Missing audio data block files error

[NMH]

Hi

I was editing a podcast episode (mostly removing dead air and cleaning up sound) and was saving the project about every 15 minutes. Had been working about 7 hours, having saved and exited over a few days with no problems reopening the project on return. Suddenly today after working several hours I clicked save and the Audacity screen appeared to roll/flash and suddenly I had an error message that there were missing audio data block files. I closed Audacity, rebooted my computer and returned ... my other recent podcast episode project files open without incident it is only this one that has a serious problem (with the 3 options on the window when I open the project). Is there anything I can do to try and recover the work? I was within 10 minutes of the end ... Murphy struck I am on Windows 10 and Audacity 2.4.2. The error log when I open the project is attached.

Anything you can suggest to help me recover ... even any part as this one was a lot of work .... will be absolutely awesome!

Thanks for your help!

[steve]

Anything you can suggest to help me recover ... even any part as this one was a lot of work

I assume you don't have a backup copy of the project?

Tip for future reference:
When working on important projects, I generally use "Save Project As" about once every hour or two so that I have a trail of projects:
project001
project002
project003
...

If disaster strikes, I can then go back to the previous version and at worst I only lose the last hour or two.

with the 3 options on the window when I open the project

Select the middle option: "Treat missing audio data as silence (this session only)"

Anything that can be recovered will be recovered.
Anything that can't be recovered will be replaced by silence.

See here for more info: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/war ... files.html


Unfortunately the situation does not look good. From the log that you posted I can see that there's a lot of audio missing - perhaps even all of it.

[NMH]

Thanks a ton for your reply. Even though bad news. Any idea what happened, just a bad luck bug maybe?
I will save many versions in future. Since this guest was bad and his multiple pauses between words that I had to remove were a little over half of the full length, please could you suggest if one of the tools can help me at all to speed the process any? Maybe one that could shorten some of those crazy breaks? I don't believe I am using Audacity at all well, it is a great tool to work with!

Thanks again.

[steve]

Any idea what happened,

Sorry, no idea in this case - it could have been anything. Computers are incredibly complex machines, and working with audio (or video) pushes them quite hard because there is so much data being moved around.

mostly removing dead air

Perhaps the "Truncate Silence" effect?
(see: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tru ... lence.html)

[NMH]

Awesome! Thank you again. I had obviously looked straight past that function. Okay, off to work ... better create a "good" podcast that stays put this time