So, I’m having a huge issue with the old 3.0.2 version and the new 3.0.3 version. I am constantly getting (Not Responding) with every editing action I take on a file. It worked fine for a long while of editing, but it has suddenly screeched to a halt today for 30 seconds to over a minute before it will resume function with every action I take. Windows 10, 64-bit. This happened on 3.0.2, then I downloaded 3.0.3 just now, and I am still having this exact issue with this new version. What the heck is going on??? I have work I have to get done, and this has thrown a huge wrench into my plans.
What’s the error? Why is it freezing up now??? I saw a forum post that this was happening back in July with 3.0.2, and your advice to them was to go back to 2.4.2 and to wait until 3.0.3 came out, as it should fix the problem. Well, 3.0.3 is out and it hasn’t fixed the problem, it just spread the problem around to folks like me so that now I am experiencing this issue too! What happened today that has messed everything up so much? What needs to be done to figure out how to fix this? Please help! I have projects with a deadline in only a few days from now, and I am worried.
We are just now collecting enough user evidence to sort what’s happening. We know Audacity has to shuffle a lot of data around to make complex edits work, but the jury’s out why it suddenly stops responding properly and starts blowing spit bubbles.
It worked fine for a long while of editing
Describe the show. Maybe an hour with multiple complex events such as labels, tracks, edit, inserts, and effects? One poster admitted to hundreds of individual events in their show.
Some posters are invited to forward their Project to the senior forum elves. They have to do that via Zip and a file hosting service since the biggest thing the forum can handle is a ten minute stereo WAV file.
If the show is in one of the Audacity 3 versions, you can save it as File > Save Project > Backup Project. Use a unique name. That will create a separate aup3 file with all the content and edits, but without the links into the current show. It’s a frozen moment in time.
Move or copy that somewhere safe. This is also a good time to make sure you have all your original tracks, voices, music, and content saved so you could put the show back together again from blank screen zero if you had to.
Fair warning, I think it’s still true Projects do not save UNDO. Once you close Audacity, all the UNDO events vanish.
Not nearly as long nor complex. These are short auditions, all of 2-3 minutes in length, max. I have been working on a bunch of files, one after another, with only one project open at a time. The edits are simplistic. I would open one up, clean up my sound by generating silence in between speech to smooth out any pesky breaths that didn’t fit, perhaps even click the barrier line between takes to combine them into one. I’d save the audacity project file as a .aup file when I was done, and then export it as a .wav file (not an mp3, as you have mentioned.) After that was done, I would do one last paranoid save to .aup to be safe, and then close the project to open the next one, so as not to run multiple project files at once. Only now it’s chugging up a storm at each of these listed actions on this one particular project, which I will go ahead and send in.
I have noticed that, after jumping around to some other files to poke around them, and even experimenting with making a new one (as the one file that this issue is occuring to was one I recorded today, while others were from a couple days ago), it only seems to be this one file that is having this issue (at least it seems contained to one so far, anyways.) So that’s something, I guess.
If the file is that small, much less than your 10 minute stereo .wav file, do I still need to zip it up and share it on a file hosting website, or am I able to send it in more directly? Just post it as an attachment on a reply? Thanks for the quick responses!
Roger Roger. Please pardon my ignorance, do I mesage it to you/the appropriate person if not you directly with the link? Or just post it in the forum? I don’t mind either way, just need to know the correct protocol. Thank you!
I’m apologize, I used the wrong term, it is indeed an aup3 file, and not an aup file. I have only been working in 3.0.2 and 3.0.3 versions. Looks like the caffiene has also run out for me as well…
I record my performance, “save as” an aup3 initially, and then I go directly into cleanup. I would save the project a few times to update my save progress as I go along, and when complete, I export it as a wav at the end. Is it common for a project to go face first into the mud, as you have put it, during such a process?
If the wav turns out to be corrupted or flawed or whatever you’d call it, it’s not the biggest deal to redo my audition personally, it may as well just be treated as extra practice to ensure I have the voice down pat. But I suppose that is a very glass-half-full sort of response that not everybody would share.
Don’t double post. A forum elf has to read your message before it becomes visible. Wouldn’t want you trying to sell us new kitchen cabinets or grown-up entertainment.
then I go directly into cleanup.
You can do that, but that only gives you one layer of backup if something naughty happens, and if something really naughty happens, say during the save, the AUP3 won’t open. So that’s the only data recording and Audacity Edit > UNDO in a steaming pile.
Granted your particular work cycle makes it unimportant if you do have to read it again, but that is still not a good habit to get into.
You have two options for good digital hygiene. Finish reading and save both Backup Project and Save As (with different names). Thereafter, it’s following your conventional workflow.
The Backup Project is a Frozen Moment in Time and will just sit there in case you need it. It’s not dynamic like your regular workflow and constantly updated Project.
Alternately, get to the end of the reading, Export a WAV file and continue on. That’s very slightly lesser quality, but more likely to be stable. This, of course, used to be the only way to do it. Backup Project is relatively new.
My apologies on that double post. After refreshing the page, it appeared that my message disappeared on my end, neither waiting for approval nor actually posted, just…gone. In a sort of limbo… Huzzah for random browser loadout errors! I’m just getting all sorts of problems bothering me today… Why, technology, why??? What did I ever do to hurt you? TwT
I will certainly take this advice to heart and export a safety wav from now on. Just was not expecting things to break like that on a project. Thank you!
So if you want to zip it up and post it to a public file server I’ll take a look at it. Send me the link in a PM, or post it here. I’ll take a look at it. However, I do have a busy weekend, so I won’t get to it until the early part of next week.
It’s not necessarily a home computer problem. The forum server and connections can have problems, too. If my post goes much beyond a couple of sentences, I Copy it before sending.
Not only is the glass half empty, but through evaporation, spillage, theft, and manufacturing defect, it’s only going to get worse.
I won’t get to it until the early part of next week.
This might tell you if there’s a preventable defect or something broken that could affect other future work.
Audacity can have hidden activities which can cause problems for no apparent reason. For example, Audacity forms UNDO by, under certain conditions, saving a copy of the whole show. For example, if you UNDO once, you didn’t actually take that last effect out of your show. You removed that show from active editing and you are now editing the show just before the last effect. And you can go forward again, too.
That can be a nice, neat clean way to form UNDO, but it does have complications. As long as you have Audacity open, it keeps saving those shows. And Saving…and Saving. So even if you edit in tiny snippets, you have the ability to go back to any of those snippets through UNDO.
Your computer has to put all those UNDOs somewhere…
There’s another operational problem, too. If you decide to change an effect you did early this morning, you have to UNDO everything you did between now and then.
OK, I have a developed a special “RESCUE” version of Audacity which can repair or rescue .aup3 projects that are broken due to excessive envelope control points (typically in excess of 1,000,000 points), which tends to cause excessive/extreme slowdowns, not responding, freezes, and crashes, including Exception code 0xc0000005. To run, download the entire zip file from here:https://www.dropbox.com/s/uay1r7yo8gupuju/AudacityRescue.zip?dl=0, unzip the project, and from the UNZIPPED folder, run AudacityRescue.exe. In AudacityRescue, load your project, and save. This program is based on a future “Alpha” test version of Audacity, so the screen may look subtly different. Do NOT do any production with this program. Use it soley to RESCUE your project. If you have not already done so, you may need to update your Audacity to 3.0.3 to use the project. This program currently only runs under Windows 64-bit… If you do not have access to a Windows machine, zip it up and PM me a link. I’ll try to get it fixed for you. Thank you.
(Note that it is always best to run a virus checker on any program you download. Also, it is always best to back up your project.)
It will normally take a few minutes for the project load. Then a window will then tell you how many Envelope points were deleted. This window will not occur if there are no excesive envelope points, indicating that your project is not affected by this situation. Note that this program will not prevent the recurrence of excessive envelope points.
Note: this program will NOT fix corrupted projects (error code 11) or projects that fail “to read from a file in C”.
Good to know! It’s a little too late, though. My fault, really. Didn’t realize this was still getting responded to, and so I already re-did my audition over again. No big deal, for me anyways. Still sent a copy to jademan as per their request. Hopefully it still helps! I also already downloaded the 3.0.4 update, so you may have already figured out what went wrong, but eh, if it might help, I still sent it anyways.
