Audacity Forum

I mixed several files in Audacity a few days ago, which involved combining a series of tracks into one. Today, when I open the .aup files, there are huge sections of audio missing. For example, there will be the first 10 seconds of my audio, then a 40-second section where there's nothing, then there's audio for a little while again - then nothing. This has happened to all 11 .aup files I created. Is there something I can do to get these missing sections back? More importantly, what caused this to happen in the first place?

You've posted in the 1.2 section of the forum so I'll assume that the version of Audacity you are using.

Click on Edit > Preferences, then the "File Formats" tab. You should be a section labelled "When importing uncompressed audio files into Audacity" and below that two choices "Make a copy ..." and "Read directly...". You probably have it set to "Read directly ..." which is the default setting.

What this means is that when you import a file from your hard disk into an Audacity project, Audacity does not actually copy the audio into the project but instead keeps a reference to the original file. If you move or delete those original files, Audacity can no longer play them back. However, if you do any edits to those files, Audacity will store little snippets of audio corresponding to the edits. Thus you get the behaviour you describe.

The only way to get your audio back is to restore those "external" audio files to their original locations on your hard disk. If you can't remember where they belong, you can open the .aup files in a plain text editor and read the file paths there.

-- Bill

First of all, thanks for your excellent help.

I am actually using 1.3 beta (my mistake for posting in the wrong place). Is what you're describing the same as the "read uncompressed audio files directly from the original" option?

I understand what you're saying; however, I have not moved or deleted any of the tracks involved in this project. I just did it this week and everything is in exactly the same place. Yet, the behavior I'm seeing is just what you said, so I'm still confused why this is happening. Any idea what I can do?

In the future, would I avoid this problem if I selected "copy all audio into project?"

spbahr wrote: I am actually using 1.3 beta (my mistake for posting in the wrong place). Is what you're describing the same as the "read uncompressed audio files directly from the original" option?
I understand what you're saying; however, I have not moved or deleted any of the tracks involved in this project. I just did it this week and everything is in exactly the same place. Yet, the behavior I'm seeing is just what you said, so I'm still confused why this is happening. Any idea what I can do?
In the future, would I avoid this problem if I selected "copy all audio into project?"

Yes, in Edit > Preferences then the Import/Export section http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... references you want to check the "make a copy..." option if you want Audacity to copy imported files into the project. As noted, this is the safer option, but will take more disk space.

Open one of the .aup files in a plain text editor. You will see lines like this:
The bit following "aliasfile=" tells you where Audacity is expecting to find the imported file. Make sure the file is exactly where Audacity expects it to be.

-- Bill

I looked at that spot in the file, and the address it's looking for exactly matches where the file currently is - as expected, since I haven't moved any of them.

If you know of any other options, I would welcome them, but if not, please know that I greatly appreciate your help regardless. You have been most helpful, and I at least know how to avoid having this happen again.

Open one of the problematic files and do File > Check Dependencies. http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... ies_Dialog

In the dialog, see if it finds the files and if so choose to copy them all into your project.

-- Bill

Did you put dates into any of your filenames? MyViolinRehersal_11/5/10.wav

Koz