What went wrong? Recover temp files manually?

[mef1975]

I'm doing a job where I have to edit audio wav files with Audacity. I'm using Audacity 1.2.6 with Windows XP.

I thought I had just finished working, the audio track had already been exported, and I was about to upload it to the boss's server when I realized that I forgot to put a second's worth of silence at the end...

So, I opened Audacity again, imported the wav file, put the second of silence at the end and exported it (to a different folder than it was originally). Thinking that everything is okay, I then closed Audacity and deleted its files/data folder. Then, I wanted to make sure that my wave file was in the proper folder before uploading it to the server... Dropping it into the proper folder, the computer tells me that there's a file already by that name in there, (I'm like, yeah, the old one), I chose to replace it, but now I find myself having lost most of my work.

Yup, instead of finding the wav file I thought I had dropped into this folder, I see the wav file, but only a fraction of what it should be... It's missing a lot of the work I did. I also see another file by the same name, except that, this one has -old1 written at the end. I'm like, what the heck is that? That should've been replaced! I didn't create that and where's my work? By the way, this -old1 wav file wont open up. It is said to be made up of 0k.

Then........... Ah heck, at this point, I'm so fed up, unrelated to the issue at hand and perhaps more to do with the aggravation of OCD symptoms when stress arises, Ive cleared up some more of my scarce memory, I've cleared the temporary files, cookies, and all that, I've even cleaned the registry, and scanned for viruses and malware with AVG and Malwarebytes.

Then, when I opened Audacity again, it told me that there are some temporary files that must be recovered manually (I imagine this has something to do with my cleaning the registry). I chose NOT to delete them, but I'm not sure how to recover them manually, or if they're even what I'm missing.

Also, finally, I can't help but wonder, if perhaps, Audacity caused this problem because I didn't actually save the Audacity file I used to add the silence at the end, I only exported the audio after having finished working with it. I didn't think I would have to save the Audacity file because exporting the audio as a wav file shouldn't require me to do so in order to access it, right? Well, I went through this process again to see if it would cause the same problem, but no, I can't make sense of what went wrong.

EDIT:
I found this, but it doesn't seem to be of any help...

http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... shRecovery

The temps files appear to be raw data which seem useless to me. I still don't know what went wrong in the first place. Can someone tell me???

[waxcylinder]

The basic problem is that you probably didn't actually "import" the WAV file.

There is a very dangerous, IMHO, default setting in Audacity whereby Audacity does not actually copy the WAV file in to the project, but rather relies on using it as an external source. (The developers set it this way to make things faster for "power users" - but it certainly catches out a lot of inexperienced users - you are by far from being the first person to fall into this bear-trap.)

So from the workflow you described you opened up the Project with the WAV file externally - edited the project - and then overwrote the initial WAV file with the newly created one. Mistake: it is always unwise I think in any application to actually overwrite an existing file - rather save it under a slight variant name until you are sure that you have what you need.

You write that after doing the editing you created the new WAV in a different folder and then replaced the original in the right folder. Did you just move (or drag&drop) the new WAV into the new folder - or did you, by any lucky chance, just copy it leving WAV mk2 in the folder?

If you didn't make a copy then you have almost certainly lost your work.

BTW even if you had saved a copy of the edited project you would still have lost your work - as the saved project would be relying on the original WAV file which I think you have over-written.

1) To stop this happening in the future and make Audacity actually make a real copy of the WAV file - reset your Audacity Preferences.
in 1.2.6 go to Edit>Preferences>File Formats and in the box that says "When importing uncompressed files into Audacity" check the radio button that says "Make a copy of the file before editing (safer)"

2) In future when editing (even with the "safer" option checked) I would recommend exporting the file at various key stages in the edit under slightly differing file variant names - this way you can always go back to a known point.
And in particular if you are recording an unrepeatable performance / live capture - then immediately after the capture export the prokject to a WAV file (and back this file up). This file is your "dry" master that you can always return to if the edit falls in a heap.

Sorry this isn't better news about your existing project ...

WC

[mef1975]

Overwrote the initial WAV file with the new one??? Are you serious??? Yeah, that's what it seemed like to me, but really??? So, even after exporting an edited file, closing Audacity and deleting its files, my computer is still relying on the original file that had been imported to know what the exported/edited file is? I tried this process again to see if I would come across the same problem but it came out alright (maybe cause the file I was testing then was barely half the size?) I don't know. But well, I obviously thought that exporting the edited file made it completely independent of the original source, giving me the freedom to delete the actual Audacity files, and I still find it difficult to accept that not to be true being that I went through the process again without any error... Is this really not the case? Man, I've got some stuff to learn!

You write that after doing the editing you created the new WAV in a different folder and then replaced the original in the right folder. Did you just move (or drag&drop) the new WAV into the new folder - or did you, by any lucky chance, just copy it leving WAV mk2 in the folder?

I'm not so sure I follow that one... Yeah, I created the new edited WAV file in a different folder by exporting selection as WAV. Then, I closed Audacity, deleted its files, and drag&dropped the the new edited WAV file into the folder that the old one was in. What do you mean by mk2?

Like, make a copy of the new edited WAV file, keeping it where I had it, but then drag&dropping the original new edited WAV file into the folder the old one is in? That would've prevented this problem??? Wouldn't the copy of the new edited WAV file also be relying on the orginial source which had been imported, just as the original new edited WAV file is??? Or, am I not understanding what you mean by mk2?

Anyhow, thank you so much for the knowledge and happiness! I see the settings in Preference which you mentioned, but I think I'll leave it set to (faster), knowing that I just need to free up more memory so I don't have to delete files in the process (keeping the original sources). On the other hand, the boss just said to switch it to (safer).

[waxcylinder]

Puzzled - but thanks for posting your test results - I'll give this a try when I get some time later this week.

But I really think your boss is right - the "safer" option really is much, much safer unless you really know what your'e doing.
In 1.3.x life gets a little easier as Audacity warns you that you are about to save a project with dependencies - and there is a command to show the dependencies , if any, of a project.

Audio capture and editing can consume large amounts of space, ideally not badly fragmenteed (not quite as much as video editing - but still a lot). I ensure that I retain enough work room on my PC by:

1. Record & edit in Audacity and Save projects on my internal C: drive
2. Export WAV files from the project to the C: drive
3. Load into iTunes as AAC
4. Backup the WAV files to 2 separate external 1TB USB disks
5. Optionally burn a CD from the WAVs
6. Delete the WAVs and Audacity project files from my C: drive
7. Occasionally defrag the C:drive

WC

[Gale Andrews]

I obviously thought that exporting the edited file made it completely independent of the original source, giving me the freedom to delete the actual Audacity files.
I see the settings in Preference which you mentioned, but I think I'll leave it set to (faster), knowing that I just need to free up more memory so I don't have to delete files in the process (keeping the original sources). On the other hand, the boss just said to switch it to (safer).

Exporting the edited file does make it independent of the project files and is safe as long as you don't have the preference set to "faster" and then delete the original WAV before you export. Some people do just that.

I can't really piece together what you did, but the empty -old1.wav is something that Audacity 1.2 leaves behind if you try to overwrite the original WAV when you're reading it directly. 1.2 won't actually let you do that, which people used to complain about. 1.3 does let you do that. It renames the originally imported file with an -old1 suffix and reads the project from that. So it's safe, but if you no longer want the project you have to remove the -old1 file afterwards. It's maybe something we can eventually improve if we have a way to delete projects (including dependent _data folders and files) from within Audacity.

As I've said before, I think it highly unlikely that the "safer" preference to "copy in" uncompressed files will be default in 1.3 (and 2.0 when it comes out). We've invested too much in On-Demand immediate loading of WAV files (which is turned off with the "safer" option") not to have it as default.

I do think the Dependencies Dialogue in 1.3 may be so complex that it doesn't even get across the point clearly that the project depends on the original file, and that some protection is needed for those who delete the original file as soon as they import it. That probably means (much as some of the programmers dislike warnings) a warning that can be turned off at the point you import the WAV/AIFF with the "faster" preference on.


Gale


PS I moved this into the correct Windows 1.2 Forum

[JudyLSC]

When I recorded a simple conversation in Audacity, I got a message that Windows had to shut Audacity down. I had not imported or saved anything. The error message said I could recover the file manually. So, how do I do it? I was not given the chance to do anything but close out Audacity and check the box that said to not delete the temporary file.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future? It's happened a handful of times for no apparent reason.

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using (look in "Help menu > About Audacity").
Which version of Windows are you using?

[Gale Andrews]

When I recorded a simple conversation in Audacity, I got a message that Windows had to shut Audacity down. I had not imported or saved anything. The error message said I could recover the file manually. So, how do I do it? I was not given the chance to do anything but close out Audacity and check the box that said to not delete the temporary file.

The message suggests to me you are using Audacity 1.2.X because 1.3.Beta will try to recover a crashed project automatically. You can recover the temp files manually into a single file using the Audacity Recovery Utility. If you run into any problems recovering the files, see Crash Recovery.

Is there a way to prevent this from happening in the future? It's happened a handful of times for no apparent reason.

If the crash occurs when you stop the recording, this is quite likely to happen with Windows Vista or 7 and Audacity 1.2.X. You would be better in that case to click the link above and download Audacity Beta.



Gale