.au recovered files have no sound (flatline)

I’m trying to recover an unsaved audio recording. When I open Audacity, I am prompted to recover the file however the file that opens has no sound (it’s a complete flatline). I was able to find the folder with all the little .au files but those too don’t have any sound. Is there any way I’ll be able to recover the sound recording? I am using Audacity 2.1.0.

Skip down the AU files. Do any of them have any sound?

An Audacity Project has an AUP Project Manager to tell Audacity what to do with all those little AU files in the _DATA folder. You should be able to play the AU files and get little 6-second snippets of the show. If they’re all silent, I think that’s the end. The other elves will correct me.

Did you have an Event? Did the machine crash?

Koz

Yes, all the files are silent when I play them.
Yes, my computer shut down without me being able to save the file first.

I think that’s the end of the world.

I don’t know all the variations of emergency recovery, but I think you hit one where there is no show.

It is recommended that when you make a recording, to Export a WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit sound file before you do anything else. That’s the backup should anything bad happen to Audacity or the computer from then on. Audacity Projects are not recommended for backups.

Koz