Aww, snap! Why are my .aup files suddenly inacessible?

What have I done?

I’m using snappy Ubuntu 20.04 with Audacity 3.0.2 on an instillation run from the distro. Suddenly, I can’t open or save any .aup files. I can’t export any other supported type.

On a scale of 10, my Linux skills are .02.
0.19827043271, to be exact, but I round up.

I’ve used Audacity for years as a reliable sound editor and recorder. After a hiatus and acquisition of a new machine, I’ve been gleefully producing for about a week without a hitch… until I was warned by a dialogue box that my disk is full…

My disk? Naw! Plenty space.

So, I dive deeper to find that my temp files are dominated by huge snaps… One week and three projects in. I trash some unnecessary files. Come to find, I’m getting new dialogue box messages. Fun ones.

I’ve included screenshots of what happens when I try to open or save .aup files, and when I attempt to export any supported file type. Please help me, oh gods of Audacity? I’ve no clue what I’m doing. See handle for reference.

Thanks in advance. IDK what I did or can do, but it’s pretty clear this snap crap is just that.

  • a noob

file:///home/bee/Pictures/Screenshot_20210712_201048.png
file:///home/bee/Pictures/Screenshot_20210712_201109.png
file:///home/bee/Pictures/Screenshot_20210712_201314.png
file:///home/bee/Pictures/Screenshot_20210712_201444.png

*0.019827043271/10 AKA exactly.

Please halp?

It’s possible to have “drive issues” in Audacity if you use unfortunate filenames. Upper case, lower case, numbers, Underscore and -Dash- are the only safe characters to use in filenames. Today is 2021-07-12. That’s an ISO date. No slash marks. Slashes can be very dangerous.

Audacity 3.0.2 doesn’t use AUP files and _DATA folders. It uses the Unitary File Format and it stuffs everything into one AUP3 file. If you’re accustomed to tiny, adorable AUP files, this will be a shock. AUP3 files can be huge with all the data material stuffed in there in addition to the instructions to make your show.

Audacity 3.0.2 won’t make a new AUP file, but it should open all your old ones.

Koz

To make the pictures show up on the forum, you need to upload them to the forum. See here: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1

Yes, thanks for the clarification regarding attachments. Had done them properly, then saved a draft to find they didn’t turn up in the post. Hopefully, these are visible. It’s the first two I’d tried to send, depicting what happens when I attempt to open a previously saved .aup file.
Screenshot_20210712_201109.png
Screenshot_20210712_201048.png

Here are two depicting what happens when I attempt to save a new .aup file. Please note no unfortunate naming etc.
Screenshot_20210712_201325.png
Screenshot_20210712_201314.png

Here’s the problem:

export.png
The AUP3 (project) file has been saved inside the snap container.
Snap containers are sandboxed and limit access to files.

See if you can copy the “Faded.aup3” file to your “Documents” folder, and then try opening that copy.

When you save a project or export an audio file, ensure that you are saving it to a normal folder where you have full read / write access (such as your “Documents” or “Music” directory, and NOT inside the …/snap/audacity/… folder.

Resolved!

Yes, copying to Documents did the trick.

Thanks for the replies! Good advice, Steve and Koz. I’ll be sure to save far away from the snap sandpit… and watch for unfortunate names and dangerous dashes.

Seriously good. After this, I think my Linux skills are now truly a 0.02 without any rounding.

Cheers!

:smiley: