Audacity Forum

Sometimes (I'm unable to determine exactly when), when I have a project which has been saved already and I wish to save it under a second name with "save project as" (let's say for backup purpose), I get the message:
Unable to save, disk may be write protected or full.... Of course it's not....

Is this a bug?

Possibly - I responded to a similar post yesterday that I have been experiencing this occasionally (on 1.3.9) - but not reproducible enough to determine if it is a bug - or the circumstances that cause it.

WC

Hi

I heve experienced it many times, but I was never able to reproduce it when I wish to. I know th aonreproductiblug is not a bug, but it's one all right...

JL

You can also get that error if you use an unfortunate filename. No punctuation marks or dates. Upper and lower case letters, numbers, underscore and dash. That's it. No other marks may be used if you want an unconditionally stable filename.

I have to push files between all three computing platforms all over Earth, so I don't use spaces either.

KenVoiceClip-2010_01_04.wav

Koz

Yes Koz, but the odd times it has happened to me I have had entirely "legal" filenames - I just can't make it reproducible, alas ...

WC

I tried it with the simplest filename: A.aup lol and it failed too....
It is always when you have a project that you want to save under a second name...
JL

<<<alas ...>>>

Next time it does it, try a fully qualified pathname. Instead of Export > MySoundFile.WAV, try Export > C:Documents and SettingskozDesktopMySoundFile.wav.

That will eliminate the excuse that the computer is trying to put your work in the "wrong," unauthorized, or damaged place. If the save process still fails with the same error, the developers will want to know that.

In the same sense that MySoundFile_1/4/10.wav can get you into serious trouble, a similar process might be able to help you get out.

Koz

On the other hand, I'm trying to reproduce the problem (on Linux) and the only way I can get that error message is to include a forward-slash or back-slash in the file name.
I've even Saved a project called ¬.!"£,$%^&*().aup and it still works fine. Perhaps the problem is specific to Windows XP?

I'm on Vista 64 but it also happens on Vista 32.

kozikowski wrote:Next time it does it, try a fully qualified pathname. Instead of Export > MySoundFile.WAV, try Export > C:Documents and SettingskozDesktopMySoundFile.wav.

Ok Koz I had a similar failure just now - so I tried your Fully qualified pathname idea with a very simple filename:

C:Documents and SettingsVinylMy DocumentsAudacity ProjectsRadioSix SuspectsP2

On both Save Project and Save Project As - I get the error message "Could not save the project. Perhaps <pathname> is not writeable or the disk is full". Curiously I do get created ny Audacity the folder P2_data, but there is no .aup file and the data folder is empty.

The disk has plenty of free space 37 out 111 GB and was defragged recently - and the account I am using has full administrator privileges. Fortunately I was able to Export the project as a WAV file to exactly the same location (with just the short-form location) - so I've obviously got the privileges and the space to write there.

OS as you probably know is XP-HE-SP3 - Audacity 1.3.9 - only one instantiation of Audacity running - simple 20 minute stereo recording FM off-air, simply trimmed down to the 14 minutes of the actual broadcast.

Yours in puzzlement,
WC

UPDATE: ok so I just exited that Audacity project and closed Audacity - fired up 1.3.9 (only instantiation of Aydacity running again). Recorded a short snatch of FM and lo and behold Save Project As P3 (in the same location) saved the project fine. Closed Audacity, fired 1.3.9 up again opened the P3 project just saved and it opened fine. Repeated this test on 1.3.10 with filename P4 - also saves and reopens Conditions obviously very similar indeed between the two experiments - but observedly different behaviour - I hate non-reproducible bugs like this (and I know the developers hate this type of bug more - as they are so hard to find and fix).

WC