Missing Duplicate Tracks

[oowefawe]

I spent several (and I mean numerous) hours creating duplicate tracks from clips of my master file. I planned to create several smaller files later. I created the duplicates with in the main file. Before I closed the file, and saved it with a new name, all duplicated clips were visible and working fine. When I opened the file today, all the duplicates are empty tracks. Is there a file stored somewhere that will contain my track info? I really don't want to start from scratch. This is about 6 hours of audio and I was on hour two

I have attached a screen shot of what my poor file looks like now

[steve]

Was there an error message or warning when you opened the project?

[oowefawe]

No error, though I notice now that the file is only 1.5 M. I seem to remember the file being much bigger when I was working on it.

[steve]

Is there a file stored somewhere that will contain my track info?

Yes, that's the .aup file (Audacity Project file).
If there was data missing then there would have been an error message. The absence of an error message would indicate that the project is undamaged, so I can only assume that you did not save it as you thought you did. Did you perhaps save it more than once? Could you be opening the wrong version of the project?

[oowefawe]

I can assume I am in the same file because I was working in this named file last. And when I close it and reopen it, it takes me to the marker I was at when I closed it April 15 (I documented the selection marker in a word document I was making edit notes in). Unfortunately, I had had to turn off my backup because it was sucking too much energy while I was working on the big file. So this is the only version I have except the very original version, which I guess might be the same as this version, though the data folder for this file suggests that that it has saved all the clips I cut from the file (e.g. silence, or long strands of unneeded conversation).

[oowefawe]

Thanks a lot for your help. After about 6 hours of fiddling, and searching the web for answers, it was actually operator error. I was scrolling back and forth randomly and came across one duplicate that worked. I was able to trace back and see that the previous one worked as well. I set the view to fit in window and then I could see the small slivers of duplicates that I had made. Whew! Sorry for taking up your time (and wasting my time

It seems I needed the moral support to get it sorted out. Thank you Audacity Forum and my guest helper