My .aup file won't open

[Miranda_Black]

I have read about 15 posts regarding "opening audacity files" but still don't have a solution.
When I hit OPEN, audacity does not go to a specific audacity folder. I have to search for MAUD and an audacity file appears as a .aup file. When I hit open, it reads an error that it CANNOT OPEN.

Relevant points:
-I last used this file in May 2020. It's a recording of my 100 year old great aunt so it is worth my efforts to recover.

-I do not believe the .aup file and the _data folder are in the "same location" (ie: they are not in the same folder)...could that be why and HOW do I "move" them to the same location?

I searched around and found the text edit file...there is data in there and it corresponds to the name of the file (it has projname=MAUD in there)

I was worried that updating Audacity might make the file from last year incompatible so I have NOT updated.
I am using Mojave Mac.

-I also have a bunch of files that end with .au. These open and I can play them but they are not in the right order and it would be a monumental task to put all these 20-30 second files together again.
Does anyone have some thoughts?
Thanks in advance for your help

[Miranda_Black]

More clues: The error message in full says:
"Couldn't find project data folder" and then,
"Could not load file"

The file is 613KB...so there's something in there.
Trouble is how to access.
Thanks again for your help.

[steve]

I do not believe the .aup file and the _data folder are in the "same location" (ie: they are not in the same folder)...could that be why

Yes that could be the problem, and ...

"Couldn't find project data folder"

That indicates that it IS the problem.

When a project is saved, there is an "aup" file and a "_data" folder.
Example, if you save as "MyProject", then Audacity creates a file "MyProject.aup" and a folder "MyProject_data".

Are you able to locate the "_data" folder for your project? (It is absolutely essential as that's where the audio data is.)

[Miranda_Black]

I believe I have found it, yes...it end in _data.
When I click on it, it opens a file that called eff. When I click though that, some of the files have nothing in them (d00, for example), but most that I click have quite a number of .au files in them (d0a for example).
Each of these files will open in audacity but they are seconds of the interview. There are hundreds of them.

[steve]

Each of these files will open in audacity but they are seconds of the interview. There are hundreds of them.

Don't mess with those files. The file and folder names are critical.

Just move the entire _data folder to the same location as its .aup file, then open the .aup file with Audacity.