Audacity Forum

Hi,

I recorded and saved a project which now I can't seem to work with. When I open the project I receive the following warning:

Project check found inconsistencies inspecting the loaded project data; click 'Details' for a complete list of errors,or 'OK' to proceed to more options.

Clicking details shows me a list of orphaned files. When I select the safe and recommended option to delete those files, the project seems empty and no recorded information. This project recording was several hours long and spans quite a bit of disk space. Is this lost? Am I out of luck? I hope that there is a way to recover this project.

I'm using version 1.3 Beta on Windows XP SP 2 and Ubuntu 7.10. They show the same results.

Thanks

<<<I recorded and saved a project>>>

In my opinion, no live capture is complete until you Export As WAV... to produce a stand-alone, high quality sound file.

Act1Scene3voices.wav

Did you try to move anything or change any folders or delete any files after you saved your Project? Projects aren't sound files. They're production editing environments with bunches of files. They're brittle and easy to damage.

<<<Clicking details shows me a list of orphaned files.>>>

Audacity went looking for, probably, capture files that you moved. Can you put the stuff you moved back? If you deleted some files, you may have no show.

Koz

After recording, I saved the project. The project (in linux) was saved successfully - at least it appeared to be. The next thing I did was to copy the project files to an external hard drive so that I could work in simultaneous environments (done that before - never was a problem). I copied - not moved. The copy took over 7 hours to complete (a long recording). When I attempted to open the project is when I got the warning/error messages. BTW, I copied two projects, not just one. Both projects had project inconsistencies. One project recovered OK, but the other one doesn't appear to have.

My intention was to edit the project then export to mp3. From your post, it seems that I should export first then edit then export again. Wish I had known that before. I'd be very disappointed if I lost this recording.

I'll try and post the details of the messages.

Thanks

<<<so that I could work in simultaneous environments (done that before - never was a problem)>>>

If you moved an Audacity Project before and got it to work OK, that makes you one in a row. Can I touch you? Can I have your autograph?

We tell people that technically, it should be possible to move a Project, in reality, nobody short of a programmer can actually do that.

In My Opinion, no live capture is completed until you Export As WAV... and produce a single, stable, stand-alone sound file (one per performance capture) for editing later. Functionally, you can't move, change, copy, or email an Audacity Project. The WAV file is the performance. It's also a given that you want that WAV file in as high an uncompressed quality as humanly possible. Some computers (Macs??) have troubles with 24-bit sound. Your mileage may vary.

Have you ever taken your AUP file apart? It's straight XML and you can open it up in vi, vim, or Emacs. The AUP project file contains records of all the effects and status activities and more importantly, the locations of all the sound files and snippets it needs. If you move a Project, you need to update the AUP file so the directories and folders are correct. You can imagine what fun it would be to move a Project between Linux and PC.

/user/local/audacity/project/piano.wav --> c:Documents and Settingskozdocumentssound filespiano.wav

So it is (unofficially) written that thou shalt not move a project or any parts of a project.

Koz

I am, in no way, disputing your claims. As I said, I wish I had known sooner. However, I have followed this pattern several times before and haven't had this trouble.

Maybe my terminology is wrong. When I refer to a project I mean the .aup file and its supporting data files. I have copied the .aup file and its supporting data files to a different machine, opened the project in Audacity, selected certain portions of the project and exported them as .mp3 files. I've done it several ways. I've copied them to flash drives and external hard drives then from those drives to another computer. Several times. (No autographs or touches, please ) This was the first time the copy produced this problem.

Not only that, but the original project had the problem as well. My strange methods notwithstanding, is it possible that whatever went wrong may have happened before the copy? Maybe a crash of some sort?

In either case, I'm glad that you pointed this out. I will forever export to wav before I copy again. Seems like the project is toast from your comments.

If you have a reeeely simple project with no directories or folders, then yes, it's possible to get away with that, but one thing that kills people right and left is when they import existing sound files. The original sound file and its directory structure becomes part of the Project Cloud.

The joke is that all the compulsive editors that insist on "cleaning up" all those "unused" sound files get killed, but the slobs that leave things lying around don't.

I agree that the original project was damaged. Usually when that happens, the AUP file vanishes. It's pretty unusual to get one that points to the wrong place--or points to damaged files. Did you run out of disk space? When was the last time you defragged? Trying to capture to a highly fragmented hard drive in real time can be challenging.

Did we ever determine that this is a Windows machine? I have to bring up virus protection. When was the last time you left the comprehensive virus checker running overnight? The little one that runs in the background is OK, but you may have something more serious. It's also possible to have the virus checker interfere with captures. Virus software tends to have pretty serious permissions and can step on a capture on a crowded machine.

Koz

The original recording machine is an Ubuntu 7.10 desktop. No virus protection. 120 GB HD which should been largely available. I say should have because all of the previous recordings that I've done after 'moving' them (you know what I mean, the methods described in earlier posts), I erased the 'old' files. I have to check to make sure that I cleared the wastebasket - but I believe I did. No defrag.

The 'editing' machine is an XP SP2 box.

The Linux machine is the record machine and you move the project to the Windows machine for editing. This has worked correctly in the past. In this instance, the project had significant damage whether you moved it or not. Did I get that?

The linux machine gave you no notice that there was something wrong with the file creation or transfer? Did you dig in the logs? How long was "several hours?"

<<<120 GB HD which should been largely available.>>>

One partition devoted to capture data? Is that the only thing on that drive? Is that the System Drive....sorry, root drive and you're trying to time share between partitions?

On our Linux machines, if I leave the cursor hovering in one place long enough, it pops a little message that tells me expected record duration [Recording Time Available--37 Hours]. What does yours say?

Oh, wait. I remember this one. Is your /system partition filling up? This used to drive us nuts. The operating system partition would go to 99% and cause the machine to lurch and jerk and do all sorts of wacky things.

Koz

kozikowski wrote:The Linux machine is the record machine and you move the project to the Windows machine for editing. This has worked correctly in the past. In this instance, the project had significant damage whether you moved it or not. Did I get that?

You got it.

kozikowski wrote:The linux machine gave you no notice that there was something wrong with the file creation or transfer? Did you dig in the logs? How long was "several hours?"

No notice at all. File creation worked as usual. At the end of recording, I saved the project as usual. No errors, warnings - nothing. Project saved successfully. Where is the location of the logs? I checked to see if there was anything stored in the temp location, but there was nothing there (I changed the temp location to a permanent location on the drive). The recording was about 8 hours (did this before also).

kozikowski wrote:One partition devoted to capture data? Is that the only thing on that drive? Is that the System Drive....sorry, root drive and you're trying to time share between partitions?

I'd have to double-check, but I'm pretty sure that this particular machine (other than swap, boot, and temp) had one large root partition on which all data was stored. The only thing is that the directory into which the recorded data is stored is a symbolic link to another location on the same partition (shouldn't be a problem).

kozikowski wrote:On our Linux machines, if I leave the cursor hovering in one place long enough, it pops a little message that tells me expected record duration [Recording Time Available--37 Hours]. What does yours say?

I'll check, but if memory serves, it showed some very long time which I would never reach in one recording. Unfortunately, what it says now, would probably not reflect what it said at the time of recording - but I will get it nonetheless.

kozikowski wrote:Oh, wait. I remember this one. Is your /system partition filling up? This used to drive us nuts. The operating system partition would go to 99% and cause the machine to lurch and jerk and do all sorts of wacky things.

No occurrence of this ever happening.

Should I not have chosen the "safe and recommended" option of deleting orphaned files? As I mentioned earlier, this warning came up when I opened the project. After I selected that option, the project opened but there was no recorded data within. I didn't save the changes after it showed no improvement.

<<<"safe and recommended" option of deleting orphaned files?>>>

I don't think it makes any difference what you do. Crash Recovery in Audacity 1.2 was a wish list for a future program, not a functioning set of tools.

So. Linux Audacity didn't crash but created a bad project on a stable machine with damaged capture clips and no other symptoms we've been able to find.

I'm out. Write back if you figure out what happened.

Koz