Made copy, deleted, which deleted original file -> recovery?

[Canyarion]

Yesterday I lost an Audacity project and I hope I can still recover it. I just need to know how. Thanks in advance!

Here’s what I did:

I had Audacity project A, which contained some short clips. (If you’re curious, it was a ‘blooper reel’ from a series of podcasts me and some friends do.)
I decided I wanted a new Audacity Project with a similar name. Instead of manually making a new one and saving that, I decided to copy my project A and then rename it.

So I made this copy, which was tentatively called “copy of Project A”. I renamed it “Project B.”
I then opened that… and deleted all clips.
I saved this project.

Then I checked my Project A again… and it gave an error. I also noticed that the folder with the project files had disappeared.
I took a look in my Recycle Bin, but it wasn’t there. I tried undoing the renaming of Project B, but obviously that didn’t change anything either.

So basically I now have an empty Project B and a faulty Project A.
Unfortunately I cannot copy-paste the error message here, because I’m not at my own PC right now. I can do it later if it helps. It’s partly in Dutch though [which I hate, I guess I’ll install the English version soon].
I also don't know for sure what version of Audacity I'm running, but almost a year ago I installed the latest version.
I'm running Windows 7.

Is there any way to retrieve my project? Thanks a lot!

Gr, Canyarion

[steve]

The safe way to make a copy of a project is to open the project in Audacity, then use "File menu > Save Project As..."

I didn't quite follow your description, but if you can't find the data files then I doubt that the project can be recovered.
To avoid repeating the tragedy, please see this article; http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/au ... jects.html

To change the Interface language, please see here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... l#language

[Canyarion]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, now I realize this is not a safe way to make a copy.

What I think happened is this:
I made a copy of Project A, but the copy was still linked with the original data folder. I then deleted all recordings in the copy... and saved that. That apparently told Audacity to delete the original data folder.

So Audacity deleted my data folder and I can't find it anywhere. Is there an undo-feature in Audacity, or another option?
I know a file recovery program should work, but the last time I checked, such programs aren't free. And I don't want to pay for just a blooper reel.
Thanks again!

[steve]

While an Audacity project is open you can undo operations that you performed with Audacity by using "Edit menu > Undo" (shortcut; Ctrl + Z).
This will not work for anything that you did outside of Audacity.
The Undo history is cleared (emptied) when you close the project.

[Canyarion]

Ok, thanks.

Perhaps a mod can move this to the suggestions or bugs forum then? Because it's illogical that Audacity removes the original data folder if you change something in the copy file... right? It would be more logical to get a message saying that the name of the file and that of the data folder don't match anymore. Or any message that warns you of this!

Thanks for the responses.

[steve]

Because it's illogical that Audacity removes the original data folder if you change something in the copy file... right?

That's the bit that I didn't follow. Audacity doesn't do that.

It would be more logical to get a message saying that the name of the file and that of the data folder don't match anymore. Or any message that warns you of this!

Like this?

error.png (11.93 KiB) Viewed 502 times

So I made this copy, which was tentatively called “copy of Project A”. I renamed it “Project B.”
I then opened that… and deleted all clips.

What exactly did you delete?

[Gale Andrews]

If you must make a copy of a project using the file manager, exit the project, then create a new folder. Copy the AUP file and _data folder. Paste into the new folder you created.

The problem you had is that you did the copy in the same folder, which means you must rename the project.

Basically the problem is a kind of "bug", but not one that developers would be keen on addressing as it is user error. I know exactly what the problem is because I discovered the "bug". I don't think it is on bugzilla at the moment but it will be added sometime. It's not a "feature request".

There are several free file recovery programs such as Pandora, assuming you have a magnetic drive and not a solid state drive. See http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecov ... ograms.htm .


Gale