Audacity Forum

There is a big problem when you save your project in a folder of a project.
To me it happened unintended, but the result was that hours of interviews where gone.
How did it happen?
(I found following out by "try and error")
It happened when you save a project in a project.
This happens easily, because the .aup files are greyed out and folders aren't
When you do this, Audacity reports issues with corrupted files although they arent (if you want, i can give you the reported message in German) when you load the first project.
Now, what can be done?
Firstly: please don't grey out not only the .aup files but also the folders
Second: Please find an algorithm within the file management, that the audiofiles can find together, even they are stored in "cascaded" folders
Third: Please make a note in your documentation, that you MUST NOT store projects in projects!
and when this happens, dont follow the suggestion to delete files or anything else but work "top down" from the last project to the first by copying the .aup files separately with the corresponding folders

What do you exactly mean about saving a project in a project?

An audacity project is made of two parts: 1) an .aup file 2) a _data folder

Did you save a new project inside the _data folder of another project? Is that what you're referring to as saving a project in a project?

If you call your project myshow you'll have a myshow.aup file and folder named myshow_data
If you save a second project with the name myshow2 you'll have myshow2.aup and myshow2_data
Both projects can be in the same folder and they won't mix together.

1.) I saved as you said, a new project inside the _data folder of another project
Yes, this is what I'm referring to as saving a project in a project

2.) Yes, it happens as you say: If you call your project myshow you'll have a myshow.aup file and folder named myshow_data
If you save a second project with the name myshow2 you'll have myshow2.aup and myshow2_data within the folder myshow_data

BUT: Although both projects have different folder-names they disturb "somehow" together.
This is what I found out in some tests after the desaster to get a hint why it happened.
The only way to solve that problem when it happens seems to work topdown (LIFO) and remove the latest .aup file with the related folder in a separate directory.
(Hope that explains the situation, you can easily try this configuration out within 2 minutes)
After that desaster I know for sure that the best solution seems to let the files as they are (no changes) and follow the above mentioned description.

The only way to solve that problem ...

The other better way to solve the problem is not use Projects for critical work. Immediately export as a WAV file and at the earliest convenience, make a copy on backup media. the only time this might not work is if you're doing surveillance work and trying to manage multiple hours of work. WAV files top out at about 4GB.

Does your folder appear first in a directory listing of the bad folder? It's possible the show would survive if the odd directory is at the bottom, not at the top.

I'm not shocked that Audacity can't figure out contamination of the _data directory. The first two (or more) files in the _data directory are picture files, not sound; they draw the blue waves. If Audacity got everything one file off, that would create much damage.

You should be able to run an Audacity Project by putting the AUP file and the _DATA folder in the same directory or folder -- where ever it is. You should be able to just move them to separate folders. I think this is the first time I've heard of contamination of the _DATA folder.

Koz

Hi Koz,
thank you very much for your very good advice to export my "takes" in different formats like .wav!
Anyway I will In future take more care in handling of the storage of my files. "Silly I"!

My report was made primarily to prevent that other users might not come in the same situation as I experienced:
1.) by taking care where to store the files AND
2.) not follow the proposed Audacity advice (when it happens) to erase the content of the files
3.) Please summarize the lessons learned in the Audacity documentation
4.) and, finally - this is probably the most expensive way - please change the "behaviour" of the file mangement within Audacity to make it fool-proof for people like me

Thanks for the report geni. We appreciate.