Recovering .aup that suggests importing all the "raw data"

[adamcodypearson]

Windows 8, Audacity version 2.0.6

Error message when I load an .aup: "Audacity did not recognize the type of file 'C:Users(my name)Desktopp1_fastforclimate3.aup'. If it is uncompressed, try importing it using "Import Raw"."

Somehow my computer shut down and it didn't shut audacity down properly. When I opened audacity again, it loaded in the wrong language (which was clearly a sign that things weren't good), and recovered several other files that I had also left open from the previous session. These files were restored properly. I opted to restore all three files.

The file in question, "p1_fastforclimate3.aup", which was around 6-7 minutes and very complex, with different tracks, volumes, snippets coming in and out, etc, was recovered incompletely. Only one track was displayed and it was maybe 20-40 seconds long, missing all the other elements and seemingly from the middle of the track. I thought there was some problem with the way the project loaded. I closed the project (after reading many topics in this forum, as well as http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/re ... ually.html, http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/recovery.html, http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/di ... ences.html, http://www.mesw.de/audacity/recovery/, I realize this was a mistake, but it's too late to go back in time now).

So now there is nothing in C:UsersAdamAppDataLocalTempaudacity_temp

But I know I had saved the project correctly before the computer was (improperly) shut down. When I import the individual files from the p1_fastforclimate3 folder, the audio is there (just in snippet form).

It seems most of the audacity recovery utilities are designed for older versions of audacity. and I really struggle to understand how to run scripts for recover/automatic compilation of the audio.

I have a backup from 3 hours earlier and I'd rather avoid trying to redo the work, if it's possible.

So this is all very puzzling to me. I understand it wasn't shut down correctly and I didn't recover properly, but everything is still there in the folder, so I should be able to get things back to where they were, right?

For any kind soul who may be willing to take a look at the files, I've uploaded a zip with the .aup and the folder of data. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ictutup5jq7h ... 3.zip?dl=0

Thanks for any perspectives or thoughts. I appreciate any feedback.

[kozikowski]

Did you just double click the AUP file? It won't Import. It's not sound. It's programming language.

The AUP file is the list of instructions how to put your Project back together from all the snippets.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

The file in question, "p1_fastforclimate3.aup", which was around 6-7 minutes and very complex, with different tracks, volumes, snippets coming in and out, etc, was recovered incompletely. Only one track was displayed and it was maybe 20-40 seconds long, missing all the other elements and seemingly from the middle of the track. I thought there was some problem with the way the project loaded. I closed the project (after reading many topics in this forum, as well as http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/re ... ually.html, http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/recovery.html, http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/di ... ences.html, http://www.mesw.de/audacity/recovery/, I realize this was a mistake, but it's too late to go back in time now).

Just in case you need to know for future, if you close a recovered project without saving changes you can still go back to the last-saved state of the AUP file if you had previously saved an AUP file. This assumes the audio data or the AUP was not corrupted.

If you close the recovered project and save changes when the data is incorrect, you overwrite any previously correct saved AUP file and a backup is your only option.

I have a backup from 3 hours earlier and I'd rather avoid trying to redo the work, if it's possible.

Well done for having a backup.

For any kind soul who may be willing to take a look at the files, I've uploaded a zip with the .aup and the folder of data. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ictutup5jq7h ... 3.zip?dl=0

The AUP file is corrupted. Just 73 kB of NULL's which will look empty in a text editor. That's why Audacity won't open it and thinks it could be raw data.

There is nothing you can do to manually recover that data on dropbox without a valid AUP file - those processes only work with unedited recordings.

I hope the backup up AUP and _data folder are OK.


Gale

[adamcodypearson]

Thanks, Gale. I think what had happened was that the file became corrupted in between the backup and the more current saved version. I remember a weird thing happening when I pasted a chunk of audio, where a split was visible in the left channel, but not the right channel, and the program kept shutting down if I would click anywhere near it.

Since I kept saving a corrupted file, it was doomed anyway. I guess I'll have to redo the work, but I appreciate that you took a look and weighed in.

regards

[kozikowski]

You are not intended to keep saving backups on top of old backups. You should have a series of individual backups all with different dates and times. And use ISO dates. Today is 2015-01-25.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

I remember a weird thing happening when I pasted a chunk of audio, where a split was visible in the left channel, but not the right channel, and the program kept shutting down if I would click anywhere near it.

Was that a black vertical split line? If so, clicking near those is a known cause of occasional crashes.

You can try selecting over the split line then Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join.

If a project becomes unstable then if you don't mind losing envelope points and any other project-specific data, you can export each track as a WAV then import the WAV(s) into a new project and save that.

To do incremental backups, File > Save Project As... .


Gale