recording wiped and new drop out track has appeared - help

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I am new to audacity and have no skills beyond record and play back! I tried opening a file today and found the audio recording had been wiped somehow. no evidence of anything being recorded anymore though I know it had been. a new track appeared underneath the recording I made previously. which showed ‘drop outs’ at the top of the left hand box, instead of ‘audio track’. can you anyone help me get my recording back? I don’t know how this happened. thank you

2

What kind of file?

Which version of Audacity are you using? (Look in “Audacity menu > About Audacity”).

3

hi, thanks for responding. it is an audio file, WAV. I think though they sometimes appear as AUP

I think it is version 2.4.1

does that help?

4

The difference between a WAV file and an AUP file is very important.

A WAV file is an audio file, but an AUP file isn’t. An AUP file is part of an Audacity project - or to be more precise, part of an Audacity project for Audacity versions before Audacity 3.0.0. (The format for Audacity projects changed in Audacity 3.0.0, and the new project format uses “AUP3” files).

For Audacity 2.4.2 and earlier, there are two parts to an Audacity project. There is a small “AUP” file, and also a folder that contains the audio data. For example, if you save a project as “MyProject”, then there will be a file called “MyProject.aup” and a folder called “MyProject_data”. Both parts are essential.


That sounds like you tried to open an AUP file after deleting, moving or renaming the project’s “_data” folder. Was there an error message?

5

hi
no.it is the audio file, I can see it is a WAV file. it used to have visible indications of the recording, jagged blue lines to indicate sound, but now it is just empty. it doesn’t look like file that is new and about to be recorded, just one that has recorded an hour of silence! I think it may be something to do with the new track that appeared underneath, the drop out track. I didn’t apply this intentionally, I must’ve pressed something in error.

thanks

6

Sorry but I have no idea how that can happen. Files don’t just change for no reason.

If you can provide steps to reproduce the problem them maybe we will be able to help, otherwise it is a total mystery.

7

I know, it has never happened before. total mystery…
I have accepted it is gone now. I will be more careful in future