Audacity Forum

I recently downloaded audacity. I do not want any fancy tools to make music. I want simple recordings to put on CD. However, after I recently made a recording I got the following error message.

Audacity Error: Failed to get file system statistics (error 2: no such file or directory).

Please help!

Thanks

<<<I want simple recordings to put on CD. >>>

I bet you don't. A simple recording is you talking into the microphone on your Mac or recording some device on your Mac Line-In connection and capturing it to a file. Audacity and any Mac made in the last few years will do that perfectly.

The waters muddy significantly if you try to capture internet streaming shows, use a USB device, or a FireWire sound device, or try to manage iTunes Music. A USB Turntable is the kiss of death. So where did the show come from?

Koz

I think this is a Mac-specific file system error; the error message does not seem to be in our source code. Are you are getting this when you try to File > Save an Audacity Project, or when you File > Export As (an audio file)? And how far do you get before you get the error - as far as typing the file name? If so, save in a "known" folder like your Audacity program folder or the Desktop, and keep slashes and foreign/accented characters out of the file and folder names.

If that does not help, then if you have not yet saved as an Audacity project, the recorded files are in the Audacity temporary folder. They should be safe there even if you have to force-quit Audacity. On reopening after forced closure Audacity will ask if you want to delete the temporary files- just answer no. If you want to be doubly sure and you need to shut down the PC, you can just copy the contents of the temporary folder (all the .au files) to another folder and remember the location. If you can access it, Audacity > Preferences: Directories tab will show you where your temporary folder is.

On Macs however, the temporary folder is usually hidden in the Finder. To access it, use the "Go To Folder" command in the Finder, or type open tmp/ and insert the name of the folder after the / . If that doesn't work, try to make the Finder show its hidden files and folders by entering in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool

or try TinkerTool to do the same thing.

The recording will be stored as lots of ".au " files in chunks of a few seconds each. While you can import them into Audacity and cut and paste them together, that is impractical for a long recording. Instead, you can try the appropriate crash recovery tool for your Mac architecture (Intel or PPC) which will try to piece the .au files together into a longer WAV file or files.


Gale

Actually I don't even have the option of saving or exporting this file and never did (I have had my computer on for days because I do not want to loose the data I recorded, so I am not completely sure about this)

I believe this message came up as soon as I had finished the recording. From memory, I might have tried to save the file, but I am not completely positive. At this point, when I click on audacity, I cannot even click on any part of the menu bar on the top of the computer. Everything is locked out, and when I click on the menu bar, I get a small beep. It almost seems as though the program is locked.

Sometimes when programs such as Microsoft office do not seem to be working properly, I will go to the apple icon and click on force quit. This will show me if a program is not responding. However, this is not the case with audacity. Therefore, I do not think that the problem is that audacity is not responding....

I have thought about quitting the program anyway, in order to restart my computer. However, when I go to the folder in my desktop where that file was saved there doesn't seem to be anything there, even when I click on the audacity so that I know I am in the program. I am afraid to shut my computer and this file as I am not even sure a temporary file has been saved based on this information.

Please advice.

Thank you.

<<as I had finished the recording. >>>

What...Were...You...Recording...?

What device or service? I don't care who was performing or what they were singing.

<<<I don't even have the option of saving or exporting this file >>>
<<<I go to the folder in my desktop where that file was saved >>>

Did you tell Audacity to put the temporary capture folder on your desktop?

How full is your hard drive? Click on the drive icon in the upper right and press Apple-I to get the INFO panel.

Koz

<<<Actually I don't even have the option of saving or exporting this file and never did >>>
<<<I go to the folder in my desktop where that file was saved >>>

Those two statements seem to be contradictory. If you have never successfully saved an Audacity project, then the recording is still in Audacity's temporary folder. Try COMMAND-Q or Audacity > Quit Audacity and see if it asks you if you want to save changes. If it does, click yes and save the Audacity project on your desktop. If you can only quit by force-quitting, do so, but try locating Audacity's temp folder and copying it to some other place first, as I described.

We have seen this error when the disk is full (as well as the obvious warning), but it also occurs when the disk it not full. Check the free space before trying to copy the temp folder.


Gale