accidentally saved my files in a data folder

[ATuretsky]

i just did about 4 or 5 hours hours of editing, and each time i finished a song, i saved it in the folder thats marked winterconcert_data, from the origina winter concert file that i saved...when they were all done and i closed the winter concert window of audacity, they all dissapeared from the folder and when i try and reopen them from the recent history list in audacity, they say that the file does not exist and could not be opened.....please tell me that there is a way to fix this

[kozikowski]

<<<i saved it in the folder thats marked winterconcert_data>>>

Audacity doesn't save sound files. To get a sound file you have to export one...

File > Export As WAV. If you do that, those sound files can be moved, copied, and sent to another computer and opened by other programs.

Audacity saves Projects and those are very complicated. Each project has an AUP file to keep track of all the other files in your show, some of which it keeps in its _DATA folder. There could be thousands of those in a long show. If you put something in that folder manually, Audacity will get very confused and you may lose your work.

If you have master original sound files like from a concert or performance, be sure and keep a safety backup of the work on a portable drive or thumb drive and never edit on top of or cover up original files. Always create new files as you progress, so you can back up to an earlier version if you need to.

Do you see any of your AUP files?

Koz

[billw58]

i just did about 4 or 5 hours hours of editing, and each time i finished a song, i saved it in the folder thats marked winterconcert_data, from the origina winter concert file that i saved...when they were all done and i closed the winter concert window of audacity, they all disappeared from the folder and when i try and reopen them from the recent history list in audacity, they say that the file does not exist and could not be opened.....please tell me that there is a way to fix this

OK, step by step.

You started Audacity and clicked File > Save Project (or File > Save Project As) and named the project "winterconcert". At that point Audacity created a file named "winterconcert.aup" and a folder called "winterconcert_data".

When you say you "saved" each song, how did you do that? Did you use "Save Project As" or did you use "Export"?

If you look at the contents of "winterconcert_data" in Windows Explorer what do you see? Are there any files in there called "winterconcert.aup"?

Does the original "winterconcert.aup" file still exist? What happens when you open that file?

-- Bill

[elcid]

If you look at the contents of "winterconcert_data" in Windows Explorer what do you see? Are there any files in there called "winterconcert.aup"?

Does the original "winterconcert.aup" file still exist? What happens when you open that file?

-- Bill

That seems to be my problem (my son-in-law downloaded the older version of Audacity onto my Dell Studio XPS PC with Windows Vista Premium OS, so am not too familiar with it); when I manage to locate the live performance music files that were transferred from a Sony D-50 portable digital audio recorder and see "Blue Mass.aup", for example, can no longer open and play it as there is a warning indicating files are missing or something to that effect. This anomaly occurred right after my PC "crashed" for some unexplainable reason nearly two weeks ago--argh!...

-elcid

[billw58]

files that were transferred from a Sony D-50 portable digital audio recorder and see "Blue Mass.aup", for example, can no longer open and play it as there is a warning indicating files are missing or something to that effect. This anomaly occurred right after my PC "crashed" for some unexplainable reason nearly two weeks ago--argh!...

There was a crash, so that may be part of the problem, or the entire problem.

Are the files that you transferred from the D-50 still on your computer? If so, you could start a new Audacity project and import the files into that project.

Are the files still on the D-50? If so, you could transfer them from the D-50 to your computer and start over.

Do not explicitly save anything (a project or an exported WAV file) into a _data folder. Let Audacity use that folder.

Have a look at this page in our manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.ph ... uick_Guide. Note especially the "three rules".

"Blue Mass.aup" is not a file that was transferred from the D-50. It is an Audacity project file. There should be a folder called "Blue Mass_data" in the same folder as the "Blue Mass.aup" file. That folder may be missing files due to the crash.

What happened to "winterconcert.aup" and "winterconcert_data"? What is in the "winterconcert_data" folder?

-- Bill