And when I try to open up the project that has the .aup at the end, a window pops up that says “Project check of “Project 1 copy_data” folder detected 311 missing audio data (.au) blockfile(s), probably due to a bug, system crash, or accidental deletion. There is no way for Audacity to recover these missing files automatically.”
The data folder is right there next to the icon for the project on my desktop. I think it’s confused because I moved it to a folder not realizing that would change anything. But I put it back on the desktop. I just don’t know how to proceed from here. The advice in the manual doesn’t specify how to make the project and the data match up manually. I’ve put a couple hours of work into this recording so it would really suck to have to do it all again. Can you please help me recover it??
To help us debug the problem, did Audacity crash while actually saving? And was that Save or Save Project As?
Or were you doing something else for example cutting in one track and pasting into another that caused the crash?
Can you provide the Mac crash report ? It should be in /Applications/Utilities/Console.app.
If you saw the Audacity Debug Report dialogue, please provide the ZIP file that was created. Please see how to attach files to forum posts.
You must never separate the AUP file and its _data folder.
Never copy the AUP file and _data folder by hand into the same folder. This will likely corrupt both projects as soon as you open them. File > Save Project As… to make a copy of a project.
Open Help > Show Log… . Search your computer for the names of some .AU files listed in the log as missing. If you find them, put them back in the exact subfolder mentioned in the log.
My files keep doing the same when I save project as I see a line and no project. Report can’t find audio files. It seems this started after downloading lame library plug in. I have worked hours and tried to save then lost project due to “missing audio file (au) blockfiles. So upsetting.
Mac OS Sierra
Audacity 2.2.1
After clicking “Save Project As” . the sound waves were gone, and the error message said. Project check of " my file" folder detected 44 missing audio data (au.) blockfile(s) probably due to a bug, system crash, or accidental deletion. There is no way for Audacity to recover these missing files automatically.
Then there were 3 options - close project, treat missing as silence, replace missing with silence. Then there was a long log when I checked report- here is some of what it said: :41:58: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
18:41:58: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avutil from ‘’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
18:41:58: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from legacy path, ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avutil from ‘’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Loading avformat from ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
18:41:58: Error: dlopen(/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
18:41:58: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
18:41:58: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'libavformat.
Do we know how far back the Save and Save Project As cross conflict goes? If you Save Project As and you save to the same show, Audacity 2.2.1 may (about 30% of the time) cause file damage.
I dont really understand what you mean. This happened first on Jan. 28th, here’s the log for that one. It seems I can go into the data file and open 20 something found file datas of small clips of the big recording. I dont know if I can try to puzzle them back together in Audacity. I wouldn’t know how to order them with out spending hours listening and resorting. And then they play over eachother when you add them.
21:36:36: Audacity 2.2.1
21:36:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
21:36:36: mLibAVFormatPath (‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libmp3lame.dylib’) is not empty. Loading from it.
21:36:36: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libmp3lame.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlsym(0xe019b00, avutil_version): symbol not found
21:36:36: Error: dlsym(0xe019b00, avcodec_version): symbol not found
21:36:36: avformat not monolithic
21:36:36: Loading avutil from ‘libavutil.52.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(libavutil.52.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avcodec from ‘libavcodec.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(libavcodec.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libmp3lame.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: Unknown dynamic library error
21:36:36: Actual avutil path
21:36:36: Error: Unknown dynamic library error
21:36:36: Actual avcodec path
21:36:36: Error: dlsym(0xe0193e0, avformat_version): symbol not found
21:36:36: Actual avformat path
21:36:36: Importing symbols…
21:36:36: Error: Failed to load symbol av_register_all
21:36:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avutil from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avformat from ‘/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
21:36:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from legacy path, ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avutil from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avformat from ‘/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(/usr/local/lib/audacity/libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
21:36:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avutil from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(.bundle, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Loading avformat from ‘libavformat.55.dylib’.
21:36:36: Error: dlopen(libavformat.55.dylib, 1): image not found
21:36:36: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
21:36:36: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
21:36:50: Error: can’t open file ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e0000fbf.au’ (error 2: No such file or directory)
21:36:50: Error: can’t open file ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e00005ad.au’ (error 2: No such file or directory)
21:36:50: Error: can’t open file ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e0000e1b.au’ (error 2: No such file or directory)
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e00002c7.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e0000fbf.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e00005ad.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e0000d05.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e00004ed.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e0000b91.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing data block file: ‘/Users/sherylanndennie/Desktop/grat_data/e00/d00/e000083c.au’
21:36:50: Warning: Missing da
Yes, that was my point about asking about “Save Project As”, which Sdennie has confirmed:
After clicking “Save Project As” . the sound waves were gone
This is a known bug in 2.2.1 that is fixed in the upcoming 2.2.2 release. The bugzilla entry is here.
If you do Save Project As twice in one editing session, saving to the same project name, there is 100% chance of data loss.
Sdennie:
You project is gone. Do not use Save Project As after initially saving and naming the project. Just use the Save command. Upgrade to Audacity 2.2.2 when it comes out in a week or so.