Project can not be retrieved

Help for Audacity on Windows.
Forum rules
ImageThis forum is for Audacity on Windows.
Please state which version of Windows you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".


Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
Post Reply
passamezzo
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 28, 2016 1:06 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Project can not be retrieved

Post by passamezzo » Sat May 28, 2016 2:14 am

I am using windows 7 and Audacity 2.1.2. I was editing a project and I tried to delete a portion of the track however I by mistake hit the back space key and the project
disappeared. I am very new to this software and have tried for hours to retrieve the project with no success. Please help

Al Plouff
KB2MVP

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 69384
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Project can not be retrieved

Post by kozikowski » Sat May 28, 2016 3:01 am

Edit > UNDO didn't work? Audacity keeps complete show copies in cache just to make the UNDO thing work.

If you close Audacity anywhere in the process Audacity will clear the cache, and Audacity Projects do not save UNDO.

I don't know how valuable this will be since you didn't crash.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/recovery.html

Koz

passamezzo
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 28, 2016 1:06 am
Operating System: Windows 7

Re: Project can not be retrieved

Post by passamezzo » Sat May 28, 2016 5:09 pm

When I hit the back space key the waveform disappeared. I then closed and saved changes to the project. The undo does not do anything and I have tried just about anything within Audacity
to find the waveform. This is the second time I have lost this project. It was a simple editing project nothing special.

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 69384
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: Project can not be retrieved

Post by kozikowski » Sat May 28, 2016 7:48 pm

Projects do not save UNDO. Once you save a project and exit, that's the end of the world.
back space key the waveform disappeared.
There is a destructive backspace key (upper right).

What was the goal for doing that?

Koz

Gale Andrews
Quality Assurance
Posts: 41761
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:02 am
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: Project can not be retrieved

Post by Gale Andrews » Sat May 28, 2016 11:45 pm

passamezzo wrote:When I hit the back space key the waveform disappeared. I then closed and saved changes to the project. The undo does not do anything
You have to Undo (hold CTRL and press Z) before closing the project. If you tell Audacity to close and save an empty track, it won't ask you whether you really mean that.
passamezzo wrote:This is the second time I have lost this project.
BACKSPACE is a delete key. By default if you have no grey selection area in the waveform, Audacity applies commands to the whole project, to save you having to select all the waveform first.

So BACKSPACE when there is no selection will then delete all the project's audio.

You can do two things. Open Keyboard Preferences, search for "delete" (without typing the quotes), then click to select "DeleteKey" and press "Clear" then OK. If you do this, BACKSPACE will then do nothing.

Or open Tracks Preferences, click in the box that says "Select all audio in project, if none selected:" so as to remove its checkmark, then click OK. After that, many of the menus will be greyed out until you select some audio. If you want to select all the project's audio in that case, hold CTRL and press A to "Select All".


Gale
________________________________________FOR INSTANT HELP: (Click on Link below)
* * * * * Tips * * * * * Tutorials * * * * * Quick Start Guide * * * * * Audacity Manual

Post Reply