Last week, I started making the audio (let’s call it project 1) for a song to a video. Project 1 consists of a instrumental part to the song (a mp3 I downloaded from the Internet) along with a series of recordings (using a microphone). Since my song is a spinoff of a real song, I also added the real song as one of the tracks for project 1.
After finishing the recordings for project 1, I duplicated it (let’s call it project 2). I was planning on autotuning my singing in project 2.
I also made sure that both project 1 & 2 were saved to their latest revisions. Afterwards, I started downloading a few more Audacity plug-ins (vst) so I could start autotuning, although I’m not sure if they all were properly downloaded. I didn’t, however, experience any computer crashes.
Shortly, I tried opening project 1 & 2 and was surprised to see this. Project 1 said I had 98 missing audio data (.au) blockfile(s), probably due to a bug, system crash, or accidental deletion. For the actions, I usually selected “Close project immediately with no further changes.” For project 2, (although I’m not sure if this is because I accidentally clicked on some option) it said ‘Couldn’t find project data folder: “project 2_data”’.
I went to consult the web and this forum, and I wish I’d known to save my projects as .wav files (I’m pretty new to Audacity). On the Crash Recovery Wiki page, I read about how I should find the .aup file, assuming I saved my project accordingly, but I’m not sure what that means. I also read about how I should rename the file and file folder so that they both have the same names, but again, not quite sure how to do that.
So I was wondering where I should start/ how should I fix this? It would be nice if I could retrieve the file, intact. I have Audacity 2.0.5 on Windows 7 with a 64-bit Operating System.
As described here http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/audacity_projects.html an Audacity project consists of a project file with the file extension “.AUP” and separately there is the audio data. For recordings and imported MP3 files the audio data will all be in the “_data” folder. So, if your project was called (for example) “project 1”, then you should have a file called “project 1.aup” and a folder called “project 1_data”.
Note that default behavior on Windows (and Mac) is to hide certain file extensions ; if this applies, the .aup file will only appear as “project 1” in the computer. On Windows, the .aup extension will be hidden if Audacity was installed from the .exe installer and “Hide file extensions for known file types” remains checked in Windows Explorer. You can unhide extensions on Windows by following these instructions: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/865219
The .AUP file and the _data folder must be kept together in the same folder. For example, if “project 1.aup” is in /Documents/audacity stuff/ then “project 1_data” must also be in /Documents/audacity stuff/
Do you have both the .AUP file and the associated _data folder?
Yes, for project 1. I 'm not sure why I don’t see the data folder for project 2, but it should be fine since I can always redo the audio enhancements. So should I just create a new folder, with any old name, and place the .aup and _datafolder for project 1 within it?
The _data folder name must match the contents of the .AUP file that it belongs with.
Here is a short example of part of an AUP file (test-project-001,aup)
If the data is not in a folder called “test-project-001_data” and that folder is in the same directory as the AUP file, then Audacity will not be able to find the data.
Audacity projects are complex structures and can easily be broken if you don’t handle them correctly. Please read this article for a full account of managing projects Audacity Manual
If you did that by copy and paste within the same folder, you run the risk of destroying one or both projects, as warned in many places in the documentation. The reason is that the AUP project file and the _data folder will be renamed, but the reference to the _data folder in the AUP file will remain as it was, so will now be incorrect.
File > Save Project As… from within Audacity is the safest solution. When you Save Project As a new name, the project that has the previous name is closed as it was last saved, and you continue working on the project that has the new name.
Yes if you create a new folder, then you can copy the AUP file and _data folder then paste into the new folder. This works because it does not rename the AUP file or _data folder.
So I put the data folder and file in the same folder, but I still get the same results (window saying I have missing audio data).
Later I read the below link, and it suggested that I find the missing files. Then i would have to put those files back in the correct folders. Should I do this?
Audacity cannot find the missing files itself. Look at Help > Show Log… to see a list of the missing files and to see which folder in the _data folder you will have to restore the files to.
If you mean the AUP file yes you can attach that and the Log if you get stuck.
You will have to open Windows Explorer or your usual file manager.
Open the folder “C:UsersSharon & JennyMusicCounting Spores Audio StuffCounting Spores Audio_data”.
Open the “e00” folder within that. You should see “d00” and “d01” folders.
Find the AU files that are listed as “missing” in the log then place each one in the “d00” or “d01” folder according to the path that’s given for that file in the log.
There is a rule that makes this easy to do. The fifth character (fourth number) in the name of the AU file always indicates the “d” folder it belongs in. In your case, if the fifth character in the name of the AU file is a “0”, put that file in the “d00” folder. If the fifth character is a “1”, put that file in the “d01” folder.