Audacity Forum

I think I made that mistake where I saved a project with a new name, or in a different folder, and now I can't open the project.

Is there a way to go back and recover the project when that happens?

Open the .aup file in a text editor like Notepad. Do not edit the .aup, but look for "projname" in the fourth line. Make sure the _data folder for that project is called what it says in the .aup file, and make sure that _data folder is inside the same folder that the .aup file is in. So if the .aup says

projname="song_data"

you need to have a folder called song_data in the same folder as the .aup file.


Gale

Where do I find the .aup file?

I've been searching for it, but so far I haven't found it.

Thanks for your help.

chillowack wrote:Where do I find the .aup file? I've been searching for it, but so far I haven't found it.

Try File > Recent Files in Audacity. If the file is not found, search your computer for *.aup, which should list all .aup files that are available. Include hidden files and folders in the search.


Gale

Gale Andrews wrote:Open the .aup file in a text editor like Notepad. Do not edit the .aup, but look for "projname" in the fourth line. Make sure the _data folder for that project is called what it says in the .aup file, and make sure that _data folder is inside the same folder that the .aup file is in. So if the .aup says

projname="song_data"

you need to have a folder called song_data in the same folder as the .aup file.

I followed these instructions, and created a new folder with the "song_data" name format, as you instructed.

But although the project then opened (finally), it's all gone. The tracks are there--they even have their old labels--but there's no music, or any indication of sound. All the tracks are "flatlined."

When I opened it, I got a message saying something like "251 data blockfiles have been deleted; there's no way to get them back automatically."

Did it completely wipe out the project?

chillowack wrote:

Gale Andrews wrote:Open the .aup file in a text editor like Notepad. Do not edit the .aup, but look for "projname" in the fourth line. Make sure the _data folder for that project is called what it says in the .aup file, and make sure that _data folder is inside the same folder that the .aup file is in. So if the .aup says

projname="song_data"

you need to have a folder called song_data in the same folder as the .aup file.

I followed these instructions, and created a new folder with the "song_data" name format, as you instructed.

But although the project then opened (finally), it's all gone. The tracks are there--they even have their old labels--but there's no music, or any indication of sound. All the tracks are "flatlined."

When I opened it, I got a message saying something like "251 data blockfiles have been deleted; there's no way to get them back automatically."

Did it completely wipe out the project?

The message does not say the missing .au files have been deleted, just that they can't be found, which could be for various reasons.

What you need to do as a first step (if you haven't already) is to find the _data folder to which you originally saved the project's data, then rename that to the same name as "projname" in the .aup file (and make sure it is in the same folder that the .aup file is in).

If you then still get the error and flat lines when opening the project, do you actually have any .au files in that data folder? Note that there may be subfolders inside the _data folder - if so the .au files will be in those subfolders. If the .au files are not in the subfolders that are indicated by their file name in the .aup, Audacity won't be able to find them.




Gale