Lost Recording

I am new to Audacity (2.1.3). I recorded a radio program of about 5 hours using iMic USB input. The recording was apparently successful, showing a waveform for the 5 hours. To verify the success I was able to select various locations in the waveform and play back short sections. To preclude accidentally losing the recording while editing out some sections I saved the recording as a project on the desktop. The save progress was shown via a progress window (took 3 to 5 minutes, I think). I closed Audacity, and came back later to edit. There was no waveform displayed. I checked the data folder and it has NO ITEMS. I found the temporary file directory “audacity-lock-rod”, which was a 5 byte document containing the number 2950.

I assume the recording is gone, and unretrievable???

Rod

It would be better to export as WAV and use that as a backup if disaster strikes. Make exporting the raw recording as WAV part of your workflow.

Are you looking at the _data folder for the saved project, that has the same name as the AUP file?

If the project save completed, the data would have been completely moved to the _data folder for the project.

Was an error shown when you opened the saved AUP file, if so what did it say exactly? Please attach the AUP file and also the log from Help > Show Log… top right of Audacity after you try to open the AUP file. Please see how to attach files to forum posts.


Gale

Are you looking at the _data folder for the saved project, that has the same name as the AUP file?

Yes, both the _data and the .Aup files have the same name

Was an error shown when you opened the saved AUP file, if so what did it say exactly? Please attach the AUP file and also the log from Help > Show Log… top right of Audacity after you try to open the AUP file

No error message, log is attached (I hope)

Lyon
log.txt (2.66 KB)

Please attach the AUP file as requested.

The log shows no file errors. Was that log saved after opening the project? If not, please open the project then save and attach the log.

Gale

Please attach the AUP file as requested.

The log shows no file errors. Was that log saved after opening the project? If not, please open the project then save and attach the log.

Oops, missed the request for the aup file. The log file was saved after opening the project, but just to be sure here it is after opening the project:

Lyon
log.txt (2.14 KB)
Met Der Rosencaviler.aup (824 Bytes)

Thanks. Not good news. The log shows no file errors but this is because the AUP file refers to an empty stereo track with no data. This is why there are no AU data files to be found in the project’s _data folder. I can only assume you deleted the project audio by accident immediately before you saved the project. Audacity does not warn about that, only if there are no tracks at all.

If that is what happened, then Audacity deleted the AU files, bypassing the Trash Can. The files cannot be recovered, short of trying data recovery software. That won’t work well unless you have an old spinning Hard Disk Drive which is almost empty.

Of course, there is no harm in searching your computer for AU files in case something else happened. If files relating to the recording do exist somewhere, and they are the raw unedited recording, it is possible to recover them. If you recover them on a Mac, some blocks of audio will have the left and right channels transposed.


Gale

Gale,

Thanks for your help and effort. I believe you are correct, I probably did something unawares that deleted the recording. As I stated I am new to Audacity and it obviously has a lot of capability with many attendant buttons, menus and options. I try to learn from my mistakes and will be sure to export any future recordings in WAV format immediately as you recommended.

Again, thanks for your help.

Regards,

Rod Fisher