Audacity Suddenly Stopped Saving File

[Wild Honey]

Hey all, I use Audacity (2.0.0) several times a week and have never had any issues. I'm on Windows 7. Suddenly the files are not saving with the right extension. I don't remember if I got the exe installer or the zip.

The file goes through the process of saving as mp3 or wav file just fine but when the saving is finished the file extension is blank, even though it shows the size. And I can't open the file.

See screenshot next to 'file' - it's empty and how it shows no mp3 icon next to the file itself? It does that whether I save as mp3 or wave file.

Never had this happen before. Didn't make any changes to the program. Any ideas?

[steve]

Don't use the dot (".") character in file names.
Windows treats whatever is after the dot as the "file extension", and relies on that to know what sort of file it is.
Audacity will automatically add the correct file extension to the file name, provided that you don't enter a different file extension. If you enter a name with a dot in it, then Audacity assumes that you have added the file extension, and Windows assumes that file extension is correct. So if you enter a file name as: "Dr.Cha~zay", then Windows sees that as a file called "Dr" and a file type of "Cha~zay" (obviously not a valid file type).

If you must use a dot in the file name, then ensure that you enter a valid file extension for the format that you are using (.mp3 for MP3 files)

For compatibility, it is best to avoid "special character" such as "~" or any punctuation characters. Windows has strict rules about file names and you can easily run into problems by using illegal characters. Safe characters are letters, numbers, space and underscore.

Also, Audacity 2.0.0 is obsolete. The current version is 2.0.6 which you can download here: http://audacityteam.org/download/windows

[kozikowski]

Are you starting to run out of space on your hard drive? That's what happens to the video people. They crank out show after show and then one day they can't save a new show any more — because there isn't room.

Koz

[Wild Honey]

Steve, I felt such a duh-moment come on when I read about the dot! Thank you! I had tried removing all of the commas and totally forgot the dot after Dr. That did the trick! Thank you so much!

[Gale Andrews]

I felt such a duh-moment come on when I read about the dot! Thank you! I had tried removing all of the commas and totally forgot the dot after Dr. That did the trick! Thank you so much!

We get this problem a lot. Did you ignore the warning Audacity gave you, or not understand it?

Would a warning like this have helped?

no_dots_allowed.png (26.01 KiB) Viewed 602 times

If the file name has dots in it I think we must default to adding the standard extension for the file type, and provide an option for the small minority of users who want to use a different extension.

Gale

[steve]

If the file name has dots in it I think we must default to adding the standard extension for the file type, and provide an option for the small minority of users who want to use a different extension.

Much as I don't like to encourage bad practice, that would save a lot of problems. A good case for an option in Preferences I think (default, always use default file extensions).
The "small minority" may not be so small for some formats, such as "AAC", (for which I presume we would use ".m4a" ?)

[Edgar]

Would a warning like this have helped?

Hi Gale! You know me, always wanting to tinker with the grammar:

grammar.png (23.78 KiB) Viewed 590 times

Note that I have made the first two sentences ("…Yes…") into a single compound sentence so that there is no punctuation following the quoted filename. I think it makes it slightly less visually confusing. Similarly, in the second paragraph I have removed the spurious comma, again to make it slightly less visually confusing. I have also put the file extension string in quotation marks to make it consistent with all the other quoted strings. Otherwise, I really like this change. Could you slip this in as a non-feature/bug fix?

As for changing the current behavior, I think I would be -1 unless we had a fairly sophisticated system. It would require two buttons and a checkbox: button "Yes" = export with name as-is; button "No" = export appending appropriate extension; checkbox "Always do it this way". Preferences would also need to be extended so that the Warnings pane had an additional entry to control the "Always do this" behavior. I would even prefer a third button: "Maybe" <ha ha> = the current "No" behavior which throws it back into the Export dialog so the user could change the filename (which would be my preferred default). Certainly a new feature.

[kozikowski]

Isn't it the case that most times this error is a Smack The Head moment? Of course, How could I be so stupid?

The filename has two dots in it. OK? [Y|N]

I think we're too quick to include pages of explanation where a simple warning would work.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

If the file name has dots in it I think we must default to adding the standard extension for the file type, and provide an option for the small minority of users who want to use a different extension.

Much as I don't like to encourage bad practice, that would save a lot of problems. A good case for an option in Preferences I think (default, always use default file extensions).

Or a checkbox in the export dialogue which would be my solution if it is possible.

The "small minority" may not be so small for some formats, such as "AAC", (for which I presume we would use ".m4a" ?)

Yes - which is added now if no extension is supplied and there are no dots in the file name. Only MP4 is a universal alternative. AAC or M4R extension won't be playable by Windows Media Player for example.

Gale

[Edgar]

I think we're too quick to include pages of explanation where a simple warning would work.

For the sophisticated user or even one who has read a brief explanation a simple warning will work. However, I suspect that most folks who run into this for the first time will be clueless; otherwise, they would enable displaying extensions long enough to add the proper extension.

In this day and age the cost difference between a 10 word warning and a 40 word explanation (compiling time, application size, download time, execution time etc.) is trivial. If the user is seeing this warning so many times that they get annoyed by the wordiness I contend that this is a problem in the user's inability to learn from their mistakes not a problem in GUI design.