AU Files Opening Corrupt [SOLVED]

I am running Audacity 2.0.5 on MacBook Pro running version 10.9.4 of OSX.

I am trying to open AU files that are about 15 minutes of spoken word. The files open but they are all corrupt. All I am getting are pops and hums and the blue track is showing mostly flat (with spikes at the pops).

I saved the files on an external hard drive using FireWire. But the same thing happened trying to load AU files from the hard drive.

Yes, I do have the data folders saved in the same folder as the AU files.

I can’t believe all of these files are corrupt. It is possible they were created with a previous build of Audacity 2. Would that make a difference?

Thanks for any help you can give!

Jeff

The intention is you not even be aware of the little AU files, so right away we’re in trouble. And no, they’re not all sound.

What’s supposed to happen is you double click on the Project Manager AUP text file and the AUP file goes out and assembles your show from the contents of the _DATA folder. Projects should do this cross-version although I think there is a cutoff with some very early Audacity versions.

I noted nowhere in your post do you mention the AUP file. If you don’t have one of those, then putting the show back together can be a challenge.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/recovery.html

If your shows were edited between the raw recording and your playback, then recovery without the AUP file is not possible.

Koz

Sorry. My post was sloppy. I was clicking on the .aup files when the problem occurred.

Here is a quick screen cast of what I’m doing and seeing.

http://www.screencast.com/t/Bwki7XCq

Notice that the waveform is there until I push play.

I notice you have Audacity 2.0.5 mounted as a device. Is this the problem: Do NOT run Audacity from the DMG!!! ?


Gale

Gale,

I just updated and that must have been what I did. I uninstalled and reinstalled and now it’s working.

BIG SIGH OF RELIEF

Thanks for your help Koz & Gale!

Uninstall and reinstall of Audacity changes nothing in the Audacity settings. So if you had a particular set of settings when you ran 2.0.5 with the problem, you have those settings after reinstalling it.

Be aware of the settings in Import / Export Preferences for importing uncompressed files like WAV. If you had that set to “Read uncompressed audio files directly from the original” then your project would have been reading the WAV’s from whatever that device was that was storing the files. If it was a network drive that could be very slow.

Similarly, be sure to open Directories Preferences and set the Audacity temporary directory to a fast local drive. That temporary location is used until you save a project.


Gale

Thanks Gale. The settings are all correct and I’m back in business.