lost file association between data and .au files

[shn70]

Hi Gale,

I'm on windows vista premium. I have recorded 17 days of workshop material, eg voice recordings.

I've been through the tutorials and forum search and still have the question

Right now I have a one day file of 2.5 gigs which has all the files apparently intact based on the file size, compared to other days and their file size. The data file is the 2.5 gig file, it shows the same name as the .au file and the .bak file, but when I click on the .au file it reports error of associated data file not found.

How do I reconnect the two files so I can edit the file?

thanks,

Stephen Nicholas

[steve]

You do not want to be using the .au files - they are fragments of data for the project. If you change any of those .au files in any way, you could turn your 2.5 GB project to dust.
Read this page for full information: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... ement_Tips

[pdxrunner]

... but when I click on the .au file it reports error of associated data file not found.

How do I reconnect the two files so I can edit the file?

thanks,

Stephen Nicholas

Stephen,

Did you mean to say you clicked on the '.aup' file, or did you really try to open one of the .au files?

One problem I had in in XP was that I couldn't have spaces anywhere in the full pathname to the project (i.e. .aup) file and it's corresponding data directory. If I tried to directly open the project I would get the missing data directory message. However, if I just opened audacity without a project (double click the audacity icon on the desktop or start menu) I could then open the project using FIle->Open within audacity. I then did a 'Save as' to a name/path without any spaces.

If this isn't the problem, then never mind, I'll go back to work

Ken

[kozikowski]

I noticed a similar problem in Windows 2000. I had to be careful the order that I opened things.

Koz

[shn70]

Thank you two for replying.

I did mean the .aup files (not the .au), opening the "wk 1 day 3" file from Audacity, returns the error message, "could not find project data file, wk 1 day 3",then an error message, "could not load", path of the same name ".aup", but the project data file is right there with a similar sized file as my other daily files.

Clicking on the file in explorer receives the same error messages.

Maybe renaming them both?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thanks,

Stephen

[pdxrunner]

From my experience recovering from when I put a space in the file name this is how I would proceed.

1. Open audacity with no project. Just start it from the start menu (or your desktop if you have a shortcut there.)

2. Use Audacity's FIle -> Open, then browse for your project .aup file and try opening it.

3. Now with you project open, save it to a different name using File -> Save As from the menu. No spaces in the name this time, something like 'wk1_day3'.

4. Completely close down audacity.

5. Now double click on the new .aup file to open the new version of the project.

6. Now that you know the new version is good, you can delete the old <project>.aup and <project>_data folder. Make sure you delete the old project, the one with spaces in the name, not the new one.

I have also recovered from this situation by renaming the files, but just renaming the .aup and the _data is not enough. You also have to edit the .aup file whoich is error prone and much more dangerous to your project.

Ken

[kozikowski]

I makes us uneasy when people show up asking about management of multiple gig size show files.

Audacity--and most other programs like this--get, if not unstable, then nervous about managing shows that big. The standard advice for someone who has a valuable show is to get it out of Project form as soon as possible. Export As WAV and then make a copy of that single WAV file and put it in a safe place. Audacity Projects will not move, email, or copy.

Projects are brittle directory structures and are easily damaged, or is this old news to you? If you do manage to open up the project (by opening up Audacity first), then export immediately. If you don't have hard drive room to do that, then you have already hit the iceberg and chances of recovery are almost zero. Free hard drive space on a production machine should never drop below 10%--after recording the shows.

At the one or two hour mark for each performance, Export As WAV to make stable, robust sound files. Having a Project labeled "All-Of-Tuesday" is just begging for trouble.

Koz

[pdxrunner]

Koz,

I agree with everything you said. I started using audacity for making needledrops; and that's still all I'm doing with it. At first, after I completed the albums I archived the entire audacity projects to DVD-Rs. But after following these forums I realized that wasn't really the best practice due to the, "brittle directory structures" as you put it.

My workflow now is to record an album raw and export each side as a FLAC, named '<album>-side<n>-raw.flac'. (Same quality as a .wav, and a whole lot less space.) After processing, deNoise & ClickRepair, I split into tracks and export mp3's for my iPod. For archiving the project I first run, File->Export Labels to get a text file record of my track splits. Then I export the entire project as a FLAC, named '<album>-cooked.flac'. Nothing brittle about flac's and text files. From the labels text file and -cooked.flac I can easily recreate the final state of my needledrop if I need to re-export mp3's or do any other processing to the audio.

To get this thread back on track - I ran into the "could not find project data file, ..." error because I had named the directories and audacity projects from the album titiles, i.e. '...someplaceWheels of FireWheels of Fire.aup'. After running through the process I described earlier, I saved to a new project (while still working on the album) as '...someplaceWheelsOfFireWheelsOfFire.aup'. Most of my projects have been less than 1 hour in length (a single LP album), although I do have a few double albums done in a single project. I also have one quad album ('I'm Not There' soundtrack) that I had in one project, about 3.2 GB project size IIRC. I was a little uneasy about that one, and should have done it as 4 separate albums.

Ken

[shn70]

Thanks for the many suggestions. I am working on a few issues, but think I may have renamed the file on the data folder and the .aup file after recording and have caused this problem from that. I will try to rename with the original syntax and see what happens. I duplicate the recording with a Sony DAT recorder so can record from there, but am trying to get away from that, thus wanting to record directly to my HD. I chose Audacity because it is nominally free and cross platform. I've found no real problem with the large file sizes other than they take a lot of time to move through. I, at first, didn't have but one track all day, but now save regularly and have multiple tracks from the start / stop activity.

The suggestion to do editing during the 17 days of program won't work for me. But, so far I'm happy with audacity for this work. I don't have the background to assess other software programs functionality compared to Audacity.
Being careful with file naming / renaming will help.

I'll check back for any updates from you all.

Thanks,

Stephen

[kozikowski]

<<<I duplicate the recording with a Sony DAT>>>

I duplicate my recordings with a known good working stable high-quality audio recorder, but I need to get rid of that as soon as possible. Did I get that OK?

The closest you are going to come to doing that is Export (not Save) at regular intervals over the course of the day. At the end of the last recording, Export it and copy all the fresh WAV files over to a second separate hard drive or thumb drive. Lock that one up. That's your "DAT" show.

Koz