Audacity Forum

katy wrote:I'm having the same problem as above ... I checked and found I had the aliasfile issue, too. I'd like to be able to fix this so that I'm able to use my files without the drive plugged in. Can anyone give me any more detail / explicit instructions as to how to fix this? I'm still running 1.2.6, but as soon as I resolve this I'll be upgrading. (Or would that take care of it now?) Thanks!

Upgrading now might fix it.

You can have 1.2.x and 1.3.x installed at the same time. They reference different prefs/config files. But version 1.3 projects cannot be opened in 1.2, so work slowly and carefully.

Install 1.3.9.
Make sure your external drive is plugged in.
Launch 1.2.6 then open the project. Is everything OK? If so, close the project without saving changes. If not, come back to the forum and we'll try the hard way.
Launch 1.3.9 then open the project. Audacity will warn you that if you save the project you won't be able to open it in 1.2. Choose to open the project.
Audacity may find "orphaned block files" - choose to silently work around them (just to be safe).
Click on File > Save As and save the new version of the project in its own folder with a new name. Audacity may warn you that the project depends on external files and ask if you want to copy them into the project - choose to do so.
If, in the above step, Audacity does not warn you about external files, Click on File > Check Dependencies. Audacity will find the files on your external drive that the project "depends" on, and offer to copy them into the project. Choose to do so.
Your project should now be "self-contained" and should work without the external drive connected.

To avoid this problem in the future when using version 1.3.9 or higher, go to Edit > Preferences > Import/Export > When importing audio files and check the radio button for "Make a copy of uncompressed audio files before editing (safer)"

Good luck, and please let us know if this works.

-- Bill