missing data block files - 3 options - HELP!

Hello. so here is what happened. I recorded something and saved it to my computer as a AUP. Later on i made a copy of the original track and started to edit the copy track. I saved it also as an AUP and closed audacity. Now when i open the copy it states “couldnt find the project data folder” and when i try to open the original recording i get an error message “missing audio data blockfiles - project check detected 100 missing audio data (.au) blockfiles . . .” It also gives me 3 options close immediately, treat missing files as silence(this session only), and replace missing audio with silence permanently. Does anyone know how this happened or how i can fix this? I see the data files. They are all in about 5 second sections in the _data folder. Im just not sure what to do now. Am I doomed? Thank you for any help you can give me.

Windows 10
recorded track on audacity 1.3.13 - beta (unicode) but i have now downloaded audacity 2.1.2

Firstly, don’t panic :wink:

Important: Do not select the “replace missing audio with silence permanently” option.

Let’s look at “what happened”:

So this is after you had successfully saved the project, and now you have tried to save a project made with a copy of the original track, and “something” has gone wrong.

We need to be careful here so as to avoid overwriting data, so we’ll do this slowly a step at a time. I suspect that you may have inadvertently overwritten some data somewhere, but I’m not sure exactly what or how, so we need to look carefully at what exactly you did, then hopefully we will be able to recover at least one of the projects.

Some background to how it all works:

When you make a recording, Audacity writes the audio data to disk as lots of small (about 1MB) files. These are called “blockfiles” (each file is a block of audio data).

If the project has never been saved, Audacity writes these blockfiles into a temporary directory.
When the project is saved, Audacity creates a “project file” (the “AUP” file) and a “_data” folder. Audacity copies the blockfiles from the temporary folder into the “_data” folder, and creates a project file which says how the blockfiles should be put together. Finally, if that was successful, Audacity then clears the temporary blockfiles from the temp folder.

For example, if you save a project as “my-project”, then Audacity will create a project file called “my-project.aup” and a folder for the blockfiles called “my-project_data”.

If the project had been saved at some time, then when recording, editing or processing, Audacity writes blockfiles directly into the “_data” folder and does not use the temporary folder. When the project is closed, any old temporary blockfiles that are no longer used in the project, are deleted from the _data folder, leaving only the data that is actually used by the project.

Is this clear so far?

As stated above, the project data folder is automatically given a name that matches the name of the project file. The project file (.AUP) holds instructions for Audacity about how to put together the project. These instructions include telling Audacity where to find the data files. For example, if the project was called “my-project”, then in “my-project.aup” there will be instructions telling Audacity to get blockfiles from the “my-project_data” folder.

The error message is telling you that when Audacity tries to open the “copy” project, it can’t find the “copy” _data folder.

How exactly did you do that?

Just to add, Help > Show Log… in the copy project will list the missing file names and tell you the subfolder in the _data folder where Audacity expected to find the missing files.


Gale

Steve,
I made a copy of the original recording by going into this PC > Music. I then right clicked on the original recording and selected copy. I then right clicked randomly in the music folder and selected paste. After i did that i opened the copy recording as to not mess with the original. The copy opened up and everything was fine. I edited the recording and when i was done for the night i clicked “save” and i closed the program. no warnings popped up or anything. It seemed to work fine as it has in the past. But when i came back to it a few days later i started getting the missing block files warning. i havent deleted anything or moved anything. It is just very strange. I know have a better understanding on how Audacity works Thank you for teaching me. What should i do next?

Gale,
I clicked on Help > show log and i get this. . .
06:44:51: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘MainPanelFunc’ in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
06:44:59: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
06:44:59: mLibAVFormatPath (‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’) is not empty. Loading from it.
06:44:59: Looking up PATH environment variable…
06:44:59: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Startup Setting Tool;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\Common Files\NeatReceipts\Drivers\M12;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem'
06:44:59: Checking that ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity’ is in PATH…
06:44:59: Warning: FFmpeg directory is not in PATH.
06:44:59: Temporarily appending ‘;C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity’ to PATH…
06:44:59: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avutil_version’ in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
06:45:01: avformat not monolithic
06:45:01: Loading avutil from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-50.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-50.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avcodec from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll’.
06:45:01: Returning PATH to previous setting…
06:45:01: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avutil_version’ in a dynamic library (error 5: access is denied.)
06:45:01: Actual avutil path
06:45:01: Error: Couldn’t find symbol ‘avcodec_version’ in a dynamic library (error 5: access is denied.)
06:45:01: Actual avcodec path
06:45:01: Actual avformat path C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-55.dll
06:45:01: Importing symbols…
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load symbol av_write_header
06:45:01: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Looking up PATH environment variable…
06:45:01: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Startup Setting Tool;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\Common Files\NeatReceipts\Drivers\M12;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem'
06:45:01: Checking that ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity’ is in PATH…
06:45:01: Warning: FFmpeg directory is not in PATH.
06:45:01: Temporarily appending ‘;C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity’ to PATH…
06:45:01: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avutil from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-50.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avutil-50.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avcodec from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avcodec-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avformat from ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\FFmpeg for Audacity\avformat-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Returning PATH to previous setting…
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
06:45:01: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Looking up PATH environment variable…
06:45:01: PATH = 'C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files (x86)\Sony\VAIO Startup Setting Tool;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files\Common Files\NeatReceipts\Drivers\M12;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem'
06:45:01: Checking that ‘’ is in PATH…
06:45:01: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
06:45:01: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avutil from ‘avutil-50.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avutil-50.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avcodec from ‘avcodec-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avcodec-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Loading avformat from ‘avformat-52.dll’.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-52.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
06:45:01: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
06:45:01: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

What exactly was it that you copied? Did you copy an “audio file” (such as a WAV or MP3 file exported from your original project), or the “entire project” (the AUP file and its associated _data folder), or just the AUP file, or something else?

The safe way to make a copy of a “project”, is to open the project in Audacity, then “File menu > Save Project As”, and save the project with a new name (the newly named project thus being a copy of the original project and having its own “AUP” file and “_data” folder).

Did you copy and paste the AUP file, _data folder or both, and did you paste in the same folder as the original project?

If you pasted both AUP file and _data folder in the same folder, then you will corrupt original and copied project as soon as you edit and save the copy. I would expect you to receive “Missing _data folder” error when you reopen the copied project, and “missing block files” error when you reopen the original project. Please confirm about the copy and paste and the errors you receive.

Doing copy / paste in the same folder, the copied _data folder does not get the same name as the copied AUP file. Also, AUP files have a line that tells Audacity the name of the _data folder. If you pasted in the same folder, the name of the _data folder in the copied AUP file is now wrong, because of the name change to the copied _data folder.

There are prominent warnings in the Manual not to do operating system Copy / Paste in the same folder. You can copy / paste into a different folder (which preserves the original names of AUP file and _data folder), or the safest way is File > Save Project As… in Audacity itself.

Your log is from 1.3.13 I assume, because of the “MainPanelFunc” error which does not occur in 2.1.2. If that was all the log, it does not show us anything. The only useful log you could post at the moment would be the log after you reopen the original project.

You could rename the _data folder of the copied project to have the same name as the copied AUP file, then that copied project would open, but I would expect that copy to show missing block files too. If you do that, also post the log for opening the copied project.



Gale

Steve, I found your first reply in this thread very helpful to understand how the file structure works. However, I did not ‘make a copy’ like the original poster did and the rest of the discussion went off on that tangent. I have the same problem though. How do I correct how my .aup is trying to put the blockfiles back together? The .aup file and the _data folder are in the same directory. I’ve been using Audacity for five years and never run into this. What do you suggest?

@theelderwand » Please start a new topic (rather than resurrecting a 4 year old topic), and attach your .aup file to the post
(see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)