Hi,
I have been recording a radio 4 series on Audacity for a decade or more and historically I have saved on memory stick and they play back fine but recently I saved on a SS hard drive it says “file is unsupported or extension incorrect” any ideas why? Interestingly some of the earlier recordings played fine after copying from memory stick onto SS hard drive but none of the recent recordings play whether saved straight to SS hard drive or copied from memory stick on to SS hard drive. All programs, old and recent play properly when saved to memory stick.
If there is a problem with the file system why do all the older recordings play on the SS hard drive but not the recent ones?
I would really appreciate some advice if someone can spare a few moments to explain.
Isn’t the series available on BBC iPlayer? If so, save yourself the bother of recording at all.
Numerous posts I’ve seen from the Audacity forum moderators advise against saving straight to any external device. Of course, that does not account for it working in the past but not now. It’s still good advice though.
What type of file is it, an aup3 file? What is the extension (if not aup3)? Is the external drive formatted as FAT32 and your project file is bigger than 4GB, for example?
Can you elaborate on any differences between the old and new files?
It is an odd scenario to be sure.
Mark B
Hi Mark B,
Thanks so much for taking the trouble to respond - much appreciated. I’m afraid I am not too computer literate but I think Audacity saves as either wav or mp3. What I find puzzling is that when I save to a memory stick, it plays perfectly, even the latest programs. But when I either save directly to a SS hard drive or (save to a memory stick and then copy to a SS hard drive), then I can’t play but bizarrely older programs saved to a memory stick and then copied to SS hard drive will play.
Unfortunately I have not been able to locate on iPlayer and in any event I don’t think I could get the older ones.
I am not sure what file system the SS hard drive uses, I did try formatting but didn’t know what systen it used.
Anyway, I will keep trying and once again, many thanks for your help.
Kind regards
Strictly speaking Audacity saves as AUP3 files and exports as mp3, wav or several other formats but I know what you mean. My approach would be to save the recordings to your internal hard drive as Audacity projects and carry out any editing you might need to do. Once you are completely happy with them export to mp3/wav or whatever. You could save space by deleting the Audacity projects when you are certain no more needs to be done to them. If you like to have options, also have a look at Ocenaudio. It saves directly as wav, mp3 etc and doesn’t use its own format. It’s fast, free and stable too. I use both.
If you want to send me a private message telling me what the programme is, I will have a look on iPlayer for the series you like. I have some spooky magic I can use. 
Mark B
I even do not know what computer you use, since you did not mention anything about it (or I just did not see it). Is it a Mac (what OS-version), something running any flavour of Linux, something running any version of Windows?
If you format your drive, you lose everything which is stored on it… Also your older recordings.
And you won’t be able to format the drive from which your computer started…
Hi romontschun,
Thank you for responding. Sorry for not mentioning it but I am using a Lenovo laptop running Windows 11, and I formatted the new external SS hard drive prior to saving anything on it.
When I finish recording the program I use “file”, “export audio” and “Export”
The program I have been trying to save is “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue” and after saving lots of them on memory sticks I thought it better to transfer onto one SS hard drive.
Thanks for your help, I really appreciate you taking the time to help.
Kind regards,
I didn’t manage to find any on iPlayer but it was worth a shot.
Mark B
“I didn’t manage to find any on iPlayer but it was worth a shot”.
I usually find it on BBC Sounds for a week or so following transmission, I think it is one of the funniest comedy programs and have recorded these from the seventies!!
I don’t know what format is used in Windows 11 when formatting a newly-acquired drive. It may be FAT32, although NTFS is the standard for an internal drive to be used for installing your operating system on it. If you do not need to share that external drive with some computers using other operating systems, format the drive in NTFS. Otherwise you could use exFAT, which can be written and read by Linux and Mac as well.
FAT32 cannot handle any file with a size bigger than 4 GB. And I think I read on this forum that Audacity even can not write to a FAT32-formatted drive at all, regardless of the file size. Someone with more insight to this could please clarify.
If you are only referring to playing a previously recorded file, you have two possibilities/choices:
- the “link” between the file extension (such as .wav, .mp3, etc.) and the program which should open the file may be broken or the program may no longer be on your system. Then, either re-establish the link or install a program which can use these files.
- Try to open the file from within Audacity, either using the menu “File → open” or “File → Import → Audio”.
Good luck!