Separated Assets and Project File?

[agcpli]

Hi -

I keep a database of Audacity projects on one hard drive (Computer A). The project files, minus assets, were transferred to Computer B and then deleted off of Computer A. The assets remained on Computer A as well. Of course, the project files will not open by themselves with no assets, but when I transfer them back to Computer A, where the assets are, they do not open.

Some projects open on Computer B and say they have no assets. Some open with assets present, and some are not even recognized as files. I believe that this is the result of an improper/incomplete data transfer. However, is there ANY WAY to re-connect the assets with the projects?

Thanks!

[steve]

By "Assets" I presume that you mean "dependencies".
There is a page here that explains what makes up an Audacity project http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/File_Management_Tips

The problem that I think you are having is that the dependencies are not where Audacity expects to find them. If there is any change to names or relative positions of the Audacity Project File (the .AUP file) and the project data (both the _data folder and any dependencies), then the information in the AUP file that points to the data will be wrong. The best way to fix this is to move everything back to exactly where it was (which may not be an easy task).

The AUP file is just plain text, so it can be opened in NotePad. The format of the AUP file is XML, and within the text will be listed all of the data that the project needs. This may give you some clues as to where things need to go.

For future reference, in Audacity 1.3.12 the file handling has been much improved and it is now easy to check if there any dependencies and copy them into the project data folder. The AUP file and the data folder can then be compressed into a single zip file (requires a suitable archiving program such as IZArc or WinZip) and transported complete to another disk. See here for checking dependencies in Audacity 1.3.12 http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... ies_Dialog

[agcpli]

Thanks for your response. We had moved everything back to where it was, but the project files are still not loading.

[kozikowski]

You can open up your AUP file in a text editor and read it. It will tell you where the show or Project is expecting to find its assets.

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

Read down to "aliasfile". That's the file and folder that Audacity is expecting to find. Note there are two, one "Left" and the other "Right." That picture was generated with extra spaces and lines to make it read well. Yours will be more compact and harder to read.

Past that, you need to know that Audacity is expecting to find the AUP file and its /DATA folder in the same location. That's where splitting them up may have gotten you into trouble.

All this is based on you getting the file names right and not including any illegal file characters. Putting a slash mark or a date in the wrong place will reduce your show to trash in a hurry.

Avid? Media Composer? Final Cut? Premier?

Koz

[kozikowski]

You posted in the Audacity 1.2 forum. Are you running 1.2? Audacity 1.2 is seriously old and not supported on modern computers.

Most of the forum elves are running Audacity 1.3.12 in spite of the "Beta" warnings.

Koz