Lost all sound after changing the .aup file name

[travis28]

The project is a foreign language conversation lesson. I had used the project several times without making any changes before this problem occurred.

Today I decided to change the name of the file from "Travis2.aup" to "Yamada Method 1.aup" (bad idea).

I also changed the name of the _data folder from "Travis2_data" to "Yamada Method 1_data"

When I attempted to open the file I got the message "Couldn't find the project data folder: Travis2_data"

So, I changed the folder name back to Travis2_data. Now it opens the project, but there is no sound. I can see the tracks and the sound wave data, but no sound comes out during playback.

I have rebooted the computer twice. I can play back other audacity projects without problem. I converted the project to WAV and this new wave file had no sound either. I tried changing the filename back to the original, but that does not help.

I have already invested a lot of time into this project. I will be very disappointed if I cannot get the sound back. If anyone has an idea please let me know... -Travis28

[kozikowski]

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/aup1.jpg

This is a simple AUP file in graphic form. Note that the name of the AUP file a well as the names of all the components of the show are burned into the code. You can't change anything once you start to edit an Audacity Project.

If you're not up to editing your own AUP file in WordPad -- which people actually do successfully, changing the directories and filenames around -- then you need to put everything, everything back exactly where it was and in the original file names.

Koz

[kozikowski]

One note, if you have the blue Audacity waveforms on your timeline, that just means you got the first two AU files inside the /Data folder working. Those two files are graphic files and draw the waves on your screen.

It's totally possible to have the blue waves and no show.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

To which should be added Koz' normal excellent advice to Export your project as a WAV file. As you have discovered Audacity projects can be brittle and easily damaged.

1. always good to Export the raw capture audio as a WAV file (especially if this is a one-off capture as in your case). Backup the WAV and lock both copies away. This way you can always go back to your pre-edited master capture.

2. if you are doing a lot of editing on a project you may want to export safety copies at key staging posts in your edit process - give the similar project names but with idicators in the file name to remind you what stage the edit is at.

3. Export the final project as a WAV file and back it up. Even if your target production format is a highly compressed MP3 file I would still recommend also exporting the final production WAV for potential future use.

WC

[travis28]

Thanks so much for the quick and informative replies. Reading the replies gave me hope and got me to thinking about how Audicity works. Another "bad" thing I had done was to move the project into a new folder. But I found a .bak file in the original folder. It works! And it is the completed project! I am back in business. I have already made back up copies, exported a WAV and exported the labels as text.

A success story!

[waxcylinder]

Phew, you are very lucky - most people fail with the situation you found yourself in - ironically, as Koz often points oiut, it is the tidy-minded ones who carefully delete and re-file that suffer the most.

Glad you got it sorted ok.

WC

[kozikowski]

Trust me, the professionally messy people never have this problem....

Koz