Audacity 2.0.3, Windows 7 Professional
When Audacity crashes or the computer shuts down, and recovery says there are irregularities, what does this mean? What kinds of irregularities, and do they seriously compromise quality?
Are you sure it says that?
Not “orphan block files”?
The current version of Audacity is 2.0.6 and there have been a lot of bug fixes since 2.0.3, so it is worth updating when you can.
You can download the current version from here: Audacity ® | Download for Windows
Yes, a box comes up every time saying there are irregularities, or maybe the word was “inconsistencies”. My question concerns whether the recovered unsaved file really needs to be replaced due to damage. Besides power loss, when I’m clicking in the graphic sometimes a click will seem to cause Audacity to crash, I never know what I’ve done to set it off.
Is there any complication from updating Audacity, such as loss of settings, or changes in appearance and functions? Just so I plan the change for when I have time to reset and relearn before I need to use it.
there are irregularities, or maybe the word was “inconsistencies”.
We have to try and match up error messages with published documents, so getting the words right is a big deal.
Koz
“getting the words right is a big deal”
It was “inconsistencies”. I originally tried a search with “irregularities” and got nothing. So I just searched “audacity recover inconsistencies” and got the page: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/recovery.html That answers my question, it says there are orphan block files which are superfluous. So the project is okay, right?
But that leaves the question of what triggers a crash in the middle of work. Occasionally, this has happened, seemingly triggered by a click of the mouse in the project, but I don’t know why. I hypothesized that I unknowingly clicked too quickly before a previous click had completed its effect. Is that a possibility?
Also, I do want to update (from 2.0.3 to 2.0.6), but before I do that, I’d like to know whether there will be changes and lost settings I’ll need to deal with before I can use the program again.
Audacity keeps adjustments and settings in a separate place to allow you to do program updates without putting all your personal settings in again. Occasionally, this gets us into trouble because Reinstall doesn’t scrub Audacity clean like it does with some other programs.
You can install multiple different Audacity versions as long as you never run more than one. I don’t know how to do that on Windows.
Koz
“Reinstall doesn’t scrub Audacity clean”
What doesn’t it clean, and is that problematical?
“You can install multiple different Audacity versions as long as you never run more than one.”
So if I can find out how to install a new version, leaving the old, that might be a good option.
You can install different versions, including nightly builds, if you install each into a different home folder (each folder with a different name like “Audacity 203”, “Audacity 206”, “Audacity Alpha”, for example).
Be careful to run only one version at a time.
I thought I answered this but don’t see my reply here 
Yes - exactly as it says on Audacity Manual
Note that it is common if there are unsaved changes at the time of the crash for Audacity to warn of “file inconsistencies” when recovering the project. This usually means merely that there are “orphan block files” in the data that were there to enable undo or redo of a project action but which are now superfluous to the recovered project. If this was the case, you would see a note on opening Help > Show Log… that orphan files would be deleted on saving the project, but no warnings about other kinds of file error.
This is what it looks like in the log:
15:05:25: Warning: Orphan block file: 'C:UsersgaleAppDataLocalTempaudacity_tempproject3734e00d00e00003ce.au'
15:05:25: Warning: Orphan block file: 'C:UsersgaleAppDataLocalTempaudacity_tempproject3734e00d00e00004f6.au'
15:05:25: Warning: Orphan block file: 'C:UsersgaleAppDataLocalTempaudacity_tempproject3734e00d00e0000c9b.au'
15:05:25: Warning: Project check ignored orphan block file(s). They will be deleted when project is saved.
Personally I think where Audacity knows it will be deleting orphans it does not need to throw a message. There is no way to keep the orphans unless you physically copy them.
Clicking too fast was a common cause of crashes in old 1.3 Beta versions of Audacity, but that “should” be long fixed.
Do you have split lines (black vertical lines in the project separating clips in the track)? Clicking on those lines to merge clips or clicking close to those lines can cause crashes. Usually it only affects specific projects. Is it only one project that crashes?
If you are trying to merge clips, the safest way is to select over them, then Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join.
Gale
It is not problematical, because if you need to reset Audacity settings, there is an option half way through the Audacity installer to “Reset Preferences”. See How do I reset my Audacity settings?.
Gale
To clarify, I think you may be using the word “install” in a general sense, not in the sense of what Windows sees as an installation.
The Windows “Nightly Builds” are not installers (unless you get some very old debug version installers, which won’t let you launch Audacity on machines lacking Visual Studio). The “Nightly Builds” are ZIP files and they are development versions of Audacity, not Audacity releases.
Using the Audacity 2.x series installers, you can only ever install one version of Audacity as Windows sees it in “Uninstall a program”. This is because the installers have the same “AppName” and they are therefore designed to overwrite previous installations. So, if you install 2.0.3 then install 2.0.6, even to a different folder, “Uninstall a program” will only see 2.0.6. If you then install 2.0.4 to another folder, “Uninstall a program” will only see 2.0.4.
When we released separate Beta versions of Audacity, those had a separate “AppName” from Audacity, and so if you had Audacity installed then installed the Beta version, “Uninstall a program” would see “Audacity” and “Audacity 1.3 Beta (Unicode)”.
Gale
“Do you have split lines (black vertical lines in the project separating clips in the track)? Clicking on those lines to merge clips or clicking close to those lines can cause crashes. Usually it only affects specific projects. Is it only one project that crashes?”
Yes, I have the black lines, but I’ve never had a problem clicking them out. Hearing that fast clicking can cause crashes feels right from my experience. All crashes I’ve had shut down the whole program.
Fast clicking anywhere in the waves used to cause crashes. It should not do so now. If you find that it does in 2.0.6, please see if you can make it happen in a piece of work that does not matter. Tell us where you click fast and if it’s necessary for the track to contain split lines for it to happen.
Gale