Hello,
Last Thursday I recorded a 2 hour long lecture for work on my 10.6.8 MacBook Pro. I had connected my computer to the mixer using an eighth inch to dual quarter inch audio cable. When the lecture ended, I saved the entire project, which looked like a nice 2+ hour long recording, and I packed up and went home. Yesterday when I tried to open the .aup file, it showed that only about a minute of silent audio was recorded! I have the project folder, and it seems to be full of .au files. Is there a way to recover the 2 hour long recording via the .au files? What/where can I look for the larger file. This is REALLY urgent as my boss expects the recording by the end of the week! 
PLEASE help!
Thanks,
Arjun Ram Srivatsa
What is the Audacity version? Click Audacity > About Audacity
Did you listen to any of it before you saved it?
During the recording, did the red recording meter bounce and did you get blue waves like this:
http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/Audacity1_record.jpg
(Your Audacity may not look exactly like this)
What did you call your show; what was the exact file name? Did you use the date in the filename?
Have you made long recordings like this before?
Koz
One more.
Control-Click on the drive icon in the upper right. > Get INFO.
Read the Capacity and the Available numbers.
Koz
Hello Koz,
Thank you for the quick response! I am away from that MacBook right now but I am heading back to the office in an hour. I can tell you that there were soundwaves visible and I did check the audio and it all sounded great. I work at a nonprofit that has weekly panels and lectures so I have done this before successfully. I will get back to you with all the other info you asked for very soon. Thanks!
Unfortunately, I have Audacity 1.3.12. I see that it’s not supported but maybe you could still help me.
The file name is FSvsRS.aup, the folder in FSvsRS_data, my laptop capacity is 319.73 GB and I have 14.44 GB remaining.
Thanks for all the help you can provide!
I’m not horrified. I used 1.3.12 for several recordings successfully on my MacBook Pros, but I can’t think why yours should lose its mind.
When you opened your Project File (AUP), it didn’t offer to rescue a project or complain bitterly about damaged items or unable to find anything? It just opened up a very seriously damaged show?
Do you have any of the old projects around? I’m a pack rat and keep archives of a lot of my work. Control-Click on one of the older _DATA folders from a similar show and Get Info. Note the size. Does it still open?
Now do the same thing on your current, problem _DATA folder. Did you get approximately the same size? I’m clear they’re not going to hit the exact same number, but I’m also not expecting one to be in GB and the other in MB – or one to be half the size of the other.
Koz
If this is still a problem, Audacity > Quit Audacity. Open the problem AUP. Attach the log from Help > Show Log… . Also attach the AUP file. Please see here for how to attach files: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1 .
We can’t guarantee it isn’t an Audacity bug. There were occasional but critical project reopening bugs throughout the 1.3 Beta series which we gradually whittled down to “almost never happen” in the current 2.0.x releases. Please upgrade to 2.0.5 as soon as you can: http://audacityteam.org/download/mac . 2.0.5 may also give better diagnostic information in the log.
Gale
Hi all. The folder from the event is 900 MBs, which seems about right considering other folders are about the same size. I’ve attached the .aup and the log. Whatever other help would be greatfully appreciated. Right now I’m editing the video using the audio from the camera’s internal mic, which is awful.
FSvRS.aup (130 KB)
log.txt (131 Bytes)
Please attach the Audacity log. It’s at Help > Show Log… (in Audacity). There is no easy way to save the log on Mac until the next 2.0.6 version, but you can do it by clicking at the top of the log text, drag down to the bottom with your mouse, COMMAND + C, open TextEdit then paste and save.
When you open the problem AUP, how long is the total audio (irrespective if it’s silence or near-silence)? As Koz asked, do you get any errors when opening the problem AUP? If so, what do the errors say?
In what folder exactly are “FSvsRS.aup” and “FSvsRS_data” being kept?
You have about 1 hour 25 minutes of audio. Not two hours. From a glance at the peak levels in the AUP file, most of the audio is very quiet (-18 dB or much quieter than that).
Gale
Okay I have no clue why it was only showing a minute of silence before but when I just opened it everything appeared! AHH! Thanks you guys, I will DEFINITELY upgrade to the latest version rn.
Was there a problem reading the folder where “FSvsRS.aup” and “FSvsRS_data” resided? I suggest you export now while the audio is there. Make sure the exported file is correct.
Gale