PLEASE HELP - RECOVER AUP3 FILE

Hello Please Help!

I’m using Linux Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Audacity 3.0.2
Installed from… don’t remember

So, I recorded an interview over Audacity. Saved the file as a project, then began editing and while it was saving I got a few error messages about disk space, freed up disk space and then for all intents and purposes the project was saved (as in 100% completed) and then after a moment or two Audacity closed without any prompts.

I now get a “Audacity failed to read from a file in …” …It is a local file and I have it saved but it is 4.7gb

Please help! How can I recover the file, or at the very least the audio (there was only a single audio track saved on it).

Thanks in advance
C

I’m not optimistic about recovery, but we can try.
Is Ubuntu installed in one partition along with your home folder (it is by default, but that can be customised).

I’m guessing that you changed the actual path to “…”, or did it it literally say “…”?
If it was an actual path, did it begin with:
/home//

How much free space is there now in your home folder?

Hi Steve

Thank you for your quick reply. Ubuntu came pre-installed on the computer so I imagine it’s installed alongside the home folder yes.

Re: the file directory I just simply didn’t fill it in, but it was from the Desktop

If it was an actual path, did it begin with:
/home//desktop

Yes ^^^ it did

Free space in Home Folder = 5.4GB

Do you just have a project AUP3 file, or is there also an AUP3-WAL file?
If not, do you recall seeing an AUP3-WAL file?

How long (approximately) is the project, and how many tracks does it have?

Do you have an external drive where you could temporarily keep a backup copy of the project if we try to fix it?

Hi Steve,

As far as I can see there is only the AUP3 file. I searched for AUP3-WAL but couldn’t find anything.

The project is about 1 hour and 50 minutes. It is on a single track.

I have backed up the file to an external hard drive and made a zip of it on that drive just in case. Shall I send you a zipped version of the file? Via dropbox or something like that?

Good.

Not now.

4.7 GB looks rather large.
Mono or stereo?
Did you use the default 44100 Hz sample rate?
Does the name or path to the project file contain an apostrophe (single quote character)?

On a scale of 0 to 5, where 0=technophobe and 5=uber-geek, how would you describe your level of computer skills?

It is a stereo track.

4.7 GB looks rather large.
The file had undergone noise reduction before it was saved (the 2nd time), so perhaps it grew in size.

Did you use the default 44100 Hz sample rate?
Yes, that should’ve been the default sample rate - 44100Hz

Does the name or path to the project file contain an apostrophe (single quote character)?
No

On a scale of 0 to 5, where 0=technophobe and 5=uber-geek, how would you describe your level of computer skills?
Regarding Ubuntu, somewhere around 1.

OK, I’ll be gentle :smiley:

Are you OK with installing apps from the Ubuntu repository?
If so, install “DB Browser for SQLite”.

It’s late here now. I’ll be back tomorrow.

Haha thanks. I’ve been using it for 5-6 years, but never as a developer, so rudimentary skills at best.

DB Browser for SQLite is installed

Untill tomorrow.

Thanks again.

  1. Launch DB Browser for SQLite
  2. “File menu > Open Database” and select “All file types” in the file type filter so that you can see the AUP3 file.
  3. Select the AUP3 file and open it.
  4. If you get an error, what is it?
    If the AUP3 file opens, continue to the next step.
  5. “Tool menu > Integrity Check”
  6. Click “OK” on the pop-up window.
  7. You should see something like this (below). What do you get?
  8. “File menu > Close Database”
  9. Quit DB Browser for SQLite

screenshot.png

today.png

Data = Null :angry:

At least I recorded the interview separately, but I take it you have to have ample space on a computer for this not to happen (i.e. that the disk doesn’t get full). So far, It seems like it’s somewhere in the 10gb+ range.

I imagine I should always save it as an audio file before saving it as a project if its only a single track, right?

Thanks for your help
C

Not necessarily bad. The bit that I was interested in was the “OK” result in the “Integrity check” box.

  1. Launch DB Browser for SQLite
  2. “File menu > Open Database” and select “All file types” in the file type filter so that you can see the AUP3 file.
  3. Select the AUP3 file and open it.
  4. Take a screenshot.
  5. “File menu > Close Database”
  6. Quit DB Browser for SQLite
  7. Post the screenshot in your reply

This will give me an idea of whether the project looks “normal”, at least superficially.

Yes, definitely. When recording, it is good to export as a WAV (or FLAC) file straight away as the first thing after pressing the Stop button. The same applies to any recording app - get a backup of the original recording asap. It may be bad to lose a load of editing, but it’s worse to lose the original recording.

today1.png

OK, usual procedure for opening and closing the project in DB Browser for SQLite… (don’t forget to “File menu > Close Database” before quitting)

Run “Tools menu > Compact Database” on the project, (then close and quit).
Then try opening the project in Audacity.

Did all of that, choosing both “main” and “temp” for compact database and followed all other instructions.

The file opens with the proper runtime but is empty. The same original error message arises.

It’s looking more unlikely that we will be able to recover anything, though I’d like to gain some insight into what went wrong.

My guess is that you ran out of disk space at a critical time when there was a lot of data in the WAL file - that’s a kind of temp file. Normally any data in the WAL file that is a part of the project is transferred in one go when the project is closed, consolidating the entire project into the one AUP3 file. Due to lack of disk space, that transfer failed, causing all modified data since the previous save (possibly “all” of the audio data) was lost.

We may be able to learn something from looking at the “sampleblocks” table in the “Browse Data” tab.
Below shows that for a small perfectly formed project. What does it look like for your project?
(Note, you may need to resize some of the columns to see what’s in them).

sqlite.png

Screenshot from 2021-06-30 18-19-32.png

Same as last time, but instead of selecting “Table: sampleblocks”, select “Table: autosave” (one screeshot), and again for “Table: project” (another screenshot).

There is clearly a lot of audio data still there, but the question is whether we can access it other than as random 6 second chunks.