Hello,
Running Audacity 2.3.2, Win7
I saw this topic on a thread from 2014, but nothing recent and I’m hoping things have changed.
Is there a setting to automatically save Audacity projects to a single user-selected folder? (Say, “Audacity Projects”.)
If so, where is this setting found?
Thanks for any information.
Audacity already does that.
By default Audacity will save your projects and send your exports to a folder called Audacity created in your Documents folder on Windows.
If you change that lacation Audacity will “remember” and reuse your last-used location.
WC
My version of Audacity does not do that.
The default “Save” folder is whatever folder the original audio (in this case, MP3 music) came from.
Also, even if I do a “Save as…” and designate a folder created by me for the purpose (“Desktop/Audacity projects”), I must do a “Save as…” and designate that folder each time for any subsequent music file I edit. The default is still whatever folder the music file came from. (I’ve just tested this and that is what happens every time.)
Yes, that’s Audacity trying to be helpful - assuming you want the changes put back where you inported (or opemed) from.
WC
So it seems that the answer to my original question is “no.” One cannot set up a default folder and have Audacity automatically send project files to that folder when user hits “Save”. Is this correct?
Yes I think you are correct.
If you have programmming skills it would be possible to modify Audacity to always Save and Export in the same location (or at lest offer that location always as defult on use of the Save or Export commands - but you would be able to temporarily change those in the Save/Export dialogs).
The current behaviors for Save and Export have been worked out over many years to satisfy most (but we know not all) users.
WC
Basically correct, though I think you could create a Nyquist Macro to save the project to a specified folder. The macro would appear in Audacity’s “Tools” menu, and optionally you could set a keyboard shortcut for it.
What’s the exact behaviour of a “Save” command that you would want?
What would be nice to see would be this:
- On first “Save As…”, user designates the destination folder. This becomes the default destination folder.
- On subsequent “Save” or “Save As…” the project file(s) are automatically saved to the default destination folder (previously designated by the user), unless user designates a different folder during the “Save As…” process. Any folder designated at this time becomes the new default folder.
Why is this useful? If a user creates projects from various folders and at different times, the project files don’t become scattered. For example, I have music files in folders according to category of music (classical, rock) and also by composer or performer (Bach; Chuck Berry). If I mix various music files from different music folders in a project, under the current system it’s hard to remember/know which music folder to look in to work on a given project, since the project is saved in the folder which was last opened for that particular project.
“File> Recent Files…” works short term, but within a couple of weeks (or less) it becomes a time-consuming guessing game. If all project files went to the same place, it would be easy.
Also, if project files are all in one folder (as I have my video project files set up in Avidemux), sometimes I browse project files for ideas for new projects. It’s so easy when they are all in one place.
Try this, but please be careful with it. I’ve only tested it on Linux.
If it works for you, test it thoroughly before relying on it.
saveas.ny (1.47 KB)
This plug-in needs to be installed in the same way as other Nyquist plug-ins (see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/installing_effect_generator_and_analyzer_plug_ins_on_windows.html#nyquist_install)
When installed and enabled, it will appear as “Save As…” in the “Tools” menu.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll give it a try.
Oops! I installed and enabled saveas.ny. It is now on the list of installed programs.
It does not work.
I followed these online instructions:
To install a Nyquist plug-in, place its “.NY” file in the Audacity “Plug-ins” folder. [DONE]
In Audacity 2.1.1 or later, use Effect > Manage… or Effect > Add / Remove Plug-Ins… to open the Effect Manager. Select the plug-in(s) you want to install, then click Enable and OK. [DONE]
When installed and enabled, it will appear as “Save As…” in the “Tools” menu.
I opened a random music file, made a couple of random changes. Then Tools > Save As… and selected desired destination folder (Audacity Projects). The project files saved to that folder, but of course this is exactly how it worked before.
I then opened a different music file, made changes, and again Tools > Save As…
The good news: the desired destination folder was already selected.
The bad news: even though I entered the name of the new music file, saveas.ny refused to save. I got a message saying that it would not allow me to overwrite a project with the same name - even though I had used different source file and changed the name accordingly. When I accepted this odd rejection by hitting OK, I got another message telling me that the file was not writable. (I disproved this by then using File > Save As…, selecting the desired destination folder, and saving the project files with no problem.)
I’ve updated the plug-in for Windows. saveas.ny
Thanks!
I’m assuming that I should uninstall the existing “saveas.ny” but I see no way to do that.
Under Tools the first option is “Add/Remove Plug-ins” but when I scroll down the list there is no “Remove” button, just “Disable”.
Is there a way to uninstall, or can I just disable and then add the updated version of “saveas.ny”?
With Audacity closed, find the “saveas.ny” file that you installed previously, and replace it with the new version.
If you’re unsure where the plug-in was installed and you installed it using the “Nyquist Plug-in Installer” tool, then you can find the location by running this code in the Nyquist Prompt:
(print (get '*system-dir* 'user-plug-in))
I’m getting confused.
You’ve said to use the prompt with Audacity closed, but according to the link you provided the prompt is “Accessed by: Tools > Nyquist Prompt…” which means that Audacity has to be open.
Also “saveas.ny” does not appear in the list of installed programs on Windows.
The only place I see it is in the downloads folder. And, as mentioned, in the list of plug-ins when I open Avidemux > Tools.
I don’t know how to proceed.
No, I said:
“With Audacity closed, find the “saveas.ny” file that you installed previously, and replace it with the new version”
I also said:
"If you’re unsure where the plug-in was installed and you installed it using the “Nyquist Plug-in Installer” tool, then you can find the location by running this code in the Nyquist Prompt: "
Obviously, to do this, you need to run Audacity, but you should close Audacity before replacing the “saveas.ny” with the new “saveas.ny” file.
Dos that make sense now?
OK, thanks for clearing that up.
I’ll give it a try.
Just tried it.
Tools > Save as… did default to the designated folder (Audacity Projects)
However, I once again got the error message “file is not writeable.”
Using File > Save as… I was able to save to any folder of my choice - but of course this defaulted to the music source folder and required finding and choosing the desired destination folder (Audacity Projects).
I notice that although my input uses single backslashes
(C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\Audacity Projects\Andrews Sisters.aup)
The error message from “Save As” shows double backslashes
(C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\Audacity Projects\Andrews Sisters.aup)
Could this be the problem?
What is the full and complete error message?