Feature Request: Optional Project Preservation Prompt When Opening Existing Projects
Problem
Many Audacity users periodically revisit older recordings to remix, remaster, or substantially rework them.
When opening an existing .aup3 project, it is easy to begin editing and instinctively press Save, unintentionally overwriting the original project.
This is particularly problematic for musicians maintaining archives of recordings accumulated over many years or decades.
Although Save Project As provides a way to preserve the original, it depends entirely on the user remembering to use it before saving changes.
Even experienced users with established naming conventions occasionally forget this step, particularly when making what initially seems like a minor adjustment that evolves into a substantial revision.
Proposed Feature
Add an optional Project Preservation Prompt, configurable under Preferences → Projects.
When enabled, opening an existing Audacity project would present three choices:
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Open Read Only — Allow playback, examination, and potentially experimentation without permitting changes to overwrite the original project.
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Save as New Project — Prompt for a new filename and create a separate project copy before editing begins.
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Edit Original — Open the existing project normally, allowing changes to be saved.
Preferences
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Disabled by default to preserve existing behavior.
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Enabled through Preferences → Projects.
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Optional checkbox: “Don’t ask me again.”
Important Distinction: Prevention vs. Backup
This is not a request for another backup feature. It is a request for a workflow safeguard that helps prevent accidental overwriting of an original project in the first place.
Backups and file versioning are essential, but they address the consequences of mistakes rather than preventing them.
A user may have excellent backup practices yet inadvertently overwrite an original recording and not discover the mistake until weeks or months later.
By that time, the desired earlier version may no longer be available in the backup history.
An optional prompt when opening an existing project would encourage users to make a conscious decision about whether they intend to preserve or modify the original.
Importantly, this safeguard would operate independently of external backup software and would not require users to adopt complicated file-management procedures.
Benefits
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Helps prevent accidental overwriting of historically valuable recordings.
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Encourages sensible project version management.
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Particularly useful for musicians who frequently revisit older recordings.
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Reduces dependence on remembering to use Save Project As.
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Requires no changes to existing workflows for users who disable the feature.
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Complements existing backup strategies without duplicating their functionality.
Summary
For musicians maintaining decades of recordings, the distinction between opening a project to review it and opening it to create a new version can be critically important.
An optional Project Preservation Prompt would provide a simple opportunity to make that distinction before editing begins.
The objective is not to protect users from losing their backups, but to help prevent them from unintentionally changing the very originals they intended to preserve.