Lost important recording

[steve]

I assumed the temp files have a ".au" extension.

Yes they do.

[Gale Andrews]

Since (as you say) this is an "unattended recording" feature, it may be rare that people use or misuse "Stop" or "Cancel and that the "least coding" solution is to remove the Cancel button.

Actually some of us use it while we are fully at the computer doing other stuff, and the Timer Record is set up so that we don't miss the start of a broadcast show we want to capture while we are busy doing other things.

Yes I know you do that. But I don't think the developers allowed for that possibility .

But since you are busy, I take it you don't often go back then press Cancel in error while recording?



Gale

[Gale Andrews]

Audacity is also famous for writing over old cache files if it gets confused.
Koz

I ran a few deleted file recovery programs looking for recently deleted files and came up empty. I assumed the temp files have a ".au" extension. If anyone knows differently please let me know. I'm guessing that Audacity overwrote the older temp/cache files when I pressed cancel and started a new recording.....

I don't think there is any "confusion" other than Audacity believes you meant to cancel and so (in effect) do Edit > Undo Record.

I'd already checked in deleted file recovery programs too. To the best of my knowledge Audacity doesn't delete those files from the "undone" recording (as it would for example if you recorded, then closed Audacity in error without saving a project). The undone files are just written over in situ because they are no longer part of the Undo history.

Of course we could have really unlimited undo, but at the cost of a lot more disk space usage.

Sorry once again, but at least you know what to do now if you do cancel Timer Record in error.



Gale

[waxcylinder]

But since you are busy, I take it you don't often go back then press Cancel in error while recording?

Yes indeed - and as Vaughan has recently pointed out in an email on the devel email thread I do understand the difference in English between "Stop" and "Cancel" ...

Actually having set up a "remember to do" Timer Record for busy periods I will usually try to remember to take back manual control close to the start of the broadcast/webcast - and to do that I need the "Cancel" button. This is preferrable to just relying on the TR as then you get back the operabality of the controls. This provides the raison d'être for the TR proposal that I wrote.

Peter

[waxcylinder]

I'll try to find some time to update the Timer Record section on the Transport Menu page in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Transport_Menu#timer

Documenting what the Stop and Cancel buttons do (and how to recover if you press Cancel, or the little top right hand corner "x" in the dialog box, by mistake).

Peter.

[steve]

as Vaughan has recently pointed out in an email on the devel email thread I do understand the difference in English between "Stop" and "Cancel" ...

I think that Vaughan has a point there, but from a naive user perspective who may be more familiar with cassette recorders, you don't get a "Cancel button" on a tape recorder. The idea of pressing a button on a cassette recorder that not only stops the recording but instantly and automatically deletes anything that has been recorded is quite bizarre.

Perhaps a suitable compromise would be to grey out the Cancel button once the recording has started.
This would keep the functionality described by waxcylinder (cancel TR and record manually) but would still protect naive users from destroying their recording.
You would be able to cancel the countdown, but once you get to blast-off you are committed to recording, cancel is no longer available (though you can still "Stop => Undo").

[waxcylinder]

(though you can still "Stop => Undo").

You don't need the Undo if you use the "Stop" - as that leaves the recorded audio track up that point intact.

Perhaps a suitable compromise would be to grey out the Cancel button once the recording has started.
This would keep the functionality described by waxcylinder (cancel TR and record manually) but would still protect naive users from destroying their recording.

Yes, I agree cassette recorders don't have cancel buttons - but modern PVRs usually have a "Cancel" somewhere (sometimes called delete) and that is normally used to totally remove a future scheduled recording, so users could be aware of the more drastic result of invoking a Cancel.

Greying out once the recording has started is a good idea - but then how would you protect the user who "accidentally" clicks on the little black "x" at the top right of the TR progress box once the recording has initiated?

Given Vaughan's comments on the devel email thread I'm minded to add the greying out idea to the proposal in the Wiki rather than removal of the Cancel button. Any support for this?

Peter

Peter

[steve]

You don't need the Undo if you use the "Stop" - as that leaves the recorded audio track up that point intact.

I meant that if the user wants to "Cancel" the recording after it has started then they can use "Stop" to stop the recording followed by "Ctrl+Z" (or "Edit > Undo") to undo the recording. The net result is the same as Cancel, but with less risk of accidental deletion.

how would you protect the user who "accidentally" clicks on the little black "x"

If someone can "accidentally" click the "X" then they are possibly beyond help. I think that clicking the "X" accidentally is much harder than clicking the "Cancel" button accidentally.

Given Vaughan's comments on the devel email thread I'm minded to add the greying out idea to the proposal in the Wiki rather than removal of the Cancel button. Any support for this?

I'd rather the Cancel button was greyed out than removed.

[waxcylinder]

Given Vaughan's comments on the devel email thread I'm minded to add the greying out idea to the proposal in the Wiki rather than removal of the Cancel button. Any support for this?

I'd rather the Cancel button was greyed out than removed.

I agree - another alternative would be to leave the cancel button as-is but pop up a dialog box to ask the user if they want to keep or ditch the recording made thus far - thoughts?

how would you protect the user who "accidentally" clicks on the little black "x"

If someone can "accidentally" click the "X" then they are possibly beyond help. I think that clicking the "X" accidentally is much harder than clicking the "Cancel" button accidentally.

ROFLMAO: I am more than inclined to agree

Thanks,
Peter.

[waxcylinder]

I'll try to find some time to update the Timer Record section on the Transport Menu page in the manual: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Transport_Menu#timer

Documenting what the Stop and Cancel buttons do (and how to recover if you press Cancel, or the little top right hand corner "x" in the dialog box, by mistake).

Peter.

Done a first draft of this. See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/Tran ... mer_Record...

This is something I've benn meaning to do for a while - so the nudge from this thread has been useful

Peter.