FAQ:Opening and Saving Files

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How do I open an Audacity project (AUP file) in another program?

Audacity project files are saved in a special format that only Audacity can open. To use an Audacity project in another program or burn it to CD, first open the AUP file in Audacity (if you saved it recently it will be in the File > Recent Files menu). Then use the Export commands in the File menu to save the audio in a standard format like WAV or AIFF which may be used by other programs.

To learn more about working with Audacity projects, please see Audacity Projects.

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Why does Audacity create a folder full of .au files when I save a project?

Audacity breaks long tracks into small pieces so it can edit them more efficiently. When you save an AUP project file, Audacity stores all the pieces in a _data folder that has the same name as the AUP file. For example, "song.aup" will open the pieces inside the "song_data" folder.

To open the project, open the AUP file then Audacity will load the .au files in the correct sequence automatically. A project you saved recently can be opened from File > Recent Files.

You should not move, delete or rename the _data folder or any of the .au files inside it.

To learn more about working with Audacity projects, please see Audacity Projects.

See also:

• How do I open an Audacity project (AUP file) in another program?

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Audacity crashed! Can I recover any unsaved data?

In the event of a crash while Audacity has unsaved data (such as a recording that has not yet been saved as a project, or an existing project with unsaved changes), Audacity will attempt to recover that data on next launch of Audacity. See Recovery for fuller details.

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Can Audacity import or export formats like WMA, AC3 or iTunes files (M4A/MP4)?

Audacity as shipped can import or export the following audio formats:

• Uncompressed audio formats: most WAV and AIFF files including all PCM variants

• Compressed audio formats: Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and MP2
  • MP3 can be imported using Audacity as shipped, but to export as MP3 you must install the optional LAME encoder.

You can install the optional FFmpeg library to import and export a much larger range of audio formats including AC3, AMR(NB), M4A, MP4 and WMA (on Mac only, Audacity can import unprotected M4A, MP4 and MOV files without FFmpeg). Audio files that are DRM-protected to work only in particular software cannot be imported. FFmpeg will also import audio from most video files or DVDs that are not DRM-protected.

You can export to iTunes by exporting to any location on your computer then add the file to the iTunes library.

See Importing Audio and the File Export Dialog for more help with importing and exporting.

If an audio file you want to import is DRM-protected (for example, an older iTunes M4P file), first burn it to an audio CD in the application that is licensed to play it. Then rip the CD track to WAV or AIFF. You can also record the file as it plays on the computer if your sound device supports this, though this may result in slight loss of quality.

See also:

• Why can't I play MIDI files?

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Why do my exported files not include the metadata, like Album Artist or Genre?

When you export a file, by default Metadata Editor pops up where you can add, delete or change embedded information about the file. Metadata is well supported in many audio formats, especially the ID3 tags used by MP3, but not well supported in WAV.

• Few audio programs or players are able to read WAV metadata, and Audacity can only export WAV metadata for "Artist Name", "Track Title", "Year", "Comments", "Copyright" and "Software". If using iTunes, you can export to AIFF as an alternative lossless format with metadata support.
• Some audio formats supported by the optional FFmpeg library may not export complete metadata.
• Metadata in imported MP2 and MP3 files except for the default Metadata Editor tags ("Artist Name", "Track Title", "Album Title", "Track Number", "Year", "Genre" and "Comments") will be exported as a "custom" ID3 frame. This means that exported custom tags such as "Album Artist", "BPM" and "Composer" will not be seen in Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, iTunes or other software that ignores custom tags.

For all formats, Audacity currently discards any existing lyrics or album art when exporting.

See also:

• How do I download and install the LAME MP3 encoder?
• How do I download and install the FFmpeg Import/Export Library?

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Why can’t I play MIDI files?

MIDI files are essentially nothing more than a bare set of instructions describing how to play a series of musical notes. They are thus very different to audio files like WAV which are an actual recording of a piece of music.

For now, Audacity cannot play MIDI files or convert them directly to audio files. You can import MIDI files for visual comparison with audio files, and can perform simple cut-and-paste edits on MIDI files then export as a new MIDI. You can read more about working with MIDI files on this Wiki page.

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How do I import a track from an audio CD?

Audacity cannot import a track directly from an audio CD. You must use a separate program like CDex or iTunes® to extract CD tracks into a format that Audacity can read, like WAV or AIFF.

On Mac OS X computers, CD tracks appear in Finder as AIFF files so can be imported directly into Audacity. For more help on importing audio from CD tracks on both Windows and OS X, see our Wiki help page on How to import CDs.

See also:

• How do I save my recording on an audio CD?

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How do I save my recording on an audio CD?

After making a recording or editing a file in Audacity, follow these steps to save your work on an audio CD.

1. Choose "WAV (Microsoft) signed 16 bit PCM" or "A