aup.3 files Being Created and Saved in Google Drive?! Why?

For more than a year now, I’ve saved my Audacity files in my Local disk (E) without fault or issuess. I also created a Folder named “Audacity Song” within this Local Disk drive. One strange thing I noticed a couple weeks ago is the headphone icon has changed for some unknown reason. It has some object on it that wasn’t there before! (See attachment). Last week, things REALLY started to go bad. My email account is with gmail so I get a notification that my gmail is nearly full (this was at 15Gb capacity) and that I would soon be unable to receive or send emails. I then went to see what was taking all of this space so after investigating, I noticed that there are a PILE of aup.3 files being ‘stored’ there. I don’t even know what these files are there for… ?!!backup!!! See Attachment snipit. I then purchased and increased my capacity to gmail account from 15 Gb to 100Gb. The next it was FULL AGAIN! I just purchased an additional 85Gb!!! I’M LOSING MY HAIR!! WTH is going on here!!! Never had this issue ever! When I save an audacity file for the first time, I always ‘Save As’ to my E-drive. Why now do aup.3 files store themselves in my Google Drive?!!. I also included in Attachment 3- something else that’s been odd over the past 2 weeks. I took a snipit of it. The folder that I created of Audacity now has a red X over it??? I’m so lost and frustrated. So… lastly, to clear up space in my Google Drive so that I can still send and receive emails, I started deleting some aup.3 files in Google Drive. I just noticed recently in my local E-Drive where I created an Audacity folder to have the aup.3 files saved there, if I deleted the aup.3 files in Google Drive, the disappear in my E-drive!!! Totally frusted… .SoS… S O S… thank you!!!
3- Audacity with X on folder.JPG
2- storage in Google Drive Full with aup.3 files.JPG
1- Audacity Strange Headphone Icon.JPG

That sounds like your “E” drive is a virtual one, its contents being stored remotely on Google drive,
(maybe a “mirroring” backup ?).

The recent massive increase in the size of Audacity projects is due to a new feature called non-destructive editing … https://youtu.be/HpA138b-J9s?t=67

Will have a look. THANKS for your time!! :wink: