Retrieving deleted project

[Xerlome]

Audacity 2.1.1
Windows 7

Is there a way to retrieve a deleted project? I unintentionally deleted a project, unnamed and unsaved, but I haven't exited Audacity.

[kozikowski]

Edit > UNDO.

If you didn't close Audacity, the original show should still be back there.

Koz

[Xerlome]

I'm not sure I was clear. I didn't just erase it, I deleted the whole screen or page, although there are other screens open I've been working on. I don't see how I can undo. I was hoping the project is saved on my computer somewhere until I close Audacity.

[kozikowski]

We should wait for one of the heavier system elves. I'm not sure which action causes Audacity to scrub its old work. When Audacity is working, it uses vast quantities of memory, so it takes the earliest possible opportunity to release it to other jobs—normally a good thing.

Koz

[Xerlome]

I've noticed that when I open a file from my computer into Audacity, I can't delete that file from my computer until I close Audacity entirely, even if I've deleted that page from Audacity. That suggests the project is somewhere, doesn't it?

[Trebor]

...That suggests the project is somewhere, doesn't it? ...

At one point the project would be in this hidden folder ...

Code: Select all

C:\Users\<YourNameHere>\AppData\Local\Audacity\SessionData

But if you've closed the Audacity window it will be deleted from there, but may be recuvarable.

[Xerlome]

I did delete the page. I never named it. What would I ask Recuva to look for, or where?

[Trebor]

...What would I ask Recuva to look for, or where?

Try searching for all types of deleted file on C-drive ...

click on this animation to see it in its entirety

Instruct Recuva to find all types of deleted file on C drive.gif (150.5 KiB) Viewed 620 times

Audacity projects stored as "au" files ~1Mb each : chunks of audio, each about 6 seconds long.
So even if can recuva them, you have a jig-saw puzzle to assemble ...
http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/reco ... ually.html

''au'' files are chunks of Audacity project(s).png (66.79 KiB) Viewed 621 times

[Xerlome]

Thanks. Being me, this will take some study. It gets complicated because since I lost the project, I have made many more, as temp parts of larger projects, unnamed and unsaved as the one I was looking for. Whether this works for me or not, this is good info for me to have. Thanks! == Sorry, I wrote this yesterday and forgot to post it.

[kozikowski]

since I lost the project, I have made many more

Then that may be the end of the world. Once you delete something in Mac or Linux, the system sees the deleted files as "fresh meat" and steps on the space fairly quickly. I don't know that anybody's ever recovered anything from either of those two.

Not so in Windows. Deleted files stay around for a while and Windows decides whether or not it needs the space. If you halt what you're doing immediately, there's a very good chance to recover the work. If you continue production, that's it. Windows will start reclaiming the space and you can count on the work being gone, or so badly damaged as to be useless.

Koz