Audacity Forum

When beginning a new project I use File>Save Project As. When I give the project a title and click save, the following
message comes up:
Audacity Error
Directory '/sbin/myfile_data' couldn't be created. (Error 13: Permission denied)

Can you help me?

Paul Pedersen

Did you, by any chance, try to put punctuation marks in a filename? Stop that. Dash and underscore are the only two punctuation marks universally accepted. If you really want to be rabid, don't use spaces, either.

Music Collection January/February.wav

Mac OS-X turns that into February.wav music file inside the folder January. Sometimes it will try to interpret the spaces as other events as well. Since there is no folder January, the system gets confused.

Music_Collection_January-February.wav

That's why sometimes you see files named like that. That is the proper labeling of one single music file.

This is heavy techie. Macs will allow you to put spaces and take other liberties, as well, but the first time you need to send a file to someone else, you may wish you had stuck to the geek rules. Our video shop has all three types of computers in it and we decided spaces and punctuations were a really bad thing a long time ago.

Koz

Perhaps an obvious question, but do you have write permissions for /sbin/myfile_data ?

I'm still betting that's a mistake. I don't know of programs that actively write to /sbin. That's not a default directory structure for Audacity 1.2--that I know of.....

Koz

I have successfully transferred dozens of my LP records to mp3, to iTunes and from there to my iPod. This first occurred
when I was going to do the same with the flip side of one of the records. I do not use punctuation in any of the file
names. It seems the results are the same no matter which name I use. I have tried quite a few.

There are people who do a Repair Permissions to their hard drive every time they change software or do a Software Update. Have you ever done that?

Close Everything.

/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility

Select your hard drive and Verify Disk (Don't Repair it).

When that's done, assuming it succeeds, Repair Permissions.

Close Utilities and see if that didn't help.

Koz

You never parted with the information of where you're getting your work from. A USB turntable by any chance?

Koz

Yes, I am using a USB turntable.
Paul

<<<Yes, I am using a USB turntable..>>>

While I don't necessarily think that's the problem this time because of the nature of the complaint, it could be. USB Turntables--also known as "Use Once And Throw Away Turntables" have a reputation on the forum for creating Unstable Systems when they're connected. There are hundreds of different turntable complaints and the only thing they have in common is they started with a USB turntable and a stack of vinyl at one end and eventually, didn't end up with a music CD at the other.

What happens in the middle is a study in Unstable Systems. Billions of different symptoms and "Personalities." That's the best part, because they make a computer unstable, an entire branch of Old Wives Tales has grown up about how to cure it.

We would advise against "cures" that involve radioactive substances or references to the Dark Side.

Your system should not be trying to write to /sbin. It doesn't matter what the permissions are.

Since your're on a Mac, you can use the analog option and hopefully return your machine to sanity.

USB Turntable--Symptoms
http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic ... 567#p17745

Koz

I am a computer novice. What is the analog option?
Paul