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Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:12 am
by rj7500
For whatever reason I have lost the .aup file for a project. I found the data folder, can I reconstruct the project from the data folder?

Bob H

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:01 am
by kozikowski
Did you do any editing, filtering, or production? Then no. Production scrambles the clip order.

You should go to extraordinary effort to find out what happened to the AUP file. Unless you know exactly what happened, it's likely to happen again. Did you use standard characters inside the filename? No standard dates or anything with slash or other punctuation marks.

How long was the show in minutes or hours?

Did Audacity crash or did you finish up a project and saved it, closed the computer and the AUP file was gone when you turned everything on the following day? Describe step-by-step what exactly happened.

What do we know about your computer? Which Windows? Which Audacity in actual numbers?

Koz

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:30 pm
by rj7500
Ok, here's the deal
I left the project on my desktop and when I went back to it I clicked on the fit project button and all the data disappeared from the Audacity desktop. I had only recorded the file, I did name the file which is how I found the data folder. The filename was simply Little Big Horn.
I did a search for all *aup* files and that one didn't appear in the search.

Audacity 2.0.3
Windows XP SP 3

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:02 pm
by steve
rj7500 wrote:I went back to it I clicked on the fit project button and all the data disappeared from the Audacity desktop.
Do you mean that the waveform in Audacity disappeared (became a flat line)? Or did Audacity crash, or freeze, or something else?

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:56 pm
by rj7500
The waveform became a flatline. I wish Audacity had crashed, that way I could recover anything lost..

I've since recorded the project but I just want to know that it won't happen again.

Thanks

Bob H

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 5:59 pm
by steve
My first guess is that you moved, renamed or deleted "dependent" files. (see here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/au ... pendencies)
Is that possible?

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:34 pm
by Gale Andrews
steve wrote:My first guess is that you moved, renamed or deleted "dependent" files. (see here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/au ... pendencies)
Is that possible?
I would doubt it, if it was one of Bob's voiceover recordings.

Where did you save the project - have you lost permission to access that folder?

Have you left the project open since this happened?

Is there an autosave file at Documents and Settings<your user name>Application DataAudacityAutoSave?


Gale

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:42 pm
by rj7500
The project was never saved, it was left open on my desktop while I tended to some other business.
Once I determined that the project was no longer on my hard drive or any of the removable drives, I closed Audacity.
No file from yesterday's session exists in the Auto Save folder in Applications, Audacity Auto Save

Bob H

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:15 pm
by kozikowski
The project was never saved
Then where did the Project folder come from? You only get one of those when you Save a Project.

On the other hand, if you did not Save a Project, then the temporary cached sound clips would have been cleared when you closed Audacity.

Leaving an unsaved or unexported show open while you go shopping is a very bad idea. If anything at all happens to the machine or any of the parts that Audacity is standing on, the show goes straight into the dustbin. I believe it's still true that we recommend opening Audacity and Save a Project before you even start recording anything.

Koz

Re: Lost Project

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:17 pm
by rj7500
Trust me I learned that. Thanks for you help but the project is rerecorded and being edited as we speak.

Always a pleasure dealing with you folks.

Bob H