I have been using Audacity for a few years now to edit and mix cheer music for halftime routines. The files have always been able to be emailed with no issues. Recently I did an update to audacity and now every time I try to send the files it says it is too large to email. Why is this occurring and is there a way to send the files via email? The files are typically 1 & 1/2 minutes long.
Any info or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
My suggestion is to upload the file to Google Drive, OneDrive or something similar if you have a Google or Microsoft account. Then email the link to the file and the recipient can download it when convenient.
When I want to send very large files, I use Swisstransfer.com. It’s free and reliable. The recipient gets an email once the file is ready to be downloaded.
What type of file are you exporting to? WAV is the largest; MP3s vary according to how much quality you specify. You might compare the sizes of previous files that worked and current files that don’t work. I try to keep emails under 10 MB, though that’s just a general guideline. As @evilmrb mentioned, you can use online file storage services to send larger files. Or you might try reducing the export quality; that would reduce the file size, and it might be fine for your needs. You’ll have to try it to be sure.
If you were now accidentality exporting as WAV with a greater bit-depth, or greater sample rate, than before , that would increase the WAV file size.
I’ve tried emailing the tracks through Google and it wouldn’t send either.
The other issue is that files I’ve sent via email in the past can’t send now either. Nothing was changed to the files so if they sent before why aren’t they sending now?
None of the suggestions I offered involved sending the file via email. I can’t work out what you are doing at all. I seriously doubt the issue has anything to do with Audacity.
Your email provider must have decreased their limits. The searching I did suggests that a 1 1/2 minute WAV file is usually about 15 MB. I don’t normally email audio files, but I do sometimes email pictures, and I start having problems when they total over 10 MB. You’ll probably have to find another way to deliver the audio files. If you can use a flash drive to physically give the files to whoever needs them, that’s the easiest, least technical method. The next method to try is using an online file storage service. There are several free ones to choose from, and any of them should be able to do this. If you can, find a tech-savvy friend to help you set this up. Someone who can sit next to you and guide you can be a huge help.
Or, MP3 will be less than 2.5MB per minute, depending on the bitrate and ignoring any embedded artwork which obviously adds to file size.
Bitrate in kbps is kilobits bits per second. There are 8-bits in a byte so divide by 8 and multiply by 60 to get kilobytes per minute.
MP3 is lossy but it’s not always terrible and at higher bitrates it often sounds identical to the uncompressed original. However, you should avoid MP3 if there will be further editing.
Or, FLAC (lossy compression )will be a little bigger than twice the size of WAV file of the same “resolution”. A “CD quality” FLAC (16-bits , 44.1kHz, stereo) will be around 7-8MB per minute.
I am not tech savvy at all but, I just don’t understand how one minute I can send files and then I do an update to audacity and now I can no longer do it. I’m not saying it is an audacity problem just want to know what I can do now. I guess my next question is I want to get the audio edited file to my I-phone so I can play it on a bluetooth speaker. How do I go about doing that without having to use a paid service or emailing it to myself?
The Audacity update is not the cause of your problem; the important change had to be with your email provider. The two changes might have happened around the same time, which would be confusing.
It might be easier to connect the bluetooth speakers to your computer and listen that way. Though if you have an iPhone, then you probably have an iCloud account, which is one of the methods that can be used to send the audio files to others. You should also be able to use it to listen on your iPhone. I don’t personally have an iPhone or an iCloud account, so I can’t give instructions for either.
What company provides your email? Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, something else? (Given by the part of your email address that comes after the “@”) They might have something about this recent change on their website, and perhaps suggestions for sending large files.
I think I would do a simple computer change. Change your system to Reveal Filename Extensions.
Most computers hide filename extensions by default so as not to “confuse you.”
This can be OK until something goes wrong.
MyPrettyFile
MyPrettyFile
MyPrettyFile
Turn magically into…
MyPrettyFile.wav
MyPrettyFile.mp3
MyPrettyFile.gif
Wav is a perfect quality sound file much larger than an mp3 compressed sound file. GIF is a video file.
There is still one possibility. The Audacity update affected how the machine sends or manages files.
This is where I roll up my sleeves and say, (drum roll) Have You Restarted Your Machine? I don’t mean regular Shutdown or Restart. Windows has a Special Clean Shutdown where it really does clean everything out—nothing left behind.
Koz
If you have a Google email account, Gmail, it has a free file-sharing service called Google Drive which can be used to share files bigger than 25Mb … Send attachments with your Gmail message - Computer - Gmail Help
You never told us the size of the file or the format.
I guess my next question is I want to get the audio edited file to my I-phone so I can play it on a bluetooth speaker.
I don’t have an iPhone but you can Google it. 
Or someone here with an iPhone should be able to help.
(On my Android I can plug-in a thumb drive and copy the files, or there are other ways that I haven’t tried, or I can play it directly from the thumb drive.)
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