Exporting makes the project dirty (2.1.3-alpha)

[cmac185]

Running OSx 10.11.4 on MacBook Pro.

I've been noticing in version 2.1.3 alpha that there has been a change in the criteria for when the current project has changed so should be saved before closing.

I see this when I have applied an effect then saved the project under a new name then exported the audio. Closing the project causes a popup asking if I want to save changes before closing. To my thinking exporting the audio isn't a change to the project, but the popup makes me concerned that if I don't save at that point something important may get lost. Could someone help me understand what would not be saved if I elect not to save the project at this point?

Thanks.

Cliff

[steve]

Could someone help me understand what would not be saved if I elect not to save the project at this point?

"Probably" nothing, but the reason why the warning occurs is because exporting updates the projects metadata. IF you changed the metadata when you exported, then the metadata stored in the project would have changed, so closing the project without saving would lose the updated metadata. Audacity does not currently check whether the metadata has changed when you export, it just dumbly writes the metadata (which may be "empty metadata") to the exported file and that becomes the "new" metadata for the project.

[cmac185]

Thanks for the explanation.

As it is it's an irritation that I can live with, but I suspect I will not be the only one who will feel that way and not the only one that will wonder "WHY?".

It happens whether the metadata is viewed or not during the export process. At least if the Metadata was not viewed during the export process it would seem to me to be reasonable to just export the existing data so nothing need be written to the project and thus no need for the message. The best, of course, would be to check to see if the metadata had been changed before displaying the message, but of course that takes more code. Thanks for hearing me out.

Cliff

[Gale Andrews]

It happens whether the metadata is viewed or not during the export process.

I think that part is correct, because user may have changed the metadata before export.

The best, of course, would be to check to see if the metadata had been changed before displaying the message, but of course that takes more code.

OK, I think it's worth logging on Bugzilla http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1382. We'll see what happens.


Gale

[Paul L]

Cliff, thank you for noticing this. I have noticed it too. When you did change tags, it used to be, that would not correctly undo and redo. Now that is fixed. But this other undesirable consequence happened. We mean to fix the fix then.