After I record an audiobook chapter and export it to .mp3, I reopen the .mp3 in Audacity in order to run ACX Check. Almost every time, when I then close the file (CTRL-W), Audacity crashes. I get a “Problem Report” screen, but when I click on SEND, it never sends. I have had this double-problem with a number of previous versions, and it still not working properly in 3.7.2.
I have had the same problem. version 3.7.1 I save to an external drive and I have seen a suggestion that Audacity doesn’t like other than the computer internal drive. There is an error code worth checking out.
If you open audacity again it will recover the original to the last saved version on request which then closes OK.
I am saving a backup copy on the internal drive until I have completed the task and exported the final copy. Then delete the back ups.
Upgraded to the latest 3.7.3 version. Sadly, the problem still exists. I am exporting .mp3 to the hard drive, then opening the .mp3 to check it–still crashes on close. I have found that it will not crash for shorter files, such as a 15 minute chapter, but a 30 minute chapter invariably crashes.
I can’t speak for Windows, but on my Mac, version 3.6.1 of Audacity has so far never crashed.
An advice I read here was, if you did not yet “finish” your recording, to first export it in a non-compressed format like AIFF or WAV, and only afterwards save the Audacity Project (.aup3). If the program crashes while saving the project or when you quit it, you can still use the AIFF/WAV file to continue your work.
Audacity has a lot of size magic. Even if you export your MP3 at the Audiobook recommended chapter specification of Mono, 192 Constant, That’s still going to be much smaller than the Perfect Quality WAV (Microsoft) version of the chapter, which is going to be even smaller than the Audacity Internal format.
So when you open your MP3 in Audacity, the chapter is going to sudden balloon to a very large digital work in the background where you can’t see it. I’ll bet your machine is running out of room.
Both Windows and Macs run on the idea that you never have to close anything. It’s wrong, but it’s common.
Make sure you close all your applications and then do a Clean Shutdown. Not regular Shutdown and not Restart. Do the Ctrl-Alt-Del thing and then hold the SHIFT key while you shut down. That will take longer than normal, but it will close and clean up everything.
Here are some Microsoft notes about that.
I bet that large file problem goes away.
There is a more serious version of this. Running out of internal hard drive space. You can move files around to external, network, or internet cloud storage all you want, you just can’t let Audacity see you do it. Audacity doesn’t always get along with outside drives.
Close Audacity and then move stuff in and out of the internal drive.
Koz
Hey @DaCa, it could really help to pinpoint the bug causing this crash on exit if you share the project that is triggering this crash and/or screen recording of your actions before the crash.
Which audacity version are you using, is it x64 or x32?