Just re-opened an Audacity project I'd been working on, and all of the tracks now appear as flat lines- no sound at all.
I had just deleted some old folders, which I had thought were nothing to do with the current project, but seem to have caused all the audio to disappear.
I restored the folders and files I'd just deleted from my recycle bin, but still nothing.
Has this happened do anyone else, and is there any way of saving the project?
Many thanks,
Rob
Disaster...
Forum rules
Audacity 1.3.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
The final version of Audacity for Windows 98/ME is the legacy 2.0.0 version.
Audacity 1.3.x is now obsolete. Please use the current Audacity 2.1.x version.
The final version of Audacity for Windows 98/ME is the legacy 2.0.0 version.
Re: Disaster...
It may to too late to save that project, but we can prevent the accident from happening again.
This article explains how Audacity handles data and why it is sometimes better to not tidy up: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ement_Tips
After reading that you will see that the audio data for a project can be anywhere on your system. In the File menu there is an option "Check Dependencies". If you click on that option it will check the location of all the currently used data and give you the option to copy it all into the project _data folder. Once you have done that, you just need to keep the AUP file and the _data folder together in the same directory.
If it was an important project, there's a slim chance that you may be able to recover the data. If you deleted the _data folder and have now restored it, open the folder and go down through the sub folder. There should be a whole load of files with names like "e0000a11.au". These are the data blocks that Audacity uses. It may be possible to reconstruct your tracks from these data blocks using one of the methods described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/CrashRecovery
This article explains how Audacity handles data and why it is sometimes better to not tidy up: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php? ... ement_Tips
After reading that you will see that the audio data for a project can be anywhere on your system. In the File menu there is an option "Check Dependencies". If you click on that option it will check the location of all the currently used data and give you the option to copy it all into the project _data folder. Once you have done that, you just need to keep the AUP file and the _data folder together in the same directory.
If it was an important project, there's a slim chance that you may be able to recover the data. If you deleted the _data folder and have now restored it, open the folder and go down through the sub folder. There should be a whole load of files with names like "e0000a11.au". These are the data blocks that Audacity uses. It may be possible to reconstruct your tracks from these data blocks using one of the methods described here: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/CrashRecovery
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Re: Disaster...
You may need to reset sound card settings. I have Realtek card Win 7
Right click sound Icon on task bar
Select Recording Devices
If Sound mix not visible right click in blank area of Recording Device window
select show hidden devices
Select Sound Mix then set as default
should bring back waveform image that has disappeared
Right click sound Icon on task bar
Select Recording Devices
If Sound mix not visible right click in blank area of Recording Device window
select show hidden devices
Select Sound Mix then set as default
should bring back waveform image that has disappeared
-
billw58
- Forum Staff
- Posts: 5565
- Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:10 am
- Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later
Re: Disaster...
@Thrax: your advice has nothing to do with the problem this user has encountered. Rob has lost the waveforms because he deleted the files that contain the recorded audio. This is not a problem of seeing a waveform while recording.
-- Bill
-- Bill
Re: Disaster...
In reply to Steve-
It's as I thought, in that the tracks in the Audacity project are referenced by filepath from their location in the _data folder, so if you move it it wont be able to find the files.
In this instance I had three versions of the same song saved in the same folder, two of which were not required, so I deleted them along with their data files. The data files for the required project were still there, but it still wiped out the audio.
I tried the 'check dependencies' function, and it told me that my projects are currently self contained.
I'll just be more careful about deleting things in future. And i've just remembered I backed up all the songs about 2 days ago. Fantastic.
The project wasn't important, really, but it was a 13 minute long folk epic. Hopefully I can restore it from my backup drive.
Thanks for your help, as usual!
Rob
It's as I thought, in that the tracks in the Audacity project are referenced by filepath from their location in the _data folder, so if you move it it wont be able to find the files.
In this instance I had three versions of the same song saved in the same folder, two of which were not required, so I deleted them along with their data files. The data files for the required project were still there, but it still wiped out the audio.
I tried the 'check dependencies' function, and it told me that my projects are currently self contained.
I'll just be more careful about deleting things in future. And i've just remembered I backed up all the songs about 2 days ago. Fantastic.
The project wasn't important, really, but it was a 13 minute long folk epic. Hopefully I can restore it from my backup drive.
Thanks for your help, as usual!
Rob