I was responding to a post wondering about the correct order to Save Projects and Export Files. I didn’t have Audacity 3.1.3 installed and now I do. I’m running MacOS 10.13.6.
I generated a one-second pink noise “show” and File > Save Project > Save Project > Desktop > “ProjectTest”.
The WAL file goes away when I close Audacity, but the goal was to do additional work without closing Audacity.
???
Koz
The “WAL” file is a temporary file. It holds database transactions that have not yet been committed to the AUP3 database.
(WAL = Write-Ahead-Log)
On closing the database, any data that is still in the WAL file that belongs to the current state of the project, is committed (written) to the AUP3 before closing.
On Windows there is also a temporary “SHM” file. This acts as a kind of index for the database (only required by Windows).
See also: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/audacity_projects.html#temp
It shouldn’t matter, but probably safest to export raw recordings as soon as possible.
The “WAL” file is a temporary file. It holds database transactions that have not yet been committed to the AUP3 database.
So there is a danger of sending an AUP3 Project to someone and not having it all get there?
Isn’t that uncomfortably close to me sending someone my “AUP sound file” without the _DATA folder.
Koz
Yes, if the project has previously been saved (so that the AUP3 is visible) and the project is open in Audacity.
except that when the project is closed, it resolves down to a single AUP3 file, which is much easier to handle than an AUP + _DATA.