importing mp3 files

[bawe]

mp3 files cannot be imported into Audacity if they have a backslash '' anywhere in the name of the file. I had no problems importing such files into other programs though, even if they had the backslash character in the file's name. Is this a problem with LAME or Audacity?

[steve]

Which version of Audacity are you using? (Look in "Help > About Audacity").
With the current 2.0.4 version of Audacity on Linux I have no problem importing MP3 files that have a backslash in the name. However, I'd not normally use backslash in a file name - if I want to use that file on a Windows machine I'd have to rename it as backslash is not a valid file name character on Windows.

[bawe]

I'm using Audacity v2.0.2 running under OS X Lion. It's about time I've installed the latest update, but I don't think it would make any difference. Other programs don't have any problem importing files with a backslash in their name.

[kozikowski]

Other programs don't have any problem

Other Mac programs. At work we have a policy of no punctuation marks or spaces in filenames because our files have to travel to any of three computer types of any age all over earth. If this is a Mac-centric problem, then the Mac programming will have to be inspected and possibly corrected. There aren't a lot of Mac programmers so be patient.

Koz

[kozikowski]

It's about time I've installed the latest update

If you're happy with the version you have, I'd probably stay there. 2.0.4 introduced quite a few Mac problems and 2.0.5 will be out shortly.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

I'm using Audacity v2.0.2 running under OS X Lion. It's about time I've installed the latest update, but I don't think it would make any difference. Other programs don't have any problem importing files with a backslash in their name.

It wouldn't make any difference - Audacity seems to have a problem with the backslash when opening or importing.

But as a workaround, you can drag the file into Audacity.

LAME is for MP3 export, not MP3 import, and you should as far as I know be able to export files with a backslash in the name.

But you can't save AUP projects with a backslash in the name.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

Audacity seems to have a problem with the backslash when opening or importing. But as a workaround, you can drag the file into Audacity.

A developer did look into this, but it's a problem with a file name check function in WxWidgets which doesn't work properly on Mac, but still has to work on Windows which is more restrictive about allowable file name characters.

To fix it, the all the instances of the function would have to be replaced in the entire source code with our own custom function, then ensure all new code that we may write uses the custom function.

So there is a bug open for this ( http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=666 ) but no immediate fix is likely.


Gale