If you do “File menu > Save Project > Backup Project”, how big is the backup project?
Interesting, that seems to be the solution.
Size 186 MB (195,297,280 bytes)
Size on disk 186 MB (195,297,280 bytes)
and what is the size now of the original AUP3 ? (after closing Audacity).
and what is the size now of the original AUP3 ? (after closing Audacity).
- Open the large aup3
- Export the backup
- Close the large aup3
I was not prompted to save. The file remains:
Size 1.35 GB (1,453,326,336 bytes)
Size on disk 1.35 GB (1,453,326,336 bytes)
–
- Open the large aup3
- Export a backup
- Make an additional label entry
- Delete the additional label entry
- Save in-place (control-s)
- Exit
There is no file size difference. I confirmed that the modification time has been updated.
When you originally saved the project, is it possible that you might have cancelled a slow “Checkpointing” stage?
When you originally saved the project, is it possible that you might have cancelled a slow “Checkpointing” stage?
I don’t believe so; I’ve never seen something like that.
I was fiddling with trackwide effects via a macro, and I did cancel that macro pass, then I un-did it and made another pass with a different macro.
Please try this.
(If you have plenty of disk space, make a normal file copy of the original AUP3 so that we can look at it again later if we need to).
With the huge project file:
- Open the project.
- Select All (Ctr + A)
- Duplicate (Ctrl + D)
- Select all of the duplicate tracks
- Apply “Effect > Reverse”
- Save (Ctrl + S)
- Delete the duplicate tracks
- Save
- Exit Audacity
How big is the AUP3 file now?
(basically we’re trying to force the project to run “compaction”).
Please try this.
The file size did not change.
Also, when I duplicated the tracks, reversed them, and saved them, the file size also didn’t change.
To check my sanity, I looked at the property and the modification time is changing.
Do you know how to make a ZIP archive? If so, try zipping the AUP3 and see what size the ZIP file is.
try zipping the AUP3
Using the basic right-click > send to zipped folder
size 721 MB (756,915,411 bytes)
size on disk 721 MB (756,916,224 bytes)
This aup3 is the one I did the earlier operation on: tracks duplicate / reverse / duplicate tracks delete. I don’t have the original-original one (disk space issues)
Out of interest, I tried 7zip on ultra
Size 444 MB (466,278,339 bytes)
Size on disk 444 MB (466,280,448 bytes)
Interesting.
It is still larger than expected, since the actual project should contain about 250 MB of audio data, but that’s a lot smaller than would be expected from 1.35 GB of audio data.
I have an ongoing email discussion with one of the developers about this. I’m currently waiting for a reply about what we do next.
Are you able to upload that 7zip file somewhere so that we can examine it? There are a few “free” (advert supported) file sharing services available, or possibly dropbox, Google drive, One drive, or similar.
… but that’s a lot smaller than would be expected from 1.35 GB of audio data.
7zip is pretty magical.
I have an ongoing email discussion with one of the developers about this. I’m currently waiting for a reply about what we do next.
This isn’t time-sensitive since I was able to work with the backup aup3 we generated earlier. In the next day or so I intend to make another project in much the same way; perhaps this can be reproduced.
Are you able to upload that 7zip file somewhere …
It’s uploading; I’ll forum-DM you a link.
I’ve downloaded the file, but if you could keep it up for a while that would be useful so that I can pass it on to the developers.
Interestingly, if I extract and open the project (Audacity 3.0.2 Linux), reverse the first track, Undo, Save, Exit, then the project shrinks down to 186.3 MiB (195,362,816 bytes).
Perhaps you could try that with the 7z file.
Interestingly, if I extract and open the project (Audacity 3.0.2 Linux), reverse the first track, Undo, Save, Exit, then the project shrinks down to 186.3 MiB (195,362,816 bytes).
That is interesting. I double-checked:
- Reverse the first track
- Undo
- Save
- Exit
I see no change, although the modification time updates.
Just a thought, are you saving to a network drive or cloud storage?
Just a thought, are you saving to a network drive or cloud storage?
No, it’s a local hard drive, and the file/directory are not in use by other programs (e.g. automatic backups or software-raid).
I have removed that post.
Is it OK to refer to it as your “A” drive?
This may be very relevant to the problem.
Okay.
Later today I’ll be pursuing the same workflow that produced that file; let’s see if I can reproduce this.
If the original project was on your A drive, then another thing that you could try:
Move or copy the project to your C:\ drive, then open the project (on the C:\ drive) and:
- Reverse the first track
- Undo
- Save
- Exit
Due to security constraints, it cannot be placed raw under C:\ but must be in a subdirectory.
With this advice, I explored different .aup3 file locations and learned to reproduce the problem.
Under some circumstances the file size will not change, and in others it will change to a reasonable:
186 MB (195,297,280 bytes)
Directory structures which produce 1.35 GB (i.e. no change) contain a single quote mark ( ’ ):
1.35 GB (1,453,326,336 bytes)
C:\'
C:\a\'
C:\a\'test'
C:\a\'test
C:\a\test'
C:\'test'
C:\'\'
This is an NTFS filesystem on Windows 10.
In case it matters, I learned the block size is 4096 using PowerShell and this command:
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Volume | Select-Object Label, BlockSize | Format-Table -AutoSize
Other directory structures will produce 186 MB:
C:\a
(etc)
I only eyeballed the file size for most tests; I did not confirm exactly.