I recently started to get really big project files after the last update. A project file for me was before about 2,5 GB and now it more the 7,5 GB, I also have a raw clip 30 sec, i.e. no extra features just plain studio recording of voice with a size of 2,5 gb does anybody else have the same problem and knows how to fix this? or is the only solution to delete the project files after I am done. Running out of disc space fast!!!
You have to do editing and production on the internal drive, but after you close Audacity, you can push the files to wherever you want. Move the files back to the local drive, open audacity, and keep editing.
My office machine has a 6TB USB drive.
Depending on what you’re producing, you might be able to break the show up into segments. For example, ACX allows production of fractional chapters. You should announce in the chapter title what you’re doing.
“Chapter Four, Part Two.”
After how many edits? Audacity makes a total show copy at each edit.
Jury’s out on the Audio.com backups. There have been some interesting problems and confusion about that.
Koz
Thx for the response.
Of course moving the file is an option, but I am wondering why it is so much bigger now than before. Same length of recording and same kind of editing with the triple amount of space needed, sounds like something is wrong don’t you think?
Could it be a setting that is changed or is it something wrong with this version of the Audacity?
30 second recording, no edit, no filters, one track = 2,5 gb of space needed?
Sounds like something fishy to me 
My guess is that you did not start with a new fresh project, so the project contains “Undo data” from whatever you were doing previously.
To get a new, fresh project, either:
- “File menu > New”
- Exit Audacity and re-launch.
I’ve done one multitrack music project with 3.6 (started with 3.6.2, updated to 3.6.3 once that came out), and the files are getting huge because Audacity isn’t compacting when closing the file. If I save a backup, the backup is the size it should be. Try that and see if the backup ends up being the size you expect; if so, you may be running into the same problem.
I did experience the famous issue of Audacity crashing on exit fairly early in the project, so it might be possible that the crash and subsequent recovery damaged the file in such a way as to prevent Audacity from recognizing that it needed compacting, even after later changes. We’ll see how the next project goes. In the meantime, it’s a bit cumbersome to back up the project, close, rename the giant project file to something else, rename the backup to the main project name, open the (formerly backup) project, and then delete the giant project file once I’ve confirmed that the (formerly backup) project is good, but it does at least recover the wasted disk space.
When saving a backup, any “Undo” data in the project is excluded from the saved copy. Similarly, when you save a project (normal save) and then close the project, any Undo data is discarded.
In short, if the project does contain a lot of Undo data, you should see the project shrink when you either close the project, or quit Audacity.
Yes, that’s how Audacity has worked for a long time, and since the start of the single project file in 3.x, there’s been a compaction step that happens when closing the file. At least, up to 3.5.x. Neither 3.6.2 nor 3.6.3 does the compaction; it just leaves the file huge, yet when you reopen it, there’s no undo history.
Is Audacity crashing on exit (when you quit the program)?
Sometimes it crashes, yes, and as someone else reported in the forum, 3.6.3 has not fixed the crash-on-exit problem. But even when it doesn’t crash, it doesn’t compact the file.
I was wondering if the lack of compaction was due to Audacity crashing before it could compact, but from further testing it appears to be unrelated.
I had hoped that it would be possible to revert to an earlier version of Audacity, but Audacity 3.6.0 refuses to open a project that was created with 3.6.2, saying that a more recent version is required.
I’m now hoping that this is a bug and not intentional. I’ll log it as a bug and see what the developers say.
The only workaround I’ve found is to open the project in DB Browser for SQLite and use that to compact the project. In my test, it shrank the reported size from 2.4 GB to 458,752 bytes (the expected size).
I have logged the issue here: Database sometimes not being compacted · Issue #7312 · audacity/audacity · GitHub
If you wish to add any additional information to that bug report, you can do so with a free GitHub account.
Thank you.
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