Audacity 1.3.13 crashes opening .aiff files

[MSuter]

I am a fairly experienced computer user but am new to working with audio files. I have converted 200+ songs from 8-track cassettes to .aiff files using Audacity 1.3.13 with no problems and burned them to CDs. Now I am converting them to M4A files to upload to my iPhone 4. I'd converted about 20 files with no problem and then Audacity suddenly started crashing each time I tried to open an .aiff file. I have shut down and restarted my computer (Intel Mac Mini) several times, searched the internet for help with no success, and finally trashed Audacity and downloaded it again but am still experiencing the crashes. Any help you can give would be appreciated--especially if it is in "not-so-technical" terms.

[kozikowski]

Reinstalling Audacity doesn't Reinstall Audacity. There is a Preferences folder left behind so that program updates carry your personal adjustments forward without loading them all again.

That also sometimes carries forward damage.

Delete this folder:

Go > home > Library > Application Support > audacity

Restart Audacity. It will wake up at First Birthday, so you should be ready for that.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Since you've been producing music for weeks, are you filling up your Mac?

Go > Utilities > Disk Utilities

Select your system drive > Verify Disk and Repair Permissions.

Audio and video production are much more stable if you can maintain 10% to 20% free space. If your INFO numbers say 90% full or higher, that may be where your instability is coming from.

Koz

[kozikowski]

One more. Did you recently decide to fill up your Plug-Ins folder with a bunch of new, cool filters?

Can you take them back out? A bad VST filter will create very serious issues.

[MSuter]

I followed your instructions and deleted the Audacity file in the Library folder and emptied the trash. I'm not sure what you meant when you said it should wake up at First Birthday but nothing unexpected happened when I restarted Audacity.

I used Disk Utility and repaired the disk permissions. I have 405 GB of hard drive space available so that isn't the problem and I have not added any plugins or filters or anything else that wasn't already there. Neither do I have any video files saved.

I restarted my computer and Audacity and set prefs to make a copy on importing and for exporting to always mix tracks. I unclicked Show Metadata Editor.

I was able to open 5 files and export them as M4A files. On the fifth one, when I selected the file and clicked Open, I got the Ignore-Report-Reopen message. I clicked Reopen and got the Audacity How to Get Help dialog box over the Audacity screen. I clicked Don't show this at startup again and closed the Help box. I was then able to select and open a new file but I got the warning to choose an import method, even though I had selected it in the prefs. I again chose to make a copy and clicked to not show it again. Finally the file opened.

When I opened Export Selection, I got the Edit Metadata box, even though I had unchecked it in prefs. After I saved the metadata, I was able to save the file as an M4A. I had to go through this process for the last 5 files for the album.

What else should I try? I don't want to have to go through this for the 150 files I have left to convert. Thanks for your suggestions.

[billw58]

I got the Ignore-Report-Reopen message.

Audacity crashed and never got around to writing the preferences file. So when you re-opened it there was no prefs file and therefore Audacity did not remember your settings.

When you properly Quit Audacity the prefs file is written. So in the future I would expect you to find your settings preserved.

-- Bill

[MSuter]

I have followed all the steps you have suggested--removing the Audacity folder from the library, using Disk Utility to repair permissions, etc. several times. I also trashed Audacity and downloaded and installed a new copy after I had done the above. It isn't working quite as badly as it was, but I still get the Ignore-Report-Reopen box 2 out of 3 times I try to open a file. Sometimes it will open with the Open button; other times it will open with a double click on the file name. It does seem to help sometimes to choose to open WAV and aiff and other uncompressed files rather than all files but I still can't figure out any rhyme or reason for what's happening; however I am slowly getting my files exported. I do appreciate your help and hope that the non-beta program will work with fewer problems.

[kozikowski]

You can use iTunes to convert your music to .m4a. Change iTunes import preferences to AAC - iTunes plus or a custom higher than normal quality compression. Open the music in iTunes and Control-Click on the music > Create AAC version.

When you drag the music back out of iTunes, it will be in .m4a format.

I bet the advanced version of Audacity is not going to help. You have an unstable system and It doesn't seem to offer a clue why.

If you open your music files in QuickTime Player and press Command-I, what does QuickTime think your original files are?

Koz

[kozikowski]

I have had troubles with the Mac Auto-Open system. We're struggling with a machine now which insists on opening work in an application I don't own. Of course, it crashes immediately.

Instead of double-clicking on a music file which leaves the 'open' process up to the Mac, Control-Click > Open With > Audacity. See if maybe the Mac thinks there are multiple Audacity instances available.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

Instead of double-clicking on a music file which leaves the 'open' process up to the Mac, Control-Click > Open With > Audacity. See if maybe the Mac thinks there are multiple Audacity instances available.

I was reading it that PSuter was already using File > Open or File > Import > Audio in Audacity.

How long are the imported files? Can you give an example of an exact file name and path the files are coming from? Is there anything specific about the files that are now crashing that is different to the files that were not crashing (such as the source you obtained them from)?

Does it help If you File > Close after importing/exporting each file, which will clear the temp space Audacity is using? If File > Close minimises Audacity to the dock that may only be slightly more convenient - I am not on Mac, so I forget what it does.

Are you applying the same (or any) edits to the files before export? If you are applying an effect like Normalize to
each, then (aside from the opening problem) it would be easier to use File > Import > Audio, multiple select say five files, click "Open", Edit > Select All, apply the effect, File > Export Multiple.

There is a known issue where importing AIFF or WAV files destabilises Audacity on Mac, but it is thought to be memory corruption and it goes away (usually for a long time) after reboot. This doesn't sound the same as your issue (and we don't know if other apps are having issues opening files), but in any case please attach crash reports from the last couple of crashes. See:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Submitting_a_crash_report

To attach the report, use "Upload attachment" underneath the message "Preview/Submit" buttons.


Gale