Missing Audio Data Block File(s)

[SheilaQ]

Hey Koz,

Hmmmmm . . . I tried to find the text file you mentioned, but in all of my project _Data folders, there are only audio files. I have my system set to show hidden files, but . . . there is nothing in any of the project directories that show as that kind of text file. What am I missing?

Sheila

[SheilaQ]

Ha! Ha! Ha!

I have the originals on my laptop and thumb drive . . . just without the edits. So I DOOOOO have them. It's quite possible I got hasty in closing a file. Would be nice is Audacity would show you a "saving progress" bar then if it takes so long to save a project. I will start doing the WAV file thing. Thanks for the tip. I will forge ahead and see what I come up with. Hey, have super rest of your day!

Sheila

[kozikowski]

I tried to find the text file you mentioned

Close. The AUP file is text. It makes use of a little known property of computer files that under certain circumstances you're allowed to scramble file extensions. It is totally a text file that doesn't happen to end in .txt.

Right-click on the AUP file > Open With > List Of Programs > NotePad (whatever it is in Windows). Do not allow the program to save anything. Just look.

My illustration is from an earlier Audacity. Attached is from Audacity 2.1.2. It's harder to see, but dig a bit and it says projname="auptest_data" . I called my fake show AUPTEST.

Again casting our gaze back to the original problem, didn't Audacity volunteer to open the show anyway and substitute silence for the missing bits? I thought it normally did that.

I will admit to being an Audacity Project Virgin (so to speak). I have never used one in production. I have always used WAV (Microsoft) for everything. Be clear my job is shooting, not editing. After a shoot, I pack the whole thing up and send it upstairs to the grownup editors to chew on.

Koz

[SheilaQ]

Hi Koz,

Well, THAT makes more sense! I'll definitely try the "right click" thing . . . but likely tomorrow. I think my brain is full for the day, today. And, yes, Audacity gives you the "silence" options, but I am not well-versed enough in the software to choose something other than the "get out safely" option. Perhaps I should just get adventurous some day and play around with it.

Not so the concern that I had before. I think I may have caught the folks, for whom I was doing the project for, in a bit of a "plagerism" (spell?) snafoo. They/we cancelled the contract and I am much happier with having done so. Something just isn't right there, and I'm glad to be out of it.

But, I'll continue to pursue the things you suggested, as I know they will come in handy going forward. As always, thanks so much for your help and support. I learn something new every time you and I engage in a forum "conversation". Take good care and have a wonderful evening!

Sheila

[kozikowski]

Perhaps I should just get adventurous some day and play around with it.

There is another poster who is hanging at the top of the forum waiting for an elf to tell him it's "safe" to replace all the errors with silence. That makes more sense now. The dialog actually says that, right?

Are you in any position to post the broken.....what, chapter? You may be holding development gold there. Don't delete those files—or cover them up.

This is not a raw capture, right? This happened in the course of heavy editing.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

Would be nice is Audacity would show you a "saving progress" bar then if it takes so long to save a project.

It only does that if it is going to take more than a few seconds. It always tell you in a message at the bottom when the project has been saved, but the message is replaced if you move the mouse in the waveform.

Audacity can do project saves at different stages to different names. File > Save Project As... . You should not do any renamings and copyings by hand.

See http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/auda ... jects.html.


Gale

[SheilaQ]

Hi Gale (and Koz),

Thanks for the explanation on the "saving" thing. Apparently I did get in a hurry and perhaps closed the file too soon. I'll be move vigilant. Koz, sorry to say, I did delet the corrupt files. I'm sure I could always recreate them though. I have several other copies. And, no, this happened BEFORE any editing. I did it when I was attempting to save the raw file before I applied any effects.

I truly do think it was user error and . . . well, HASTE. I'll play with it some tomorrow and see if I can confirm that. Much thanks to you both for all your help! I'm having fun with it all and learning a lot!

Sheila