error message - help please

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I imported an audio file into audacity but when I try to use it I get the error message Error writing autosave file. The log records:-

09:31:01: Audacity 2.0.5
09:31:19: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
09:31:19: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-52.dll'.
09:31:19: Looking up PATH environment variable...
09:31:19: PATH = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86_64;C:\Program Files (x86)\AMD APP\bin\x86;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\'
09:31:19: Checking that '' is in PATH...
09:31:19: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
09:31:19: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-52.dll'.
09:31:19: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
09:31:19: Loading avutil from 'avutil-50.dll'.
09:31:19: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avutil-50.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
09:31:19: Loading avcodec from 'avcodec-52.dll'.
09:31:19: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avcodec-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
09:31:19: Loading avformat from 'avformat-52.dll'.
09:31:19: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-52.dll' (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
09:31:19: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
09:31:19: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
09:43:25: File name is C:\Users\catherine_eardley\Music\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]].wav
09:43:25: Mime type is *
09:43:25: Opening with libsndfile
09:43:25: Open(C:\Users\catherine_eardley\Music\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]].wav) succeeded
09:43:40: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-43-40 N-2.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:43:40: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-43-40 N-3.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:47:31: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-47-29 N-4.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:47:31: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-47-31 N-5.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:48:16: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-48-16 N-6.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:48:16: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-48-16 N-7.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:49:13: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-49-12 N-8.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:51:29: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-51-28 N-9.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
09:51:29: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-51-29 N-10.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
10:08:51: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 10-08-51 N-11.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
10:08:51: Error: can't open file 'C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 10-08-51 N-12.tmp' (error 3: the system cannot find the path specified.)
2

Make a copy of the file
The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]].wav
and give it a much shorter name.
Then try using the copy and not the original WAV file.
Does that work?

3

yes, that has worked. many thanks

4

For information, I think that the reason that it did not work before is that Windows has a limit for the length of the path name of about 260 characters (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247(v=vs.85).aspx)
Because the file name was so long, when Audacity tried to create a temporary folder for the data, using the name of the file, the total length of the path name was too long.
I can’t be bothered to count the number of characters :wink: but if you want to, the temp folder that Audacity was trying to create was:

C:\Users\catherine_eardley\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\AutoSave\The Versionarys - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] [(Instrumental Version - Guitar-Sax) [In The Style Of Eurythmics]] - 2015-09-02 09-43-40 N-3.tmp

which resulted in the error:
error 3: the system cannot find the path specified

5

Yes, the MAX_PATH variable specifies that a complete directory path in Windows can’t exceed 260 total characters, including the drive letter, colon, backslash and null (invisible) backlash at the end. So you only have a potential “real” path size of 256 characters such as C:\your-256-character-path.

I can’t be bothered to count either, but the “.autosave” extension (which is the actual file Audacity is trying to write) is “long” for an extension name. If the file name is already long, the length of the “.autosave” extension can be sufficient to push the path over the limit. As a result of the long “.autosave” extension, the “real” maximum path size of an imported file that Audacity will handle on Windows is 251 characters, assuming a file with a standard three-character extension.

I “think” Audacity has a a maximum pathname limitation of 256 characters on Mac and Linux too, though the limit could be higher for those platforms.


Gale