Can't save my projects!

[foose4string]

I'm having a problem saving my projects. Everytime I want to save an audacity project, I get a error message that says disk space is full. I have at least 150 gigs free on the hard disk that I am trying to save to. There should be plenty of room on that disc. I am using windows XP if that helps. I can export stuff as WAV, MP3, etc., but I can't save .aud as I normally would. This is driving me nuts as I can't save and later recall an entire project with everything intact. What gives? I think this started happening after I downloaded and installed 1.3....but I can't be sure.

[Gale Andrews]

You can't save as .aud (the extension is .aup), but that isn't the problem.

What three-section version number of Audacity are you using (see Help > About Audacity)? If you do not have the current 1.3.14, please upgrade to it after resolving the current problem:
http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

The failure to save may be indicative of the project about to fail, if it has not already. Or it might not mean that.

So we can obtain any relevant information, please first of all click Help > Show Log..., then in the log, click Log > Save. Please attach the log here, using "Upload attachment" underneath the area where you post messages. Please also attach a copy of the .aup file.

Then I would suggest you select each track in turn and export as WAV (or File > Export Multiple by tracks). Export the label track if you have one.

Then you can try a couple of things but I am not sure they will help - please let us know if either does.

• Edit > Select All , Edit > Copy, File > New, Edit > Paste. This will preserve any envelope points you may have. Then try saving the project as a different name and to a different directory
• Click File > Open Metadata Editor, and press the "Clear" button. This will only help if the project contains files you imported and their metadata is corrupt.

If you could not save the project and there has not been much change since your last save, you could verify the WAV files are OK then just quit and not save the changes. If there have been lots of changes, you might as well force quit Audacity using Windows Task Manager and see what Audacity can recover when you reopen it.



Gale

[kozikowski]

There should be plenty of room on that disc

How about your system disk? 80GB and 78.3GB used?

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

There should be plenty of room on that disc

How about your system disk? 80GB and 78.3GB used?

If foose4string is saving the project for the first time then (s)he could look at Edit > Preferences: Directories and make sure the temporary directory isn't full. If it's all but full then it could create a problem moving the data over to the project's _data folder.

It's also possible the user could have a space quota operating on the drive so that there is enough space to export but not to save the project with its undo history. To solve that one, click View > History, increment "Levels To Discard" to the maximum, then press "Discard" then OK.


Gale

[foose4string]

Yes, I meant .aup...sorry. I am using version 1.3.8. I'll go ahead and update.


There is 230 gig available in the temp directory, so it's not that.....but seems as though Gale solved the issue. I cleared the undo history and then tried saving and it appears to have worked! Thanks a bunch.

[steve]

The temporary directory used by Audacity may not be the same as your system's temp directory.
To check (and optionally set) the location of Audacity's temporary folder, look in "Edit > Preferences > Directories"
Also on that screen "Play and/or record using RAM" should not be enabled.

[foose4string]

ok... it let me save, but now I can't open the project. If I click directly on the .aup file, it produces an error saying it cannot open the file and launches into version 1.2.3. If I open Audacity 1.3.8 first, then open the project via the file menu, it works fine. Looks like an older version of Audacity is getting in the way. How do I fix this issue? How do I get rid of the older version? And, will this happen again when when I upgrade to 3.4.14 ?

[foose4string]

The temporary directory used by Audacity may not be the same as your system's temp directory.
To check (and optionally set) the location of Audacity's temporary folder, look in "Edit > Preferences > Directories"
Also on that screen "Play and/or record using RAM" should not be enabled.

The temp folder is in the "local settings" folder in documents and settings. Should I create a folder elsewhere? RAM is not enable for play and record.

[Gale Andrews]

ok... it let me save, but now I can't open the project. If I click directly on the .aup file, it produces an error saying it cannot open the file and launches into version 1.2.3.

That is presumably because the file association with .aup files is pointing to 1.2.3. (And again, that is a really, really old version).

If I open Audacity 1.3.8 first, then open the project via the file menu, it works fine. Looks like an older version of Audacity is getting in the way. How do I fix this issue? How do I get rid of the older version?

There are problems on Windows with associating a program with a particular type of file (.aup in this case) if there are multiple copies of the program called the same (Audacity.exe in this case). The simplest is to uninstall 1.2.3 using the Windows Control Panel.

will this happen again when when I upgrade to 3.4.14 ?

I can't say it won't because there are rare but possible file writing problems that show those symptoms which I thought you were encountering. Your log doesn't show that, although it does show there are files in the _data folder that are not needed for the project. 1.3.8 does (as I recall) have a bug - now fixed - where silence in the audio data prevented saving. You may have come across that.

So please upgrade to 1.3.14. If you like Audacity, please subscribe here:
http://audacityteam.org/#announce

to receive an e-mail when we release new versions of Audacity. To subscribe, enter your e-mail address and click "Add".

The temp folder is in the "local settings" folder in documents and settings. Should I create a folder elsewhere?

The temp folder sounds as if it is in your user space so it should be fine. The Directories preferences will show the space available but it won't take any account of space quotas on the drive that prevent you using more than a certain amount of the available space.



Gale

[foose4string]

There are problems on Windows with associating a program with a particular type of file (.aup in this case) if there are multiple copies of the program called the same (Audacity.exe in this case). The simplest is to uninstall 1.2.3 using the Windows Control Panel.




Gale

There are no instances of version 1.2.3 listed in the add remove programs of the control panel...only the 1.3.14 version. How do I find and safely remove 1.2.3? Is there a way to manually uninstall it?