This is very interesting and I think highly relevant.
Do you always record in stereo at 44100 Hz sample rate?
Are all (or very nearly all) of the files about 1.1 MB?
What is the total length of that recording, and how many .AU files are there?
Ooops - yes of course.
For as long as I have used Audacity.
I spot-checked several folders last night and all of them contained files that were exactly 1.1 MB except for one lone file that was like 7KB.
(It would be nice if this forum added Post #'s to help people reference things…)
In my post dated, Mon Sep 14, 2020 6:06 pm, I said this…
When I went back and listened to this recording that should have been about 8 hours, the first 7-8 minutes sound okay, then when listening to “My Woman from Tokyo” the song sound like the recording is jumping forward every 10-20 seconds.
Is there aw ay to post a snippet here?
Also, when I look in “Sept6_01_data” I see something leling…
First is an “e00” file, and inside that are subfolders from “d00” to “d13” however > “d00” says 1:12am and “d13” says 9:17am yet the file is only 2 hours and 44 minutes long?!
So either that 8 hours Audacity should have been recording got written over - as the title of this trhead - or a boatload of files got dropped.
Since the first 7-8 minutes sounded okay, that tells me things didn’t look back to the start and start recording over things, but that somewhere in that 8 hour time-slot over 5 hours of music got dropped…
We used to have a nice “POST” button, but it changed after an update and is now that little grey rectangle (“page” icon?) just to the left of the post author’s name. You can right click on that and copy the link location. For example, this links to your last post: Audacity recording over itself? - #22 by InternetStream
I think I misread this the first time and assumed that you had used “timer record” (Transport Menu: Recording - Audacity Manual)
Just to check - you didn’t use timer record, you just started recording with the intention of stopping the recording when the show finished and trimming off several hours of unwanted audio from the beginning of the recording. Is that right?
I think a boatload of files got dropped - or rather, a boatload of files didn’t get written to disk. I can’t be certain, but I have an idea of what probably occurred.
How do you do that? Are you using “ishowu audio capture”, “SoundFlower”, “Black Hole” or similar to capture the audio playing on the computer?
I didn’t know there was a timer record.
I always record manually.
Again, I turned in the Internet radio stream and Audacity and pressed “Record” before I went to bed, because I didn’t want to get up at like 6:00am to manually press record in the morning. The intent was to manually turn off recording when I work up like 9 hours later.
I have been doing the above workflow for over 15 years in Auadacity and it always works just fine - as long as the recording doesn’t go over maybe 12-14 hours.
Please do share…
You’re giving me way to much credit in this thread! 
No, I either go into VLC or most often I go to a radio stations website and listen to their stream in either Firefox or Chrome. (e.g. WSUE-FM or KKLN-FM)
Then after the Internet radio stream is playing in either VLC or a browser window, I fire up Auadacity and press record.
Now on my old MacBook Pro that still works, I have SoundFlower - but it is so fubared in its configuration I don’t touch it because I don’t even know how it works. (Which is why I DESPERATELY need help getting this working on one or both of my newer retina MacBook Pros running macOS Sierra.
On the one Retina that is misbehaving, I have Loopback set up to allow my Mac to transfer the Internet stream from either VLC or a browser to Audacity.
I cannot stress enough that I really, really, really need to get Audacity working on my newer Retina MacBook Pros because I think my old MacBook is dying and if I don’t get things migrated over, then I will lose the ability to do one of my loves in life which recording my favorite radio shows every weekend?!
While my old MacBook is the only computer I have that allows me to record Internet streaming radio, the OS - and in turn things like Firefox and Chrome - are so old they are no longer compatable with the modern Internet.
On my old MacBook, I am having lots of issues connecting to the Internet and staying conencted and I think it’s because I can no longer upgrade my browsers.
So I gotta get my Internet radio stream recording workflow migrated over to my newer Macs in the next week or so, or I will be SOL with my recording… 
P.S. I have to go out of state again tomorrow, but I will try to check back here regularly this trip.
My Macbook Pro running macOS 10.15.7 latest Catalina has no ability to record streaming audio. Even on the older OS’s it has seen its lifetime it’s never had the ability to do that. I use may laptop PC for such purposes where it works well.
My understanding is that Apple deliberately removed that capability from macOS (presumably to prevent copyright infringements).
The Audacity Manual offers a couple of workarounds (including a loopback cable)
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_mac.html
and links to this Audacity Wiki page for more detail:
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Recording_Computer_Playback_on_Mac
WC
A very useful feature when you want to record a program that starts in the early hours. Waxcylinder has been successfully using Timer Record every week for ages to record one of his favourite shows.
What is that “Loopback”?
As waxcylinder wrote, macOS does not have a built-in ability to record sound playing on the computer, additional software is required, or a physical cable connecting the audio output to the audio input.
We may be able to get the answer from Audacity.
“Help menu > Diagnostics > Audio Device Info”
Save that info somewhere convenient, then attach the saved file to your reply.
I think that you were using some sort of “virtual” loopback device such as “ishowu audio capture”, “SoundFlower”, “Black Hole” or similar.
If that’s not the case, then I don’t know how the recording could have worked.
Virtual loopback devices can work in a number of ways, but one common method is that the virtual device captures audio data from an application and forwards audio samples to the recording device. The difference between this and a normal, physical audio device, is that if the input audio stream stops, then the stream of audio samples to the recording device also stops. With a normal audio device, if the (analog) input stops, then the (digital) output stream of audio samples continues but the samples are just zeros (silence).
In your case, recording an audio stream from the Internet, I think there was an intermittent problem with your Internet connection. Had you been recording from a normal audio device, then there would have been silent gaps whenever the audio playback stopped. However, with a virtual loopback device, rather than gaps, if the sample stream stops, then Audacity will stop and wait for the next sample to arrive.
See: Timer Record - Audacity Manual
WC
Right, and that is why people use SoundFlower or in modern times Loopback. (Mentioned above)
Well, after you guys help me get Audacity working on my newer rMBPs, I will try it out! (Although it’s not a big deal to just press “Record” at bedtime and wake up whevener and shut off Audacity and then edit out the parts I don’t want.)
You guys must be Windows users or Linux users…
Right, you cannot record audio from applications to Auadcity directly like in WIndows.
But you CAN use applications like Sunflower or Loopback to bridge the gap.
(I confused that you two haven’t heard about Sunflower and Loopback beings that we are in the “Mac” forum on the Audacity website…) 
Even if you aren’t Mac users - which seems weird since we are in a Mac forum - I would encourage you to check out Rogue Amoeba’s website and see all of the cool applications that they have for Mac users who are audio and radiophiles like me!
Will do.
I am using Loopback, which does create “virtual audio devices” and Rogue Amoeba is the creator of SoundFlower and Loopback is the replacement and they were designed for Macs so you can do exactly what I have been doing on my Macs with Auadcity for the last 15 years.
Okay, good to know. But I have been using SOundFLower on my old MBP since like 2009 and never had any issues. (It still runs SOundFlower because I didn’t want to break a working device.)
My two nerwer Retinas use Loopback, and I believe I had my primary rMBP working with Loopback, but to be honest, I had LOTS of issues trying to successfully set up Loopback on my primary rMBP with things like my “soft phone” that I use to make calls on VoIP, so I sorta gave up on Loopback for some time.
But the bottom line is that Loopback was designed to work with Macs, and I can confirm that I seem to have Loopback working on my second rMBP - which is the one I am complaining about here dropping audio files.
So on my second rMBP, I am able to not only make/receive VoIP calls, but I have some fancier things working too, like the ability to record phone calls with Audacity and even record phone calls with music playing in the background.
So I think I have gotten the hand of how to use Loopback, and I don’t feel that is causing any issues here, but then you never know…
And as far as my Internet quality, the fact that I can record Internet streamingr adio shows on my ancient MBP using SoundFlower and Audacity and not have any issues, says to me that things should work just fine on a enwer rMBP, with a newer OS, and with Loopback, right?
If my hotel WiFi, or mobile hotspot, were the issue, then I wouldn’t be able to record 12+ hours of Internet radio streams on my old MBP.
Of course, not to contradict myself, it seems that lately my old MBP’s OS and Firefox and Chrome are so outdated that they are not playing nicely with my hotel Wi-Fi, with my iPhone’s personal hotspot, and with many of the website I access using my outdated OS and outdated browsers.
However, up until maybe a month ago, my old MBP was a work-horse!!!
And THAT is why I have been lazy and never updated the OS on my old MBP, and it is why I have been slow to try and figure out why I cannot do the same things on my two newer rMBPs…
Steve,
Here is the file you requested…
deviceinfo.txt (2.19 KB)
It seems that you do have some sort of “virtual device” installed, but I can’t see what it is. Have you ever installed any apps from “Rogue Amoeba”? I know they make an app called “Loopback” (free download but $119 for the license, which seems quite expensive, but then Mac software often is).
You’re killing me, Steve…
I have said several times that I have Loopback (by Rogue Amoeba) installed on my retina Mac Book Pro…
Did you not see my responses??
(I wrote a half a book ABOVE the post where I attached the file you requested…)
Oops, so you did - I saw your next post that was addressed to me and was replying to that post.
Anyway, what I think happened is as I described in this post: Audacity recording over itself? - #28 by steve
As mentioned before, if there was a problem with my Internet connection, then I would be also having this issue on my old MacBook Pro…
Also, I have had this issue using both my hotel’s Wi-Fi plus my iPhone’s personal hotspot, so it’s hard to believe multiple sources are all failing.
So what else could be the problem, because without getting this resolved, I will never be able to record Internetr adio shows again on my newer Mac Book Pros… 
How many times has this problem occurred? Your first post gives the impression that it was a one off.
I’m not sure that I have ever gotten the recordings to work, and I have had my two rMBPs for like 3-4 years now…
But because I usually do 95% of my recordings on my old MBP, and because this problem isn’t easily noticed if one just renders the msuic woithout taking time to listen to the entire show, I didn’t notice this was a problem for a long time.
Either way, my two rMBP’s have been broken in this aspect for at least 2 years if not always…
I say it’s a problem with Auadcaity - which is why I am here - and NOT my Retina MacBook Pros or the operator or the websites or the Internet connection…
In that case you’ve got me beat. I can’t reproduce the issue and I’m not aware of any other cases quite like this.
I can reproduce the issue if I fake a bad internet connection, but other than that I’m out.
Why do these, “I’ve never seen that problem before?!” issues always happen to me??
sigh
So I can try doing some more testing using my iPhone’s hotspot - especially sicne I am 1,000 miles away from home right now. But as mentioned, the fact that I do NOT have this issue on a MacBook Pro that is nearly a decade old and running a super outdated of OS-X and extremely outdated browsers, and yet on much newer Retina MacBook Pros with modest OS’s and up-to-date browsers leaves me sratching my head what could be causing all of this?!
Recording my shows on weekends using Audacity has become a significant part of my free-time over the last 15 years, and to lose that would be devastating…