Audacity mistakenly treats (.au) files as missing

Sepehr · December 20, 2018, 12:19pm

I have Audacity 2.2.1 installed on my Windows 10 computer. The problem is that when I open an old saved project that I had to remove to another storage media, the following error shows up:

Project check of “project_data” folder detected 46 missing audio data (.au) blockfile(s), probably due to a bug, system crash, or accidental deletion. There is no way for Audacity to recover these missing files automatically. If you choose the first or second option below, you can try to find and restore the missing files to their previous location. Note that for the second option, the waveform may not show silence.

Now the odd thing is that D:\project\project_data\e00\d00 has exactly 46 (.au) files, but Audacity thinks they are missing. However Audacity shows the waveform, but plays silence.

How can I fix this?

steve · December 20, 2018, 12:25pm

Please attach the project’s “AUP” file to your reply (see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)

Sepehr · December 20, 2018, 12:36pm

Here you are.
project.aup (15.7 KB)

steve · December 20, 2018, 1:07pm

Where exactly is project.aup on your computer? Is it: D:\project\project.aup

Sepehr · December 20, 2018, 1:43pm

Yes.

steve · December 20, 2018, 2:12pm

What is your D: drive?

If you copy the AUP and its “_data” folder somewhere on your C: drive (such as “Documents”), will the project open correctly from there?

Sepehr · December 20, 2018, 2:48pm

It’s a free partition of my HDD. I tried to move them to the C drive but nothing changed.

I opened the (.au) files in Audacity one by one and they were fine, the problem is that the project is just broken into (.au) pieces.

Here’s the Audacity’s log:

18:02:53: Audacity 2.2.1
18:02:53: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
18:02:53: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll'.
18:02:53: Looking up PATH environment variable...
18:02:53: PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Oracle\Java\javapath;c:\programdata\oracle\java\javapath;c:\program files (x86)\common files\intel\shared libraries\redist\intel64\compiler;c:\program files (x86)\intel\icls client\;c:\program files\intel\icls client\;c:\windows\system32;c:\windows;c:\windows\system32\wbem;c:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\;c:\program files (x86)\intel\intel(r) management engine components\dal;c:\program files\intel\intel(r) management engine components\dal;c:\program files (x86)\intel\intel(r) management engine components\ipt;c:\program files\intel\intel(r) management engine components\ipt;c:\program files\calibre2\;c:\program files (x86)\common files\reallusion\camsuite;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\WINDOWS\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Smart Projects\IsoBuster;C:\Program Files (x86)\Gpg4win\..\GnuPG\bin;C:\Users\Sepehr\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;C:\Program Files (x86)\Scapple;C:\Users\Sepehr\AppData\Local\atom\bin'
18:02:53: Checking that 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity' is in PATH...
18:02:53: Warning: FFmpeg directory 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity' is not in PATH.
18:02:53: Temporarily prepending ';C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity' to PATH...
18:02:53: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll'.
18:02:53: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avutil_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
18:02:53: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avcodec_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
18:02:53: avformat not monolithic
18:02:53: Loading avutil from 'avutil-52.dll'.
18:02:53: Loading avcodec from 'avcodec-55.dll'.
18:02:53: Loading avformat from 'C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll'.
18:02:53: Returning PATH to previous setting...
18:02:53: Actual avutil path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-52.dll
18:02:53: Actual avcodec path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-55.dll
18:02:53: Actual avformat path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll
18:02:53: Importing symbols...
18:02:53: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
18:02:53: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
18:02:53:    AVCodec version 0x373466 - 55.52.102 (built against 0x373466 - 55.52.102)
18:02:53:    AVFormat version 0x372164 - 55.33.100 (built against 0x372164 - 55.33.100)
18:02:53:    AVUtil version 0x344264 - 52.66.100 (built against 0x344264 - 52.66.100)
18:02:53: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully.
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00007f3.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000c90.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000a17.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00003f9.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000dcf.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000bf5.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000f4a.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000021b.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000f3a.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000a15.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00001c5.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000227.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00005a1.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000022f.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000010f.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000092c.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00008c4.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:53: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00004fb.au' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000e68.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000a9a.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000cc5.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000da9.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00000e5.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00007f3.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000092c.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000dd4.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00005a1.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000f3a.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00005e1.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000b02.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000d8d.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00001c5.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000206.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000bf5.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000eb8.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000019c.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00003f9.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00007f2.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000010f.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000c90.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000227.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000a15.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000010e.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00001d5.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000a17.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000e02.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000021b.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00009b3.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000018.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000cd6.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000814.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000072.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00004fb.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00009df.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000dcf.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00009c1.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00008c4.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000ce8.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000cb1.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000128.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00009fc.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e0000f4a.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e000022f.au'
18:02:54: Warning: Missing data block file: 'C:\Users\Sepehr\Documents\project\project_data\e00\d00\e00001ad.au'
[/quote]

And here's the list of the 46 availabe (.au) files in the "project_data" folder:
[quote]05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000003c.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM           307,780 e00000f5.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000251.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e00002b3.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00002d3.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000037b.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000039b.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00003a2.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000040f.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000048c.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00004a5.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e00004d6.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM           530,500 e00004e9.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000051c.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000527.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000547.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000574.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00005b6.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00005fc.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000610.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000614.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e000061e.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000652.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000670.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e00006d8.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00007dd.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00007e1.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000825.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000864.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e000086c.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000883.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00008d1.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00008d8.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e000098c.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e00009c7.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00009ca.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e00009f8.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000a3a.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000a76.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000a93.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000b53.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000b8b.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000be4.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000ced.au
05/24/2017  11:50 AM         1,060,956 e0000dae.au
05/24/2017  11:49 AM         1,060,956 e0000f4c.au

I guess maybe the (.au) file names have been changed but the AUP file didn’t change?

steve · December 20, 2018, 3:44pm

That is normal. The audio data in Audacity projects is stored in small (about 1MB) blocks (the “.au” files) so that you can modify any part of the track without Audacity having to copy the entire track data.

Example:
Say you have a track that is 2 hours long with around 3GB of data, and you want to fade in the first 5 seconds. If the track’s audio data was just one file, then Audacity would apply the fade to the first 5 seconds and write the modified file back to disk, retaining a copy of the original in case you need to “Undo”. This process would require reading and writing 3 GB of data, and would double the size of the project, even though you had only modified around 1MB at the start of the file.

On the other hand, with “block files”, Audacity can apply the effect to just the first 1MB block, write that to disk and retain a copy of the original block as “Undo” data. In this case, only 1 MB of date is read and written, which is much more efficient.

You can read more about the structure and safe handling of Audacity projects here: Managing Audacity Projects - Audacity Manual

If you look at the names of the “missing” blocks, for example: “e0000e68.au”, you will see that it is not present in the list of “availabe (.au) files”.

I don’t know how or why those blocks are missing, (I don’t know exactly what you did prior to noticing the problem), but Audacity can’t play audio that is missing. Unless you have a backup copy of the project that has all of the audio data, then this project can’t be fixed.

I’d recommend upgrading to Audacity 2.3.0 at your earliest convenience. It won’t help with this project, but it does have additional safeguards to prevent data loss, so it may help avoid this type of problem in the future. Audacity 2.3.1 is due for release in January, and it will be worth upgrading again when 2.3.1 becomes available.

Sepehr · December 20, 2018, 4:40pm

Thank you. Is there any way to find out the sequence of the existing (.au) files to try to manually put them back together?
How are the (.au) files named? I mean, what does for example “e0000b8b” mean? and what do “e00” and “d00” mean?

steve · December 20, 2018, 4:48pm

For projects that are only an unedited recording, the order of the AU files can be determined by their creation time. Once you start editing there is no way to determine the correct order other than from the AUP file. The AU files are named semi-randomly.

Sepehr · December 21, 2018, 6:29am

The (.au) files sound like they have been slowed down by a great factor. Does Audacity use a certain ratio to slow down the project to store it inside (.au) files?

And why and how can Audacity show the complete project’s waveform but can’t play it? Is there any way to retrieve the sound from the waveform?

I think the problem is that somehow the (.au) filenames got changed. Isn’t there any way to automatically compare the waveforms of the existing (.au) files and the AUP waveform to determine the sequence of the (.au) files?

kozikowski · December 21, 2018, 8:24am

Audacity show the complete project’s waveform but can’t play it?

The waveform comes from graphic files, not the show sound. It’s a mistake to think all those little AU files are sound.

Koz

Sepehr · December 21, 2018, 9:57am

What are “graphic files”? I can’t find them by searching the term.