LOST PROJECTS

[sanlorenzo]

Hello Audacity Team and thanks for helping me to fix my CD burning problems. After five wasted CDs I have now got the knack of it.
BUT the goblins are still with me! I spent all day restoring a very scratched LP and splitting it into tracks, I then closed the project with the intention of burning the CD the following day. When I re-opened the project I got this message: Couldn't find the project data folder and when I clicked on the OK I got Unable to open project file. When I tried to open the aup.bak file (after all, back-ups should be there for such an eventuality, or perhaps not??) the file did open, but the waveforms were all broken up, the track numbers had disappeared and an Audacity Error notice appeared saying Can't open file C: etc etc (error 2: impossible find specified file).

Technical help would be greatly appreciated, also perhaps someone has an anti-goblin remedy (garlic, parsley...)!

Sanlorenzo

[Gale Andrews]

The .aup.bak isn't what you think - it's a copy of the project at the previously saved state, but without the _data folder in its previously saved state. So when you open the .aup.bak using the current _data folder you get the kind of errors you see. It was a silly idea that has been ditched now in Audacity Beta.

If you read File Management Tips you can probably work out why the project won't open. The _data folder needs to be in the same folder as the .aup file it belongs to. The _data folder should also have the same name as that you originally saved it as. To find out what that name is, make a copy of the .aup file to be safe, then open the .aup in Notepad and look for projname= near the top.


Gale

[kozikowski]

<<<I then closed the project with the intention of burning the CD the following day.>>>

You used the wrong words. "I then Saved the Project and closed it." If you didn't Save the Project, you never created the AUP file, _DATA folder and all the little snippet files that make up your show. In effect, the show will vanish.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

If you didn't Save the Project, you never created the AUP file

We can only go on what the user said, which is that he re-opened the project. If he hadn't saved it, he couldn't have re-opened it and got the message he did.

What Koz may be trying to say is that it's prudent to File > Export as WAV and if you wish, export any label track in the project. Those backups are less subject to moving and renaming problems.



Gale

[sanlorenzo]

When I first recorded the LP I "Saved the project as.....xyz" I worked on the project all day with many interruptions (lunch, drinks, other business etc) and each time I closed the project by clicking on File > Close and then on OK when asked whether I wanted to save the changes. The project re-opened without any problems and with ALL the changes, track numbers in place whenever I resumed work, EXPECT when I tried to do so on the following morning. I shall try and find out what happened by studying the File Managment Tips, but have little hope. As for recovering the work done.........

Bye from a very depressed
Sanlorenzo

PS: Would you suggect installing the Beta?

[kozikowski]

<<<What Koz may be trying to say>>>

Not at all. I'm trying to say the user never explicitly Saved the Project except as a byproduct of closing.

<<<which is that he re-opened the project. >>>

No. He said he tried to open the Project and the computer failed to do so and no parts of the project were available or visible.

<<<Unable to open project file. >>>

Can we assume that the day long activities involved putting the computer to sleep and overnight the computer was turned off? Or worse, overnight was the first time Audacity was actually closed?

Koz

[kozikowski]

To specifically answer your question, Yes, I think this may be an odd result of using a very old Audacity. Try again with Audacity 1.3.12.

http://audacityteam.org/download/

You don't have to uninstall 1.2. You can install both, but Audacity 1.3 Projects will not open in 1.2.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

... I spent all day restoring a very scratched LP ...

You should have a look at Brian Davies' excellent ClickRepar software - it costs $40 but is well worth it IMHO - he does let you have a 21-day free trial so you can see if it works for you.

See this sticky thread: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1994

I basically record in Audacity (one side of an LP at a time), export a WAV of the whole project, process that WAV through ClickRepair (takes typically 3 minutes or so), re-import the repaired WAV file into Audacity for cleaning the inter-track gaps, and labelling & splitting into tracks and multiple export.

And BTW, note that during this whole process I never need to bother to Save an Audacity project - I get my original WAV from initial capture as a raw backup and the whole process is so quick and smooth I never need to gos to the bother of Saving.

WC

[sanlorenzo]

[quote="kozikowski"]<<<What Koz may be trying to say>>>

I'm trying to say the user never explicitly Saved the Project except as a byproduct of closing.

But I DID save the project (and also shut down the computer) even though not "esplicitly". But surely if the programme asks whether one wants to save the changes to the project and one answers in the affermative one must assume that the project is indeed saved, even if "only" as a byproduct.
But that lies in the past.

What I should very much like to know whether in your (Gale and Koz) learned opinion there is any chance of retrieving the project (with my very limited expertise) or whether I should/have to start from scratch using the 1.3.12 instead of my 1.2.26 version of Audacity. Hopefully the 1.3 basics are the same and I will not fall into any booby traps.

Thanks to Waxcylinder (we actually had a waxcylinder player at home, bought it and some hundred cylinders on the flea market for £3 in 1950!) for the click removing tips. Sounds good, but perhaps a bit over my head at present.

Sanlorenzo

[kozikowski]

Do you remember exactly what you called the project? You can get into serious trouble by using characters that have hidden, unintentional meanings to the operating system. A classic problem is putting dates in a name. Don't do that. Slash marks do evil and unpredictable things to a file.

20100922. That's today's date, not 9/22/10.

Koz