Audacity Forum

When I tried to open a large MP3 file (69.3 MB), I get a box titled "Error Opening File" with the message "Could not open file xxx/yyy/zzz.mp3" I have had no problem opening smaller files before, so am wondering if this is a file size issue. I have version 1.2.5 for MAC and am running under Leopard (10.5). Any assistance would be appreciated!

Close Audacity and open it up in QuickTime Player. Does it open? Press Apple-I for INFO and make sure it actually is an MP3 file.

Koz

Thanks for the suggestion, Koz... but it does open and play in QuickTimePlayer. Perhaps I should tell you that this file is one that I originally recorded on my digital voice recorder as a .wma file. I converted it via the Switch application to the .mp3 file in order to edit it in Audacity. I have followed these steps with a number of other smaller files before, and they opened in Audacity with no problem. The Apple I seems to show that it is in fact an MPEG Layer 3 file. Any more ideas?

Thanks,
Susan

You may have a different problem than you think. In oder to open a compressed audio file, Audacity has to uncompress it. And then to do effects it has to form UnDo files. So I'm guessin' Audacity has to suddenly come up with 2G of hard drive space to do all this with enough elbow room.

How much room do you have on all your drives? INFO your brains out. You can go into Audacity Preferences and find out where Audacity is trying to put it's work files. I think they called it "Directories."

Koz

<<<MPEG Layer 3>>>

Or more accurately, MPEG1, Layer III. MPEG1 has been around for a long time.

Digital Broadcasting and DVDs are based on MPEG2. Windows Media and some of the higher, newer systems use MPEG4.

Koz

Well, I have just short of 140 GB free on my hard drive. I'm a little confused, though... Under "Directories" tab in Preferences, there is a place for temp files... the designated directory did not exist, so I changed it to be in my "/Applications/Audacity 1.2.5" directory, and after I browsed there & clicked "choose", it appended "/.audacity_temp" to the directory & it then popped up a message box telling me that I needed to restart Audacity in order for this to be set. I quit Audacity & started it again... checked my "/Applications/Audacity 1.2.5" directory -- no /.audacity_temp" directory. Tired to read in my big file, still no /.audacity_temp". Finally successfully read in an .mp3 file (converted from .wma via Switch also) & it opened successfully, but I still see no /.audacity_temp" directory... I'm confused. Anyway, any more ideas? It looks like I have plenty of hard drive space... Sure wish Audacity would give some type of error code or something!!

Susan

Putting stuff under /Applications may have been a dodgy idea since you could run into permissions issues. The operating system looks very sternly at any changes made to that folder/directory. Stick operating files in your Documents folder.

You may not get any actual folder there until you try to make a live recording. Audacity wants to be ready to make a folder there if it needs it.

<<<Sure wish Audacity would give some type of error code or something!!>>>

We need to remember that Audacity 1.2.x is two versions behind--or will be shortly. 1.4.x is waiting in the wings and after we switch over to that, all our problems will be over.

Koz

Thanks Koz... I did change it to the Documents folder, but the same thing happened... First it asks "Do you want to create it?" Then tells me to restart Audacity, but even after that there's no file. I can't test your idea about recording, cause I don't have a microphone yet -- right now I just use Audacity to edit audio files from my voice recorder. Am I correct in believing that the 1.3.x version is not for MACs? And you believe the 1.4 will support MAC? Any idea when that will be coming out?

One other thing I don't think I mentioned, a friend of mine tested this same scenario using the same large .mp3 file on her Windows XP machine... and Audacity was able to open it with no problem... so perhaps it is an "Audacity running on MAC" issue?

Thanks again for all your input,
Susan

If you scan the opening page of this forum, you will find segments for both versions of Audacity on all three platforms.

http://audacityteam.org/forum/index.php

I believe 1.4.x will be released for all three computers. Actually, it's finished now. They're looking for somebody who likes to write instruction books.

<<<I don't have a microphone yet>>>

How did you manage to buy a Mac without a built-in microphone? Only certain product lines came that way. Do you have an Mini?

<<<the same large .mp3 file on her Windows XP machine>>>

So make chocolate chip cookies and cut the show on her machine. Don't bother saving a project on her machine. Export As Wav... to get a single sound file to open up on your machine.

I can get a better direction after I find out which Mac you have.

Koz

Gosh -- I thought I had replied to this... but guess I got interrupted & never posted it... Anyway, I actually have the latest iMac -- just bought it in November and I LOVE IT!! But guess I didn't realize that there was a built in mic! So I did record a little snippet of something... still don't see the temp folder... The difficulty of having to do the editing of the large file on my friend's machine is that I currently have more time than she does, and this is going to take some time -- Each file runs about an hour & a half, and to do the editing, I basically will have to listen to the whole thing... and I have 4 such files so far. It's a coaching session & we want to take out "dead" space. So anyway, guess we don't know why I get the error when I simply try to open this file...

Susan