Lost file - help!

[mamafesto]

Last week I recorded an interview using audacity, and I guess I never saved it? However, I never x'd out of the program either. When I went to go transcribe the program today, i opened audacity back up, and when i went to click play, the program froze. I had to force quit it. When i reopened it, it asked if i wanted to recover the file. I said yes, but now there is no sound at all. It shows 48 minutes of recorded sound, but the entire thing is set at 0.0 - no recording basically. Is there anyway to get my recording back? The interview is realyl crucial to my work and I'll be in a heap load of trouble if I can't figure out a way to get it back. Please help!!

[kozikowski]

Was your Mac sleeping all that time, or did you shut it down and restart? Koz

[kozikowski]

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Crash_Recovery
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Recovery
Are you in Audacity 1.3? You posted in the 1.3 forum.
Koz

[mamafesto]

The mac was sleeping the entire time. I do have version 1.3.13.

I've looked through all those links and tried everything and...nothing. I have a feeling that somehow the files got corrupted or something, b/c they don't even look like the examples shown.

I can find the files (many many files split into two folders) each bit is labeled "e0000a3a.au" (with different endings before the .au). I've tried exporting them as WAV files, but it's silent. I've tried creating a new audacity files & importing them in - still silent.

I'm just unsure why it shows a recording of 42.08 minutes long (the length of my interview) but it's at 0.0 - no recording actually there. I did the original recording w/Audacity (interviewed somebody via speaker phone & recorded the conversation. I did that once before with no trouble, and was able to transcribe it perfectly fine, which is what i had been attempting to do this time).

Any help would be appreciated, although I have a feeling it's pretty much lost at this point.

[PGA]

What are the names of the two folders? Those exxxxxx.au files are Audacity's data files that it associated with your Audacity project file (projectname.aup - where projectname is the name that you used to save the project, if you did save it).

If you can find a xxxxx.aup with a name that matches one of those folder names, you might be able to resurrect that project. If you can find aup files that match both folders, you might still be in with a chance of recovering your lost recording. No promises! Please bear in mind that I'm not a Mac -man - I look through Windows in the UK- so there will be a limit to the assistance that I can give. But I know I'm moving you along a path that will help the Mac elves when they wake up in the US.

[mamafesto]

The folders are in a folder labeled e00 and then one is called d00 and the other is d01. I didn't name/save them, but stumbled across them after following directions in some of the crash recovery pages. I tried looking up .aup in my finder to no avail

[mamafesto]

oops, thought i replied here. The main file is e00 and the two files in that are d00 and d01. I didn't save the recording initially (did save/name it since then, not that it matters since there's no actual audio in the file) :/

[PGA]

There never will be any audio in the aup file. That is Audacity's project file and it contains only information for Audacity to use. We might be able to make some more progress. If you have any doubts at any stage understanding what I am suggesting you do - STOP and post a clarification question. It seems that we do have some data and we may still be able to recover it.

Was the e00 folder sitting under a folder with a name that ended "_data" (without the double quotes)? If it was, let's say it was called MYTune_data, then make a copy of it called Saved_MYTune_data. Next make a copy of the aup file (calling that Saved_currentname.aup - where currentname is whatever you called it when you saved it). Got that so far?

Now, rename your original copy of the aup file to, in my example, MYTune.aup. You should now have two aup files and two "_data" folders.

If you are still with me at this point things are still going good! Next question: Are the MYTune.aup file and the MYTune_data folder both sitting in the same parent folder whatever that may be (root, desktop, whatever whereever)? Are they both in the same place? If yes, try double clicking the aup file and see what happens. Report back whatever the outcome.

[mamafesto]

There never will be any audio in the aup file. That is Audacity's project file and it contains only information for Audacity to use. We might be able to make some more progress. If you have any doubts at any stage understanding what I am suggesting you do - STOP and post a clarification question. It seems that we do have some data and we may still be able to recover it.

Was the e00 folder sitting under a folder with a name that ended "_data" (without the double quotes)? If it was, let's say it was called MYTune_data, then make a copy of it called Saved_MYTune_data. Next make a copy of the aup file (calling that Saved_currentname.aup - where currentname is whatever you called it when you saved it). Got that so far?

Now, rename your original copy of the aup file to, in my example, MYTune.aup. You should now have two aup files and two "_data" folders.

If you are still with me at this point things are still going good! Next question: Are the MYTune.aup file and the MYTune_data folder both sitting in the same parent folder whatever that may be (root, desktop, whatever whereever)? Are they both in the same place? If yes, try double clicking the aup file and see what happens. Report back whatever the outcome.

I found the file by going to Preferences in Audacity, and then clicking on "Directories." I clicked on "choose" (right now it reads: /var/folders/Vd/VdeZ0WYSF-8XjFkXtQ3w8++++TI/-Tmp-/audacity-avihistory ) and it was there. However, now when i go there, it's blank. Yesterday I had tried to name it & save it and it's residing as a folder (labeled "mayim2_data") on my desktop. When I click on the folder, it takes me to finder and the e00 folder is there to open. I made copies of both "mayim2_data" and "e00" (is that the aup file?) and did as you said and.... nothing It's still the 0.0 flatline when I open it.

[Gale Andrews]

You shouldn't go renaming .aup files or _data folders. if you are going to do that you have to change "projname" in the .aup file as well. To make copies of the .aup file and _data folder, select them, copy, open a new folder then paste the copied .aup and _data folder into the new folder without renaming anything.

I found the file by going to Preferences in Audacity, and then clicking on "Directories." I clicked on "choose" (right now it reads: /var/folders/Vd/VdeZ0WYSF-8XjFkXtQ3w8++++TI/-Tmp-/audacity-avihistory ) and it was there. However, now when i go there, it's blank. Yesterday I had tried to name it & save it and it's residing as a folder (labeled "mayim2_data") on my desktop. When I click on the folder, it takes me to finder and the e00 folder is there to open. I made copies of both "mayim2_data" and "e00" (is that the aup file?) and did as you said and.... nothing It's still the 0.0 flatline when I open it.

The .aup file is a small text file that you can open in a text editor. The .aup just points to the real audio data in the "_data" folder. The data itself is in "d" folders inside an "e" folder in that _data folder.

If your recovered project had silent audio, saving that recovered project as an .aup file will give you silent audio. Saving the project would clear the temp file.

Please explain more about what happened after you stopped recording in the first place. I don't know what happens on Mac when the computer sleeps, but on Windows - either with sleep or hibernation - if you left your recording open in Audacity without saving a project, put the computer to sleep or hibernation then woke the machine up, Audacity would be running again with the recording present. So what exactly happened when you opened Audacity back up again after the weekend? Was the recording still apparently there with a real waveform before you clicked Play and froze?

I don't I'm afraid see any way to get your recording back, unless you had exported a WAV after finishing the recording, or had saved a project and closed it (by quitting Audacity altogether, or using File > Close or the red X button). It's really good practice to do this especially if you know you are leaving the computer unattended. If you only do one, export the WAV (or AIFF).

Has anyone tested leaving unsaved recordings open on Mac and allowing the computer to sleep??



Gale