I went back to work on an Audacity project this morning and it prompted me to update, installing dlls. I thought it was just routine stuff so I did so, but now I cannot open my file which I was working on last night. It’s an .aup file but it’s thorwing me the error of “did not recognize type of file… trying importing using Import Raw”. As you can imagine, import raw just makes a slightly fuzzy track.
Now I acknowledge that this file was probably way too big by normal standards as there are eight “d0x” folders. However this was opening last night and I don’t get why it would jsut refuse to open. Anyone know a solution for recovery? All the .au files are still present, though as I said there’s a lot of them. I also opened up the error log to see what specifically was having a problem, so perhaps that will help as well.
10:58:09 AM: Audacity 2.0.6
10:58:09 AM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
10:58:09 AM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-55.dll'.
10:58:09 AM: Looking up PATH environment variable...
10:58:09 AM: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\'
10:58:09 AM: Checking that '' is in PATH...
10:58:09 AM: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
10:58:09 AM: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
10:58:09 AM: Loading avutil from ''.
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
10:58:09 AM: Loading avcodec from ''.
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
10:58:09 AM: Loading avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
10:58:09 AM: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
10:58:09 AM: File name is C:\Users\*******\Music\BundleofDemos1.aup
10:58:09 AM: Mime type is *
10:58:09 AM: Opening with libsndfile
10:58:09 AM: Opening with liboggvorbis
10:58:09 AM: Opening with libflac
10:58:09 AM: Opening with lof
10:58:09 AM: Opening with libav
10:58:09 AM: Error: Importer::Import: Opening failed.
What exactly was that message? Audacity supplied by us should not show a message that says what you quote, explicitly asking you to “update” and “install DLL’s”. It might say it requires LAME to encode MP3’s, or FFmpeg to read or write certain types of audio file.
Make sure you are using File > Open… to open the AUP, and not File > Import > Audio… .
There is no reliable way to recover a saved project without the AUP file if you have been editing the work, such as applying effects and moving pieces around.
It was the box that pops up every now in then, a small window that has a few files that it’s going to install for an update. I’m fairly certain they’re dlls and this is far from the first time I’ve seen them, though they seem to have also reset all presets (my saved reverb settings are gone, for example). I don’t know exactly what it said because I just click through the “okay” or “install” or “update” or whatever it says and I can’t prompt it to appear.
Here’s the Google Drive where my project is, aup and data in a zip. Like I said, it’s bigger than it should be but I don’t believe it reached the limit. Once it’s operational again I will be scrubbing it clean.
Audacity supplied by us ( Audacity ® | Downloads ) does not prompt for updates. It is a common feature request that it should.
Have you installed the Pro version of Ninite or some other tool that automatically updates open source apps?
I would be very careful, from your description, if you don’t know what application is force deleting content in Audacity’s folder for application data. Audacity supplied by us does not do that.
Well I installed a new version of Audacity from that link (in a new folder) and when I attempted to open the project, it says that I should be opening it from the “File > Open” command… Which is what I’m doing. So is the aup file messing up the import? It works on other ones I tried to open, just not this one.
Here’s the error log again:
2:42:56 PM: Audacity 2.1.1
2:42:56 PM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
2:42:56 PM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-55.dll'.
2:42:56 PM: Looking up PATH environment variable...
2:42:56 PM: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\'
2:42:56 PM: Checking that '' is in PATH...
2:42:56 PM: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
2:42:56 PM: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
2:42:56 PM: Loading avutil from ''.
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
2:42:56 PM: Loading avcodec from ''.
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
2:42:56 PM: Loading avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
2:42:56 PM: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
2:43:06 PM: File name is C:\Users\*****\Music\BundleofDemos1.aup
2:43:06 PM: Mime type is *
2:43:06 PM: Opening with libsndfile
2:43:06 PM: Opening with liboggvorbis
2:43:06 PM: Opening with libflac
2:43:06 PM: Opening with lof
2:43:06 PM: Opening with libav
2:43:06 PM: Error: Importer::Import: Opening failed.
So it’s essentially fried in terms of ordering the files again? At least the .au files are okay, as I loaded some of them earlier. Worse comes to worse (I hope not) I could laboriously reconstruct things using 8 second clips.
Last I was able to open it, yes. I exported a file, saved, then closed it.
My first instinct this morning was opening up the file directly, but I don’t recall there being anything in that small window before the actual program crops up.
No second copy, no. Strange that’s the only way to create a proper backup.
For whatever reason, yes. But it seems that “2.0.6” version you had was a bogus version if it was doing what you said of its own accord. I would recommend a deep anti-virus scan, and only ever download Audacity from Audacity ® | Downloads.
If this was a recording you never edited, you can try a recovery of four “d” folders at a time using the “1.2 Recovery Utility”. That would give you two WAV files to work with. See Recovering crashes manually.
Otherwise, I would import the MP3’s and work from those. MP3’s are lossy, so should not be used as backup. Use WAV for backup and MP3 only for the finished job.
There is a fighting chance to recover a non-edited recording. Those snippets are still in a rational order created by Audacity. The minute you edit or change the work, you’re fried. There is no simple order any more and the AUP file is required to play the work.
If you time sort the files then rename them sequentially the “recovery” will work from a purely technical viewpoint of creating a WAV file. Any errors should be fixable by feeding the utility less files, such as one “d” folder at a time. But it’s pointless because the recovered WAV files will have out of order sequences.
If you have been working in this project a long time then it is possible you may have a backup of the AUP file in Previous versions (Windows Vista Ultimate/Business or Windows 7) or File History (Windows 8 and 10).