So I’m working on a podcast and I’ve lost about a sum total of 15 hours of work at this point. I’m having a really hard time with saving versions of the files and it telling me it cannot write to a drive, or the file can’t be read, or its unable to work with the block files. I’ve tried so many different workarounds (even trying to recover the broken file with cmd etc), but it keeps happening.
I have adequate disc space on my computer. I’m trying to save the files to an external harddrive - the aup3 files keep corrupting. I’m using Audacity 3.4. I attempt to save the project but it won’t save adequately. And then causes Audacity to crash. And if I reopen Audacity and attempt to recover the file from there, I cannot.
I have a deadline with this podcast and I’m so stressed out. I can’t afford to lose more work. Any insight, help, or tips would be greatly appreciated. I’ll try anything at this point.
Hey Jademan! Ive tried this twice on multiple files through all the steps with no luck. its more of an ongoing pattern of file corruptions rather than a singular incident. Any insight?
If this is the case then stay away from networked projects. Copy or move your .aup3 project to the local machine, work on it there, then copy or move it back to the network when you are done.
So the steps are intended to work on a single problem file, not multiple ones. Pick a project and run through the steps. At which step are you having difficulties?
Generally, not a good idea. The AUP3 database needs an NTFS drive and the format is somewhat “fragile”. Read the warning here.
It’s OK to copy /share the AUP3 file to another drive but the “master” should be local, and if you are sharing on a network, USB, or cloud drive, the other person should copy to their local drive before doing anything with the file.
It’s also a good idea to export to WAV or FLAC immediately after recording (whether you make an AUP3 project or not) and use appropriate back-up procedures, depending on how critical it is. WAV & FLAC files are “simpler” and more robust.
P.S.
Computers are the least reliable things we own! Sooner or later, something will go wrong… And you often don’t know there’s a problem unit it’s too late… There are lots of stories about people recording concerts and when they get home they find that they have a bad recording or no recording.
If you are recording something critical where there’s no possibility of “take two” you should have two recorders working in parallel. The other recorder can be a solid state recorder, or a smart phone, etc.
If you have a home studio, or if you record a weekly church service or something like that, it’s best to have a dedicated audio/recording computer that doesn’t get messed-with.
…I actually have a dedicated audio-video computer for the opposite reason - When I was setting it up I was experimenting with lots of different audio & video software, a lot of it freeware, and I didn’t want to mess-up my hone-office computer.
Don’t do that. Audacity doesn’t get along very well with external, internet, or cloud drives. Save or Export the work to your internal drive and then, if you need, transfer files with Audacity off.
The AUP3 database needs an NTFS drive and the format is somewhat “fragile”.