Audacity Forum

A file disappeared. Is there any way I can get it back?

We warn strongly against using punctuation marks inside filenames. Upper case, lower case, numbers, _underscore_ and -dash- are the only universally accepted characters.

Dates should be written in ISO form. Today is 2018-08-04. Or 18-08-04 or 180804. Be consistent.

I see at least one name with a dot in the text. A period or Full Stop is not a safe file name character. My.words may not be seen as a simple name but the file My with a Windows extension of words. Probably not what you meant.

Do Not rename AUP files or _DATA folders outside of Audacity. The original names are burned into the Project and the show will crash.

Do not separate the AUP file from the _DATA folder. They have to be in the same location or folder or they can't find each other.

Use WAV files to save raw recordings, edit masters and backups, not Audacity Projects.

I think that's all of them. Did you see your condition in there?

Which three-number Audacity version are you using? I think it's 2.2.0 and 2.2.1 that can have Project management issues.

Koz

Audacity 2.2.2.

I think this is what I did: "Do Not rename AUP files or _DATA folders outside of Audacity. The original names are burned into the Project and the show will crash."

So I won't be able to get the file back? Dang, I spent three days on it.

That's not deadly. Do you remember what you named it? You can unpack the AUP file and read the original name. Open the AUP file in a text editor (do not save anything). Read the name. Close. Change the filenames back the way they were.

This is a graphic from my demo show. The name of the show is projname=" Third line down, 2/3 over.



Koz

When you finish a reading no matter how ratty is is, Export a WAV (Microsoft) 16-bit file and stash it somewhere safe. You should never need to read something again.

Koz

Here. I made a new one.



Koz

When I click on d08, I get snippets of recordings (I think they are the edits I recorded) but I can't find the complete file. Is there a way to find the complete file?

Right. Those are the six second audio snippets Audacity uses to edit and then construct your show. You should not be in there poking around. That's a good way to permanently destroy the show by accident.

Can You Find The AUP File?



If you have no AUP project manager file and this is a raw, un-edited performance, you might be able to reconstruct it using emergency recovery.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/rec ... ually.html

If there is no AUP file and this is an edited show, then there is no recovery.

If you have no WAV raw performance safety file, then you read it again.

Koz

If you didn't delete it, the AUP Project Manager file should be on your machine somewhere. Can you search for all the AUP files and pick likely dates?

Koz

Yeah, it was all edited. So I guess it's gone. Oh well, lesson learned, always save to WAV no matter what. I was just saving to WAV after I'd finished narrating a completed chapter, not for each section as I went along.