If your Audacity suddenly crashes, or you accidentally delete recordings, relax! This page includes complete solutions to help you restore deleted or unsaved Audacity recordings and audio files in three parts: Part 1. Restore deleted or Lost Audacity audios; Part 2. Recover unsaved Audacity; Part 3. Back up and protect Audacity files.
For those who have ever used legacy 1.2 Audacity versions: The above steps to reset preferences will not affect the 1.2 settings, but if you merely delete audacity.cfg and 1.2 settings still exist, some settings in current Audacity will reset to their 1.2 values. This may therefore not resolve any issues you were trying to fix in current Audacity. An easy way for users to reset the audacity.cfg file to a clean state - in effect setting the contents to 'NewPrefsInitialized=1' or filling it with the default values that Audacity would use on first launch when it finds an audacity.cfg file that contains only 'NewPrefsInitialized=1'. This is listed as #363 P4 enhancement on Bugzilla. A new command has been added to the Help menu: Help Reset Configuration. This resets your Audacity configuration, preferences, export settings and toolbars, to default settings.
We provide you with four effective ways to recover deleted or unsaved Audacity recordings. The table below is an overview of the solutions, read detailed content for full steps.
- Set the Audacity project rate to the same rate as the Default Format for your sound device. To view the 'Default Format', go to the Windows Control Panel, select the Playback' and 'Recording' tabs in turn, right-click over a device entry Properties, and look in the 'Advanced' tab. If the playback and recording format rates are different, make.
- Reset Configuration: A new command added to the Tools menu: Tools Reset Configuration. It resets your Audacity preferences, Configuration, export settings, and toolbars, to default settings. Now fixed 41 bugs since 2.4.1. The exact number of bugs fixed depends on whence you count, but anyway, it’s a good count of fixes.
Workable Solutions | Step-by-step Troubleshooting |
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Fix 1. Recover deleted files |
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Fix 1. Recover unsaved files |
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Audacity, as a powerful & free multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows and Mac users, enables you to record live audio, record computer playback and even convert tapes, records into recordings. Besides, you can also use this program to edit various sound files.
What will you do if you accidentally delete audio files on Audacity? When Audacity suddenly crashes, do you know how to bring the unsaved Audacity recordings back? If you are experiencing the same issues as listed here, stay here and read on to get the answers.
Part 1. Restore Deleted or Lost Audacity Audio Files
Applies to: Restore deleted or lost Audacity audio files saved on Windows PC or external storage devices.
When you happen to delete saved Audacity audio files on your PC, you can look for the deleted Audacity recording in the Recycle Bin. If you find nothing in the Recycle Bin, don't worry.
Read on to see how to regain your recordings with below two methods:
Method 1. Restore Audacity Recordings with Audio File Recovery Software
Powerful audio recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard supports to restore your deleted or lost audios or recordings on your computer or external storage devices in three steps.
It supports all Audacity video file formats, including uncompressed audio - WAV, AIFF, PCM, compress audio - Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP2, MP3, FFmpeg for other importable audio formats - AC3, AMR, M4A, WMA, etc.
Note: If you are a Mac user and lost Audacity audios on Mac computer, choose the Mac version of EaseUS file recovery software for help.
Step 1. Scan the lost voice recordings.
Insert the SD card of your voice recorder or connect the device where you lost voice recordings to your PC. On EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, select your device and click 'Scan' to find the lost voice recordings.
Step 2. Find and preview found voice recordings.
When the program finishes scanning, go to 'Deleted files' or 'Lost Files' to find lost recordings. Or, you can click 'Audios' under Filter to directly access them. Double-click to play and preview the recordings.
Step 3. Select and restore found voice recordings.
After confirming all lost recordings have been found, select them all and click 'Recover' to save them. Before making your device secure for saving files again, choose another secure location on your PC to store them.
Method 2. Restore Lost Tracks or Audacity Recordings from Exported Files
Note: This only works when you have exported those tracks or recordings by using File > Exportcommands.
When you lost Audacity tracks or recordings, you can directly find lost tracks or recordings from the exported files with below steps:
Step 1. Locate the folder or storage devices where you saved your Audacity recordings.
Step 2. On Audacity, click 'File' > 'Open'.
Then select the lost or track or Audacity recordings from the drive where you've exported, and click 'Open' to bring it into your Audacity.
If it works, congratulations! You've got your recordings back and you can continue editing the recording in Audacity again.
If you haven't exported the lost Audacity recordings in advance, go back to let EaseUS file recovery software help in Method 1.
Part 2. Find and Restore Unsaved Audacity Tracks
Applies to: Find and restore unsaved tracks in Audacity due to program crash, sudden shutdown or other reasons.
And some of you may also want to know how to find or restore unsaved Audacity recordings if Audacity suddenly crashes, right? In this part, you'll find two ways to bring the unsaved audacity tracks back.
Read on and find the best way to restore your unsaved files:
Method 1. Find Unsaved Tracks in Audacity Temporary Folder
Usually, Audacity would create a temporary folder on the same drive where you install Audacity to save the editing tracks. When you lost Audacity recordings without saving, you can refer to the next steps to find the temporary folder and restore the lost tracks:
Step 1. Find unsaved tracks from Audacity temporary folder
1. Open Audacity, and press Ctrl + P
2. Open Audacity Preference window, go to Directories and copy the path of the temporary file directory:
- Windows 10/8: C:UsersUserNameAppDataLocalAudacitySessionData
- Windows 7: C:UsersUserNameAppDataLocalTempaudacity_1_2_temp
- Windows XP: C:Documents and Settings
Local SettingsTempaudacity_1_2_temp
Step 2. Restore unsaved Audacity file
- 1. Open the Temporary folder and check left AU files in the folder with .au extension.
- 2. Drag the AU file into Audacity or click 'Open' under File on Audacity to bring the AU files into this program.
Step 3. Save the unsaved files into a safe location
You can play the unsaved AU file in Audacity to check if the files are wanted ones. If yes, export and save them into another safe location.
If you've set Audacity to remove temp data, the chance to restore your unsaved Audacity files may minimize then.
Method 2. Automatic Crash Recovery: Recover Unsaved Recordings from AutoSave
Audacity contains an AutoSave feature that can fully help you out when you lose an unsaved record in Audacity. When you lost track in Audacity without saving, or the Audacity suddenly closes or crashes, you can automatically bring the lost recording back with below steps:
Step 1. Quick Audacity first if the program is still running but the projects are missing.
Step 2. Re-open Audacity, an automatic crash recovery dialog will show up.
- Warning
- Don't discard the unsaved data for all projects on Audacity.
- If you confirm to discard the unsaved data for all projects after restarting this program, all the files won't be recoverable again.
Step 3. Select to recover the unsaved data for all projects, and load the recovered waveforms.
If there are multiple unsaved projects, each will recover into their own project window. And all you need to do is to save each project one by one. Note that the project history and text contents are unrecoverable.
Step 4. Confirm to save all files: File > Save Project > Save Project.
- Tip
- If the recovered projects appear to be incorrect, try below tips provided by Audacity:
- 1. Open Help > Diagnostics > Show Log... and copy the errors shown, such as 'missing data block files'.
- 2. Force to quit Audacity in Task Manager to keep the autosave file and audio data safe, and search your computer or use a data recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard recommended on this page to locate any files that were noted as missing.
- 3. Restore these files to the location shown for them in the log, and then you can re-open Audacity to recover the recordings correctly.
Part 3. Tips to Protect Audacity Recordings
Applies to: Save, protect Audacity recordings, tracks on Windows PC, preventing further Audacity file loss.
If you always use Audacity to edit recordings or create audios files, we'd like to offer 3 practical and useful tips to help you protect Audacity recordings. Let's see the details:
# 1. Manually Locate and Copy Saved Audacity Recordings
If you prefer a manual free way to copy saved audacity recordings as a backup, follow guidelines below:
Step 1. Prepare a secure location on PC or an empty external storage device, connecting to PC.
Step 2. Locate saved Audacity files on PC:
For Windows Users:
C:Users/Library/Application Support/audacity/SessionData
C:Users
Sometimes, Audacity also may save created projects under this path: C:UsersUserNameDocumentsAudacity.
Step 3. Select AUP files with .aup extension, copy and save them to the target storage location as backup.
# 2. Use Automated Backup Software for Help
Applies to: automatically back up Audacity files as scheduled.
If you prefer to use an automated method, professional file backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup can help. It enables you to simply back up your files in only 3 steps:
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Todo Backup software and then choose 'File Backup', 'Disk/partition Backup' or 'System Backup' for different backup purpose.
How To Reset Audacity Settings
Step 2: Choose the system, disk partition, files or apps that you want to back up. Then select a destination where you want to store the backup file.
Step 3: Click 'Proceed' to start the data backup process.
# 3. Enable AutoSave Feature in Audacity
Applies to: automatically save editing files by enabling its AutoSave feature.
Note: This feature is no longer available in the latest version of Audacity on Windows 10/8.
If you are using Windows 7, XP, etc. on your computer, you may try this tip to enable the AutoSave feature and protect your Audacity recordings:
Step 1. Click 'Edit' on Audacity > and select 'Preferences'.
Step 2. Scroll to the 'Project' section, tick the box of Auto save as a copy of the project in a separate folder and set the frequency in Auto save internal.
Step 3. Click 'OK' to confirm and keep the changes.
Filter your Music with Audacity: Audacity gives you access to change most of the settings based on your preferences with the help of Preferences dialog toolbar in Audacity. If you are using Audacity in Windows then you would find it under Audacity menu section.
Want to know what’s hidden in the Preferences dialog box? It includes various sections, all accessible for free. Take a look at the settings that you can change for your audio track using Preferences dialog:
Setting Up Audacity
- Spectrogram: The spectrogram display of your audio track can be change as per your choice.
- Mouse: Let your mouse command the shortcuts.
- Device: Isn’t it great to have this option in Audacity. Here you can select your audio host or recording channel. MIDI playback on your system.
- Playback setting: This helps you cut the length and effects of your music track.
- Libraries: Here you can download LAME content with ease.
- Format: Choose the options for conversion in between sample rate and format.
- Recording: With this setting, newly recorded tracks can be name easily along with latency, sound-activated recording, and playthrough.
- Effects: Sort effects as per preferences, either enable or disable using LADSPA, VAMP., LV2.
Storing the preferences
In Audacity, preferences are stored in a configured file, namely audacity.cfg. It is a text file, which you can change anytime. And, you can see this file in Audacity’s folder of application data.
The place of storage varies depending upon the system which you are using. For example:
Windows: User>AppData>Roaming>Audacity
It isn’t as complicated as it looks here. And, your preferences will be saved anyway in the software. However, you just have to a little searching to find your saved file.
By default, the settings will remain the same even if you upgrade the previous version of Audacity or reinstall it. Therefore, you do not have to worry about losing your preferences. Because, Audacity has the ability to retain the settings from the previous version.
Preferences
If you experience any crash or disturbing behaviours after resetting preferences from Preferences toolbar, you must reset the preferences to default settings by directly exiting from Audacity. Or, you can also delete audacity.cfg file from Audacity. However, this does not happen often in Audacity. But, you should still be careful while using Preferences dialog.
There will be time where you wish to have a change in the tune or simply to fix your mistakes in the entire track. And, there might be numerous reasons to edit your recorded track in your digital workstation. Let it be any reason, Audacity’s Preferences dialog offers you great comfort to change default settings and set your own settings to make the song track even more cheerful.
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