Keeping Temp files longer or autosave feature

[metaphob]

It would be nice to be able to either keep the Temp files until we decide to delete them. We do a lot of phone interviews and use Audacity to record them. I have had either Audacity or Windows crash and most of the time Audacity did what it was designed too and recovered them perfectly. There where a couple instances where I had to go to the temp folder and manually do it and now I am pretty confident that as long as the temp files are there I can recovery every time. We did have a case where someone closed Audacity and said do not save and then the temp file was no longer there and I used Recuva to get most of the segments back but was not that great a recording after I recovered it. If there was a way to keep all the temp files 2 or 3 days or even until someone deleted them manually that would be great and have a much higher chance of being able to recovery anything without any issues. You could make it an option for those that do not want to keep temp files longer than needed since potentially this could take a lot of room or just have a setting that says keep X amount of space.

Thank you.

[steve]

If you Save a project, even an empty project, then from that time on Audacity will write all of its data into the project _data folder and not into the temp folder. So if you want to save all of the temp data, use "Save As" from the file menu as your first step. You will then have a _data folder for the project that you can copy as and when you want to.

[metaphob]

Ohhh I did not know that it would save what normally goes into the temp file into that folder. Do you know does it save that data after audacity is closed or is it still like the temp files that will be erased once closed and someone selected not to save?

[metaphob]

Actually I just tested it and it does erase that folder as soon as it is closed as well.

[Gale Andrews]

Yes, saving the project (answering "Yes" to "Save Changes?") moves the autosave temporary project file over to the AUP project file (deleting the autosave file) and moves the temporary data to the _data folder for the project. So, saving the AUP project clears the temp folder, but you can reopen the saved project after closing and restarting Audacity (or at any time) by using File > Recent Files.

You should investigate the Windows crashes, does this help http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/fa ... tml#reboot ?

The existing autosave feature is what allows Audacity to recover unsaved data following a crash - see http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/au ... l#autosave and read the rest of that page to learn about Audacity projects.

I am not sure what meaning "No" to "Save Changes?" would have if the temp folder was kept. Does it mean keeping a separate autosave file with its associated timestamped _data folder? If so how does this differ from saving a project?

Possibly it would mean not presenting "Save Changes?" if you enabled the option you suggest and there was sufficient disk space within the limit you set to save the autosave file and temp folder.

There are a minority of users who want a Preference to disable "Save Changes?" but the current view I have of that is that it would be too dangerous unless user had just exported the entire project. Saving temporary projects up to a disk space limit might be another solution but I can easily imagine people relying on it too much and then wishing they had set a higher space limit.


Gale

[Gale Andrews]

if you want to save all of the temp data, use "Save As" from the file menu as your first step. You will then have a _data folder for the project that you can copy as and when you want to.

Note that the recommended procedure if you want to have backups of projects (for example the project state at 10 AM on Wednesday morning) is to use File > Save Project As and save as a new name including the date and time for example

Code: Select all

1000_feb13_2013.aup

If you use Windows to make a backup, create a new folder then copy the AUP file and _data folder for that project into the new folder. Other methods are not safe.


Gale

[metaphob]

Yes but we had someone that was done recording a 2 hour interview and for no reason just closed Audacity and when was prompted to save she, without reading anything, clicked no. This was completely her fault and she does know better. What my suggestion was so when rare accidents like this happen could there be a way to better recover the data. That is why I was wondering about the ability to keep the temp file portion longer or after Audacity is closed. Unfortunately I cannot control everyone and we do have some people that are not very IT inclined so there are weird mistakes made no matter how much I try and teach them. I hope this helps clarify what I was trying to get across.

[Gale Andrews]

The way to better recover the data if saying don't save changes when you meant to save, is to already have saved a project. In that case, all that is discarded are the changes since the last project save.

If you want some way of saying "save" when you said "don't save", then I think you may as well not ask whether to save, since your feature would save a "permanent" temporary project irrespective.


Gale

[waxcylinder]

Much better practise and safer to Save a proper Audacity Project as soon as you open Audacity. AFAIK it doesn't even use temp files if you save the project straight away like this. You can always delete the project later if you really don't need it.

The clue is in the name "temp" files

WC

[DJSmith9]

I'd like to second that request from Metaphob. We've got the same situation at my church. The occasional newbie doesn't pay attention to what they're doing and closes without saving. I tested the "saving before recording" idea and it kept the project file but deleted all the audio files, so something else is needed here. The settable option idea to "leave temp files" (which would only apply in the case that the project had not been named before recording, because otherwise they would not be "temp" files right?) is merely asking that WE be responsible for temp file cleanup - a not unreasonable option given that web browsers also leave tons of temp files laying around. In a place that has one IT person who does regular maintenance on the computer and a lot of newbies who are otherwise manning the software on a weekly basis (like at our church), this is a very workable solution. What's the big deal here? The only software change is to not delete the temp files, no big convoluted re-design of the back up features. Thanks for considering...

Dave