I did save before shutting down my pc for an update. Now I can’t get my project to work! I’ve spent way too long on this and I cannot redo this. Please help me solve this. There needs to be another way to get my project back. 
This is an Audacity Project.
The two have to be in the same location or folder, you can’t have one inside the other, they have to have the same name, and it has to be the name you gave them inside Audacity.
The show should open if you just double click the AUP file.
Where do you lose it? Did you change the Project name after you closed Audacity? There are ways to bring the old name back. There is a common problem where someone will delete or move the_DATA folder not realizing what it is. You can use the computer search system to find it.
Do you have backup copies of all your original sounds, voices and music?
It’s possible to use characters inside a filename that don’t work very well. Upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, -dash- and underscore are the best characters to use in filenames. Today is 2020-06-20. That’s an ISO date. No slashmarks in filenames. I don’t know how the machine will react to that dot between the five and the one. On some machines, that’s forbidden.
I did save before shutting down my pc for an update.
I know this is dangerous, but I’ve been recommending no updates until you finish your show. I also know that sometimes Windows will force an update whether or not you want one.
Koz
The files are next to each other as so. But when I turned off the pc and turned it back on I still had other projects that shut down incorrectly. However, this main project won’t open no matter what I do… I am seriously about to have a panic attack. I’ve spent over a year and a half working with this and now all lost because of some stupid glitch.
There is another possible failure. Open the AUP file in a text editor, Notepad or Text Edit, for example. Do Not save anything! Read it. It should have English-like programming code similar to this.
See the tiny red box on the right? That’s the original show name.
If the AUP file is blank or if it has nonsense characters or graphics characters, then the AUP file is damaged.
Koz
So… that means I cannot get back my file? Something that I spent so much time on?
I still had other projects that shut down incorrectly.
What does that mean? If your computer has become unstable or you are running out of room, that’s very serious and can cause show failure.
Do you use cloud storage? Google Cloud, etc?
Koz
I mean that when my pc shut down. Audacity shut down right along with the computer. This is when the automatic recovery went on doing its thing. It did not however get back my other project. The alien encounter one.
I mean that when my pc shut down.
I’m still fuzzy. The machine shut down by itself? Audacity Emergency Recovery should not be used all the time. That’s not a good idea at all.
There have been forum posters who claim that Emergency Recovery usually works so well and this one time it failed. Recovery should not need to work well. It should never be used. You may have an unstable machine or a serious system software problem.
Koz
I was careless and shut down the system with the main button. All programs still open were shut down forcefully as well.
I found that I can share my aup here with you to see if you can find any recoverable material.
Scroll down from a forum text window > Attachments > Add Files.
Koz
Here it is, Hopefully no one downloads this because it is copyrighted source.
Alien encounter source 5.1 v2.aup (402 KB)
There’s nothing in the file. It’s blank.
So that’s the end of the show. You can’t reconstruct an edited show without the AUP file.
Do you have a protection copy of the project under a different name?
Do you have all the original voice, music and sound files? Could you put it back together again?
Koz
…I have the data folder…
…I have the data folder…
You can sometimes put a live, original recording back together from the _data folder only, but not an edit. Edit _data folders are seriously scrambled.
If you want to try, all the little AU files in the _data folder are six second sound files and will open in a fresh Audacity. If it’s a stereo show, the au files alternate Left-Right-Left-Right.
Koz
I can’t redo on what I originally did with the original project…all that hard work lost…
I can’t redo on what I originally did with the original project
Why not? This is where we do the postmortem review so you don’t do this again.
Koz