Audacity Project _data folder

[IT_Tech]

Can someone help me. When Pupils Import Tracks into Audacity and remove the ones they dont want the size of the data folder increases even though the tracks are removed. For example i imported a track and saved as a project, the size of the _data file was 15mb i then imported another file removed it and saved and the size of the data file increases to 75mb. Causing issues with pupils saving due to thier user quota on the servers some of thier projects up to 500mb. Any ideas of resloving this issues due to them editing over a number of lessons

[billw58]

Exactly which version of Audacity are you using and on what version of Windows?

-- Bill

[IT_Tech]

Same problem on 1.2.6 and 1.3 using either xp sp3 or vista sp2.

[bgravato]

Which exact version for 1.3? The latest is 1.3.13. The old 1.2.6 runs fine on xp, but on Vista you should be running 1.3.x.

Anyway the problem might be related to how you import the files... Are they in an uncompressed format? Which option have you selected for import: faster or safer? (check in Preferences -> Import / Export)

If you use the faster option, when importing uncompressed formats, such as WAV, the audio is not copied to the project's data folder, it's rather linked to the original final. Only when you make any editing on the track the audio is copied to the data folder. Could that be it?

You can check dependencies on external files from the File menu -> Check dependencies...

[IT_Tech]

I See the issue now, is there anyway of not copying compressed files to _data folder everytime you import a song. Due to kids importing sounds into Audacity just to hear what they sound like it causing massive issues with the size of the folders

[billw58]

I'm not seeing this with 1.3.13-beta on my Mac.

Import one MP3 track, save and quit - 27.5 MB

Import four MP3 tracks - 186 MB

Delete the four imported tracks, save and quit - 27.5 MB.

Import the four tracks, save - 186 MB

Delete the four imported tracks, save and quit - 27.5 MB.

Audacity should not be keeping audio files in the _data folder that are not part of the project.

-- Bill

[steve]

When Audacity imports an MP3 file, it has to copy in the data as complex editing is not possible on MP3 encoded data. If the track is deleted then the data remains in the project file as it may be required by the "Undo" function. However, as Bill has said, when the project is closed, any unused data (along with the "Undo" history) should be automatically deleted.
You can also discard items from the Undo history by selecting "History" from the View menu. See here for more information: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Undo ... nd_History

[bgravato]

First try upgrading to the latest 1.3.13 version and see if that solves the problem.

If the original files are in an uncompressed format such as WAV you can use the faster method when importing, but be careful, if the original files are removed you'll get empty tracks in the project... Once you edit the track the audio will be copied though. This won't work with compressed formats such as mp3.

Anyway, like Bill said, removing the tracks from the project will delete the corresponding files from the _data folder, if that's not happening something must be wrong... could it be file permissions issues? Maybe the users have permission to create the file but not delete them? I'm not a windows user so I'm not very familiar with file permissions in windows.

[IT_Tech]

Yes when you save the project and close it the files are deleted but the issue is when you save the project the files are still there. but discarding items from the Undo history by selecting "History" from the View menu seems to resolve the issue. Thanks again

[bgravato]

Yes the files are kept while the project is still open in order to be able to undo the delete action.