Audacity Forum

I can spend the day recording several tracks one at a time, one hour long. Twice now, in separate sessions, I come back to observe the recorder showing signal to be recorded in the time line then it flat lines that segment. The recording continues for another 5 seconds, showing a segment recorded then it too wipes out. This continues showing the signal only to flat line.

This time, I decided to save the tracks least I lose them so I did a Save As. When the progress bar shows up, it shows for about 5 seconds, then resets to 0s and stops there. No save activity is happening.

These may or may not be linked but they seem strangely similar.
It is a rare occurrence and this is the only time I have aver seen the save-as fail.
I can have goods sessions without any problem.

THoughts?

What kind of computer are you using?
Koz

Emerogork wrote:I can spend the day recording several tracks one at a time, one hour long. Twice now, in separate sessions, I come back to observe the recorder showing signal to be recorded in the time line then it flat lines that segment. The recording continues for another 5 seconds, showing a segment recorded then it too wipes out. This continues showing the signal only to flat line.

I assume you are still on Windows. If so, it would help us if you could post to the Windows board when you need help with something, and also give your version of Audacity (all three numbers).

Edit > Preferences... . Choose the Directories section. Set the Audacity temporary directory to a drive that has as much space as possible, choosing a folder that you have permission to write to. If you are not logged in as administrator, you cannot write to Program Files, and you cannot write to anyone's specific user space except your own.

If you have just installed Norton, turn off its Windows temporary file cleaner. That cleaner may delete your recording while you are making it. Consider if you need to set the Audacity temporary directory to some folder that does not have "temp" in its name. This may avoid possible issues with other cleanup applications. Editing the text box in Directories Preferences is the best way to remove "temp" from the folder name.


Gale

OK, this is for the "Windows" section. I was not aware that it existed. Should I repost? Can this be moved by the Sysop? Should I continue here?

To answer the questions: Win 7, Audacity 2.0.5, and all of my drives have over 500GB free.

Although I will check into the suggestions, are you saying this out of experience with the problems or are these just good ideas to check?

Emerogork wrote:Although I will check into the suggestions, are you saying this out of experience with the problems or are these just good ideas to check?

I am saying that if Audacity cannot write to the drive or folder you choose for the Audacity temporary directory, the recorded waveform will appear for a few seconds then be silenced when Audacity tries and fails to write that piece of waveform to disk.

I am saying that if you have Norton it probably will delete your recordings as you make them unless you take actions such as I indicated. Such deletion will also lead to the waveform being silenced.


Gale

The bizarre erasures stopped as soon as I exited Audacity and lost all of the tracks. I immediately restarted the program and it worked as expected.

You may want to do a SMART check on your hard drive.

If you are using a network drive for your Audacity temporary folder, don't. Network drives are too slow.

Gale

No network drive. If I were to use a network drove, would this not happen a lot more?

I have used the program many times since that incident and it has not shown this problem again however this does not stand that it will not happen again as it has in the past.

It is peculiar...

Emerogork wrote:No network drive. If I were to use a network drove, would this not happen a lot more?

Yes or more typically you would get small dropouts in the recording.

I've mentioned numerous things you can check as to the source of the problem.


Gale

Yes you have, and I appreciate your insights.
I am sure this would be easier to diagnose if I could induce the problem with some predictability....