I know this has been covered before… but I’m panicking in a big way. My computer and audacity crashed… The automatic crash recovery is pulling up, but when I try… it says “Error:Not well informed (Invalid token) at line 2418”. I’ve looked everywhere to find a solution. I have all my .au files, but there are over 1400, and they seem to be in random order, and cut off in the middle of words… so I couldnt put them together if I had the time to do it! Am I screwed?? I was on the final page of a 3 hour audiobook. I’d saved hundreds of times… but now everything is gone all of a sudden.
If the computer crashed when using Audacity, that probably means there is a problem with your audio drivers or video drivers. You would need to address that or the crashes may continue to happen. Please see Audacity Manual for more information.
Please attach the AUTOSAVE file Audacity is trying to recover from. The AUTOSAVE file is at Documents and SettingsApplication DataAudacity if you are on Windows XP or at
UsersAppDataRoamingAudacity if you are on Vista or later. To see the required “Audacity” folder, make sure that Windows is set to show hidden files and folders.
If you are lucky, all you may need to do is remove an empty line at the end of the AUTOSAVE file. Please state your exact version of Audacity and Windows when you reply (see the pink panel at the top of the page).
Given you saved the project as you went along, then at a minimum you can open the last saved state of the project if the AUTOSAVE file cannot be fixed. The AU data files can be sorted into time order and renamed but that only works for a straight recording that had never been edited at all.
Audacity projects are relatively fragile. A better backup is to export a WAV file. An individual WAV file cannot exceed 4 GB in size, but three hours of 44100 Hz 16-bit mono or stereo WAV is well within that limit.
Gale
Are you saving periodic backups, the whole show under different filenames, say once every half-hour or so? So you can just go back to the last one you made and reproduce everything after that. Alternately, correct me, but doesn’t ACX have you submitting chapters? So you should still have all the chapters up to the one that crashed.
Koz
Even if Aslotz was only resaving the one project, it should still be possible to reopen the last saved state of the project, on the assumption that saved correctly.
All Aslotz would do is opt to discard the unsaved changes in the Automatic Crash Recovery dialogue, File > Close, then open the AUP file.
But it is better to take a look at the AUTOSAVE file first.
Gale
Audacity 2.0.6
Windows 8.1
Autosave file attached.
THOR final - 2015-04-14 00-43-20 N-1608.autosave (118 KB)
Try the attached. There is one track at the bottom for which the AUTOSAVE file does not reference any audio.
Gale
THOR final - 2015-04-14 00-43-20 N-1608.autosave (117 KB)
Tried to open, but box popped up stating “Project check found File inconsistencies in automatic recovery” Blocks show up in audacity with correct track names… but no audio whatsoever.
Perhaps the AU files got arranged into the wrong subfolders as a result of the crash.
Don’t save the project with the audio missing, or the data will be lost permanently. If you need to shut down the computer, it’s safest to force quit Audacity from Task Manager (CTRL + SHIFT + ESC, click “More details” if you see that, then use the “Processes” tab). That way, the Automatic Crash Recovery dialogue will reappear when you restart Audacity. Given you have no tracks on recovery, I would not try to open the saved AUP file normally right now.
Please open Help > Show Log… after trying to recover the project, save the log and attach it here.
It may also help to give us a listing of what is in C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data". To do that, hold Windows key and press X, then choose either of the “Command Prompt” items.
Type cd, then a space, then the full address of the project’s _data folder:
cd C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data
Hit ENTER.
Then type:
dir /s /o:d > listing.txt
Once the command is complete a file called “listing.txt” will appear in C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data". It should list all the files and folders that are in this _data folder, in date order. Attach that “listing.txt” file.
Gale
Hello Gale… I am attaching the log file. However, I am confused with the Command prompt listing… There is a file inside of the THOR_data file calles e00 where there are multiple more files with a d, then numbers…these contain the au files. I put in the address to the command prompt as you asked, but nothing came up. Sorry if Im doing this wrong.
log.txt (1.77 KB)
That is the old log after, you got the invalid token error.
As I said, we need to see the log after trying to recover the project. If you did a force quit of Audacity, please open Audacity again, then Recover the project, then give us the log.
Did you type cd in front of “C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data”, like this?
cd C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data
If you do that then the listing.txt will list all the AU files that are in the d00 and other “d” subfolders.
The e00 subfolder should not contain any AU files. The e00 subfolder should contain only a number of “d” subfolders.
Gale
Here is the logfile again. In the Command prompt box… it will not allow me to put the cursor in front of the C. I’ve tried and tried… Is there a trick that I’m missing?
log.txt (1.79 KB)
If you’re in the command prompt, the C is the message from the computer to you that it’s expecting you to type something after the C.
Koz
Sorry, but that is just the same log file again that would be seen after you tried to recover the project but got the invalid token error.
Please tell us exactly what you did after the project recovered without waveforms. Did you close the project and save it with no waveforms? Or have you left the project open all this time, exactly as it was recovered without waveforms?
Did you ever edit this project, such as amplify it or cut pieces out? Or have you never done anything but record?
Gale
That is what I thought I did. I started audacity… The recovery box came up… I told it to recover the project, then the token error box came up. I closed it, and went to the log and saved. Thats when it was open with no waveforms. I’ve never saved it… Just closed out. And yes… I was normalizing as I went along. So there WAS editing done.
Usually you would quit Audacity after the first recovery gave the token error, in order to open Audacity again so that it could use the repaired AUTOSAVE file.
Or did you leave Audacity running and use File > Open… to open the repaired AUTOSAVE file? If opening the repaired AUTOSAVE file gave no error, that would explain why you still had the token error showing in the log. But I would expect errors in the log if the audio is not present.
Is the project still open now with only the track names and no audio?
I think you’ll have to provide the directory listing as I suggested. You could also open the _data folder in Explorer, use ALT + PrtScr to capture an image, open Paint, Paste, then save as a PNG file and attach the image.
But you would then have to double-click the “e00” folder to open that, make another image to show what is in “d00”, open the “d00” folder then make another image to show what is in “d00”, and so on.
It is much better to provide the directory listing. Try this. Hold down SHIFT on your computer keyboard and right-click over the C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data folder. Choose “Open command window here”. Now you should see a prompt:
C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data>
When you type, your typed text appears after the “>”. Just type:
dir /s /o:d > listing.txt
and hit ENTER on your computer keyboard.
You won’t see any text on the screen, but look in the “C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data” folder. Do you see the “listing.txt” file?
Gale
Here it is!
listing.txt (76.7 KB)
Is the project still open now with only the track names and no audio?
The basic problem is that the AU files in C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data are nothing to do with the AU files listed in the AUTOSAVE file. I checked twelve files listed in the AUTOSAVE and none of them are in the _data folder.
Please attach C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final.AUP (this should be the project state as per the last time you saved it successfully).
Then open File Explorer and in the list tree on the left, select “Computer”. Near top right, in the box where it says “Search Computer”, type in the name of the first AU file mentioned in the AUTOSAVE file (this one):
e0000f9d.au
If File Explorer finds it, tell us the full path to that file starting with the drive letter, for example, starting with C:.
Gale
Attached is the THOR final.AUP file.
I found a file labeled e0000fd9.au, just the d and the 9 are switched from what you asked for. Is this right? Here is the full path:
C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_datae00d00
Thanks again
Tony
THOR final.aup (111 KB)
That “e0000fd9.au” file is in your “THOR final_data” folder as you said, but not listed in the AUP file or the AUTOSAVE file.
The AUP file and AUTOSAVE file are very similar and appear to be referencing AU files which simply are not in the “C:UsersTonyDesktopTHORTHOR final_data” folder. You need to find the AU files that are listed in the AUP and AUTOSAVE files. “e0000f9d.au” is an example of one of those.
If you have File History turned on then you can restore older versions of the THOR final_data folder, or find other backed up folders where “e0000f9d” is.
This doesn’t explain what happened beyond that the crash caused the THOR final_data folder to be renamed or to contain incorrect content. Have you listened carefully to some of the AU files currently in the “THOR final_data folder” and do you think that folder actually contains the audio you want?
Gale
So I’m thinking I should discard when the recovery box comes up? Will that take me to a previously saved version of the file?