"reference to invalid character number at line 6"

[willfriedwald]

Error opening project
Error: reference to invalid character number at line 6

Just started with the program & am trying my hand at doing a podcast/

was trying to lay down a few voice tracks and a few musical cuts. I saved the project, came back the next day and got the error above.

Then, I did the same thing, put down more voice tracks & music etc, the start of a podcast. Quit the program and when I came back today, I got the same error.

so far two projects have been jinxed by this error - what I can I do about, at least, to make sure it doesn't happen again?

thanks!

Willfriedwald

[steve]

The problem is probably due to invalid characters in either a file name or metatag.
Most likely from an invalid character in an imported MP3 file. Audacity 1.2 is rather susceptible to this problem.

If you attach the .AUP file to your reply we should be able to show you exactly where the problem lies and how to fix it.
In the long term, Audacity 1.3.12 is far less susceptible to this problem, and all being well the next 1.3.x version will be immune.

[kozikowski]

http://audacityteam.org/download/

Some modern Macs will not run Audacity 1.2 at all. If yours is working, you win, but I wouldn't push my luck. This invalid character thing is just a suggestion of the troubles you can get into.

Audacity 1.3.12 is current.

Koz

[neeka8nu]

Please help!

I am trying to open this saved ".aup" project, and there is an "invalid character line 7" message alert.

Any tips?

Thanks!

[Gale Andrews]

I am trying to open this saved ".aup" project, and there is an "invalid character line 7" message alert.

Have you tried reading the post above ?

The problem may be because you have foreign, accented or control characters in the metadata of a file you imported into the project. You would be better to try and open the project in 1.3.13 Beta. It will warn you that the project was created in an older version of Audacity, but go ahead and open it, but don't save it until you are sure it opens correctly.

If you do save the project in 1.3.13 then you will not be able to open it again in Audacity 1.2.

If the project still won't open, attach the .aup file using the "Upload attachment" tab underneath the "Preview/Submit" buttons when you post your reply.



Gale

[neeka8nu]

I tried downloading the latest version of Audacity and it still did not open.

I tried right clicking on the .aup project and said "Open w/ Audacity". The same "invalid line 7" message came up.

I tried opening Audacity, File - Open - , but the .aup project was not even available for me to click on.

I uploaded the .aup

Thank you for your help!

[billw58]

Drag and drop the project file onto TextEdit. You will see this at the top of the file:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no" ?>
<!DOCTYPE project PUBLIC "-//audacityproject-1.3.0//DTD//EN" "http://audacityteam.org/xml/audacityproject-1.3.0.dtd" >
<project xmlns="http://audacityteam.org/xml/" projname="Rumor project_data" version="1.3.0" audacityversion="1.3.11-beta" sel0="154.5667935897" sel1="154.5667935897" vpos="144" h="152.1267858974" zoom="90.9833197247" rate="44100">
	<tags>
		<tag name="id3v2" value="1"/>
		<tag name="ALBUM" value="Thompson Twins: Greatest Hits - Love, Lies and Other Strange Things"/>
		<tag name="ARTIST" value="Thompson Twins&#x0004;"/>
		<tag name="Copyright" value="&#x2117; 1996 Arista Records LLC"/>
	</tags>

The problem is the strings  and ℗ . Delete those two strings, save the file without changing the extension. Audacity should now be able to open it.

-- Bill

[neeka8nu]

THANK YOU! That worked!

Any suggestions as to how to avoid this problem in the future?

[bgravato]

THANK YOU! That worked!

Any suggestions as to how to avoid this problem in the future?

Avoida using non-alphanumeric characters in the names. That means no spaces, no accents, no punctuation, no weird characters... Stick to A-Z and 0-9 (and you can also safely use dash '-' and underscore '_').

[Gale Andrews]

Moved to the 1.3 Beta board because the issue occurred in 1.3.11.

THANK YOU! That worked!

Any suggestions as to how to avoid this problem in the future?

Avoida using non-alphanumeric characters in the names. That means no spaces, no accents, no punctuation, no weird characters... Stick to A-Z and 0-9 (and you can also safely use dash '-' and underscore '_').

Did that "Thompson Twins" file come from iTunes or some online store? If so the problem is that in previous Betas, certain metadata already in the file would get entered as invalid characters in the .aup file. This should not be a problem in 1.3.13 Beta if you import that file again into that version of Audacity. It will still be a problem if you use 1.3.13 to open a project created in an earlier Beta that contained that imported file. See:
http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Relea ... nd_Exports

There is no reason if you were using File > Open Metadata Editor to edit the metadata why you could not enter normal Unicode characters as in for example, "Dvořák" or even Chinese characters. There is no reason either why you can't save a project or export an audio file with a name having such characters, providing you do not give the file to anyone else. If the file has to be used on another computer or sent over the internet, then yes, stick to numbers, Latin characters, dash and underscore everywhere, in labels, metadata and file names.

***Audacity Beta on Mac is always a Unicode program.*** Although sometimes there may be bugs in Audacity with Unicode characters, they are just that - bugs. This is at least the sixth time I have explained this.


Gale