The new aup3 project is much more convenient than the old aup/_data format, especially for backups; I really appreciate the work that’s been done here.
However, I’ve been using Audacity for a very long time, and I have a lot of aup projects. Is there an easy way to automatically convert all my old aup projects to aup3, without manually opening them all in Audacity?
I’m using Windows 10, though I could probably do it from Linux or macOS instead if that was easier.
The old project format was not recommended for archiving / long term storage due to the risk of losing part of the project, or in some other way damaging the project (which was all too easy with the old multi-file format). However, if you have successfully kept old projects without damaging them, then there is no need to change now. Just continue to look after them until you need them. When you need them, open / import them into the new version of Audacity and save them in the new format at that point.
There is no tool for mass conversion from the old format to the new.
I wrote a tool that will do this if anyone wants to try it. I used it to convert close to 400 aup to aup3.
It supports wildcards and sub-directory recursion.
It will maintain the creation, modification, and access dates for each conversion. It will also recycle all .aup and _data folders.
It’s rudimentary. It will open each project, and you will see the whole thing work on the screen. It will:
It takes about 15 seconds to convert each project.
You have to monitor it from time to time, as it might hit exceptions. Out of 400-ish projects, the process stopped two or three times because of “bad bytes,” “irregular mono tracks,” or something. I just clicked “ok” and the process continued. It wasn’t worth coding for those exceptions.
pm me if you want to try it.
I have no immediate use for it but I would like to know more about it. What programming language did you use, for example. 
Which AUP3 version does it convert to? (Which version of Audacity 3.x is required to open the AUP3 files?)
Does your tool use read only access to the original project?
What language is the tool written in, and what is the license?
Are you willing to make the tool public? (open source?)
Ah Mr Steve,
You have better questions than me… 
I used AutoIT
not sure but I would happily open source it … not looking to make $$$
FYI: your version check sounds like something I should adjust for. I’d be happy to modify this further as per your recommendations.
We used AutoIT at my previous workplace. It saved us an immense amount of time. It would be great for the majority, I suppose but it’s Windows only.