I have a Mac0S version 10.12 and a new computer. I had saved the podcast episodes I’d edited using Audacity to my Dropbox folder. (I don’t know exactly which version of Audacity I had on my old computer, but I’ve been editing my podcast using Audacity since 2018.) I installed the new version of Audacity on my new Mac. I went to Dropbox and downloaded one podcast episode I wanted to give a final edit before releasing on Monday. When I tried to drag that aup file into the new version of Audacity on my laptop, I got the following message: “Couldn’t find the project data folder.” I downloaded the data file for that podcast episode.
Here’s my question: How do I get the episodes I’d edited using an older version of Audacity into the current version of Audacity. I just want to give each of these episodes one more edit. I’ve read through the message boards here and didn’t see this addressed.
I know some of this is going to be old news, but scan through it anyway.
That’s an Audacity Project. They both have to be in the same location or folder, they have to have the same name and it has to be the name you gave them inside Audacity. You can’t change the name later. You can’t put the AUP file inside the _DATA folder.
If you don’t remember what the original name was, you can open the AUP file in a text editor (do not save anything) and read it (red box).
If you saved everything and just pushed it up to the cloud, you should be able to just pull it all back down and open the shows. You may not use the cloud as a disk drive. Audacity doesn’t do that very well. Pull the works over to one of your internal drives.
It’s not a good idea to use Audacity Projects for archive for just the problem you’re having. Export the works as WAV (MIcrosoft) 16-bit and archive that. WAV files are perfect, stable and will open on all three computer platforms. They will not carry shows with more channels than two (stereo) and they won’t do super long shows (multiple hours).
That’s not to say you shouldn’t archive both the Project and the WAV file. You can. The WAV file is the desperation method when and if the Project will not open.
Another New User mistake is take one performance all the way through recording, processing, editing, export and posting. Any serious mistake anywhere in the process and you will be reading or singing the work again. Mistakes can take you all the way back to setting up the microphones again.
Export a WAV of each raw, original performance and hold it as safety backup.
Even audiobooks which demand submission in MP3, we recommend exporting as WAV in addition. You can’t edit an MP3 without causing some sound damage.
