Corrupted aup3 file

Audacity 3 Help Forum
1

Hi,
We have an issue with a corrupted (possibly) aup3 file.

The error message given is
“Audacity failed to read from a file…”

Also, it gave the following string of code:

{
“timestamp”: 1753029365,
“event_id”: “3499f17feee64b6f935aa1b9138bb7e1”,
“platform”: “native”,
“release”: “audacity@3.7.1”,
“contexts”: {
“os”: {
“type”: “os”,
“name”: “Macintosh”,
“version”: “10.16.0”
}
},
“exception”: {
“values”: [
{
“type”: “File_Error”,
“value”: “Audacity failed to read from a file in /.”,
“mechanism”: {
“type”: “runtime_error”,
“handled”: false,
“data”: {
“sqlite3.rc”: “101”,
“sqlite3.context”: “SqliteSampleBlock::Load::step”
}
}
}
]
}
}

We have tried to open the same file on another Mac.
The error code generated was a bit different.

{
“timestamp”: 1753030837,
“event_id”: “8436ef31360846c1b3673e11e6a899e8”,
“platform”: “native”,
“release”: “audacity@3.7.4”,
“contexts”: {
“os”: {
“type”: “os”,
“name”: “Macintosh”,
“version”: “10.16.0”
}
},
“exception”: {
“values”: [
{
“type”: “File_Error”,
“value”: “Audacity failed to read from a file in /.”,
“mechanism”: {
“type”: “runtime_error”,
“handled”: false,
“data”: {
“sqlite3.rc”: “101”,
“sqlite3.context”: “SqliteSampleBlock::Load::step”
}
}
}
]
}
}

The filesize is a little over one Gigabyte.
Is anyone able to repair aup3 files?
Unfortunately the file contains a lot of important work and would be a tragedy to lose it.
Any help with this very greatly appreciated.

With thanks,
Pip

2

Hi there,
There are some tools for repairing Audacity projects. They work on Windows and Linux but not Mac. Do you have any tech-savvy friends with a Windows PC?
Failing that, I’ve had a lot of success doing this for other people but I can’t guarantee it. If you’d like me to try, post here and I’ll send you a private message with details on what to do.
Mark B

3

Yes please!
How very kind of you!

4

I’ve sent a PM to you, Pip.

5

As AUP3 files are SQLite database files, you can use “DB Browser for SQLite”. It’s available for Windows, Linux and macOS.

6

Well, you live and learn. Any destructions for doing that? By that, I mean duplicating what the Audacity project tools do?
Mark B

7

There’s a few things you can do with DB Browser for SQLite. One very useful “trick” is that if the main “project” table is corrupt, you can replace it with a copy of the “autosave” table.

Note 1: To avoid creating more damage, always work on a copy of the AUP3 file rather than the original.

Note 2: If a project has been corrupted “in the cloud”, it may be sufficient to simply make a copy of the AUP3 file, give it a unique new name, then open it in Audacity.

DB Browser for SQLite can also be used to “compact” a saved project if Audacity’s built-in compaction fails.

It can also be used to check the integrity of the database, and can put the database into a properly “closed” state if Audacity left it open.

8

Thanks Steve,
Good stuff as usual. The DB Browser prog looks good, if you know what you are looking for - I don’t. So far, I’ve had tremendous success just ‘blindly’ following the steps given for the Audacity project tools. I think there was only one I couldn’t rescue to date. I’ve saved your info’ in a text file so I can find it again later.
Cheers,
Mark B

9

I used the Audacity project tools to get a working version of the project and sent it back to the user.