Error opening project - URGENT

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I have been using Audacity version 3.0.0 on Windows 10 to record a podcast. I already have 7 minutes recorded - however, recently, the project I have saved has been refusing to open. When I attempt to do so, either an error message or unhandled exception occurs (see screenshots) or Audacity offers to ‘recover’ a new project which I did not intentionally create, and which has nothing recorded on it.

I also noticed that the SHM and WAL files accompanying the AUP file keep disappearing from my OneDrive whenever I open the AUP file. I have repeatedly recovered them from the Recycling Bin, only to have them disappear again when I attempt to open the AUP file.

Please respond promptly to this message, as this podcast is for a piece of assessed university coursework which is due in on Wed 28th April. I know very little about computers and have no idea what to do.

Thanks,
Fire_Fox
Unhandled exception.png
Error opening project.png

2

Please upgrade to the latest release 3.0.2 and try to open this project with that version

It may still fail to open, but the error message should there have an added “Show Log” - click on that to expand the error message and post a screen-shot of that full error message with the log. That will give our developers a lot more information to help analyze the issue.

You can get 3.0.2 from our Website:
https://www.audacityteam.org/download/

Thanks,
Peter.

3

I note that you are using cloud storage for your project (Microsoft’s OneDrive).

The Audacity Manual strongly advises against having live open projects on clod devices, network devices or slow USB drives.
See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_projects.html

You really should be running your live projects on the onboard storage on your PC.

You can use cloud storage for Backups of projects - but if you need to use those backups you should copy those to you onboard stoarage before opening them and working on them.

Peter.

4

The WAL and SHM files are temporary files used by Audacity while your project is open - when you close the project by exiting Audacity the WAL and SHM files are (should be) deleted by Audacity. The entire project is contained in the single AUP3 file in Audacity 3.x

When you next re-open the project Audacity will create new temporary WAL and SHM files for the duration of the project being open.

Peter.