A Different kind of Corrupted file

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1

Dear Tech Support:

I have dealt with a corrupted Audacity file before. But this was unusual. I was at the end of a day’s work and compilation of weeks of work. While completing my last correction, the file just changed the contents of the entire file. It changed to a series of floating dots.

It didn’t have the characteristics described in your instructions to fix a Corrupted file but I thought it couldn’t hurt. I completed the instructions and Audacity said the file was recovered. But the file had not changed:
Directory of C:\Users\trudy\Downloads\AUDREPAIR

07/22/2026 12:56 PM .
07/22/2026 12:38 PM ..
07/22/2026 12:43 PM 1,516,544 audacity-project-tools.exe
07/21/2026 03:06 PM 2,597,941,248 broken.aup3
07/22/2026 12:56 PM 2,606,891,008 broken.recovered.aup3
07/22/2026 12:43 PM 1,245,696 sqlite3.exe
4 File(s) 5,207,594,496 bytes
2 Dir(s) 770,670,014,464 bytes free

Directory of C:\Users\trudy\Downloads\AUDREPAIR

07/22/2026 12:56 PM .
07/22/2026 12:38 PM ..
07/22/2026 12:43 PM 1,516,544 audacity-project-tools.exe
07/21/2026 03:06 PM 2,597,941,248 broken.aup3
07/22/2026 12:56 PM 2,606,891,008 broken.recovered.aup3
07/22/2026 12:43 PM 1,245,696 sqlite3.exe
4 File(s) 5,207,594,496 bytes
2 Dir(s) 770,670,014,464 bytes free

The number denoting file location 0.0000, 0.0010, 0.0020 instead of the usual 0.0, 1.0, 2.0. The entire file now contained just continuous dots (…). some of the dots were raised.

Do you have a procedure for fixing this corrupted file? I cannot afford to lose weeks and weeks of work again.

3

@Trudye Could you send us your project file or a screenshot of what you see when opening the project?

I just hope that “a series of floating dots” is the sample view at a high zoom level.

4

No it’s a normal view. Sorry for the delayed response I thought I had responded to your email earlier. I now have a new problem. My user work area has completely changed. So I decided to uninstall and reinstall Audacity. That did not work my. Now when I click in the recording area the zoom-in command seems to take over. Not sure how I got here. Is there away to get back to the basic recording work area? if there is anything you can tell me to reverse this issue please let me know asap. My project is suffering.

As for the corrupted file I threw in the towel and decided to recreate it, take frequent backups , keep my fingers crossed that it doesn’t happen again.