User:Billw58/Backup Strategies
- Peter 27May13: I see no real overlap with Audacity Projects and only a small overlap with Making a backup copy of a project which is in the Wiki and not the Manual as this page is intended to be. Both pages could usefully link to this page if and when it gets published. I do not support the idea of this page being a FAQ to my mind it stands as a page in its own right and fully deserves a place in the Manual. The necessarily sectioned nature of this material means that it would not fit well in the FAQs. Nor should it be marooned over in the Wiki imo.
- Peter 28May13: I would support the idea of a brief FAQ explaining why backup is important and which can link to the fuller backup strategies on this page.
The recommendations on this page are just that: recommendations; each user should consider their own workflow and develop a backup regime that meets their needs.
If you have not already done so, please read the Audacity Projects page, taking particular note of the "Four rules for keeping your Audacity project happy". Backups may not help you if you damage your project by breaking those rules.
Audacity has very robust crash recovery and in many cases will be able to recover most, if not all, your work in case of a power failure, computer crash or crash of Audacity itself. The wise user does not rely on crash recovery, and has appropriate backups in place for those rare circumstances where Audacity's crash recovery can't do the job.
The wise user also knows that hard drives can crash destroying all data and makes regular backups to external storage. The cautious user makes duplicate backups to at least two different external storage devices; the extremely cautious user ensures that at least one of those backups is held off-site.
The nature of audio editing, especially when it involves recording live audio, means that daily backups may not be sufficient. There are also things you can do that are specific to Audacity that will make it easier to make appropriate backups.
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Always make a backup copy of a recording (ideally to an external drive and particularly of an unrepeatable performance) before you start editing your project.
Peter 28May13: ToDo-2 The Audio Cache preference was removed from 2.0.2 onwards as there are problems with it. It may be re-introduced at a later date so this bullet point remains here but is commented out for now. This remains as a placeholder for if and when Audio Cache is re-introduced into Audacity.
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Create a folder in which to store your project
Many users prefer to create a new folder on their hard drive in which to store their project; the AUP file and the _data folder are both inside this folder making it easy to keep them together if you need to move them to another location on your hard drive. This also creates a place to store other files associated with the project such as exported WAV backup files and production notes.
Be safe by copying all external files into your project
Before importing a WAV or AIFF file into your project, click on , click on the Import / Export section and select 
Make a copy of uncompressed audio files before editing (safer). Later, when you save your project you will not need to think about including those files in the backup.
Backing up single-track projects
These are projects that consist of one stereo or mono track; examples would be digitizing LPs or cassettes, recording an audio book or editing a recorded interview.
Backing up the original recording
Once you have completed the original recording (such as the entire LP or cassette, audio book chapter or interview) click to export the entire track as WAV, AIFF or FLAC. Save the file in the same folder as the project (not in the _data folder, use the folder that contains the _data folder and AUP file). If you are working in Audacity's default 32-bit float mode, which is the best quality capture and best for editing, you should retain that quality for the raw capture backup exporting in 32-bit WAV format. Note that such copies are unlikely to be playable on other software or players but can always be re-imported into Audacity. The reason for this is so you can go back to your original recording in case you make a disastrous edit you cannot recover from.
Incremental backups during editing
If you are doing extensive editing on the project, periodically export a WAV, AIF or FLAC using a meaningful file name. These exports provide snapshots of your project at the various editing stages. If something goes terribly wrong you can go back to one of these versions instead of starting over.
Alternatively you can save a new Project with a different name--use menu from time to time (this will give you incremental backups on disk). At least once a day (more often if desired) save the Project on an external drive.
Archiving a finished project
When your project is complete, export another WAV, AIF or FLAC using a name different from the exported file of the original recording. Since your project consists of only one track you can now safely delete the Audacity project. If you ever need to do any further editing you can import this file into a new Audacity project.
As above, if you are working in Audacity's default 32-bit float mode then you may wish to retain that quality for the archive copy of the finished production file by exporting in 32-bit format. Note again that such copies are unlikely to be playable on other software or players but are purely for archive purposes.
A user recorded a one-off live broadcast (that would never be repeated) from a radio station; he applied aggressive noise reduction and compression and exported the result. Sometime later he realized that he had damaged the audio in his zeal to get rid of the noise and by compressing it to make it sound louder. Unfortunately, he had not saved his original recordings so reprocessing was not possible.
Backing up multi-track projects
These projects consist of more than one track; examples of such a project would be a multi-track music production with overdubs, voice mixed with music on another track or an interview where the two parties are on separate tracks.
Backing up the original recordings
At appropriate breaks in the recording session, export each newly-recorded track as a WAV, AIF or FLAC file at the same bit depth as Audacity is set for, giving the files meaningful names.
Incremental backups during editing
Periodically click on to save a version of your project with a different but meaningful name; the frequency will depend the complexity of your edits and other factors. The purpose of these multiple projects is to give you a version of your project that you can go back to in the unlikely event that Audacity or your computer crashes while you are in the midst of recording or editing. In most cases Audacity will be able to recover your project in the state it was in just before the crash but there are exceptional cases where Audacity will not be able to do this. Having a previous version that was not being actively worked on at the time of the crash will let you start from that version rather than from the beginning. This is especially important if you are engaged in overdubbing; losing a good performance due to a computer crash or power failure is beyond frustrating. These periodic backups also give you a known state of your project to go back to in the event of a disastrous edit from which you cannot recover.
Archiving a finished project
When you are done with a project, create a zip archive of all the files and folders you created while working on the project. If you ever need to go back and make some changes you can unzip the archive, choose the point in the project's life where you want to dive in, and open that project.
A band was doing a multi-track recording session; all went well with the recordings and they had a nice multi-track project with vocals, drums, bass and guitar on separate tracks. During mixdown they applied equalization and compression to the tracks, added reverb to the vocals then saved and closed the project. Sometime later they realized that they had put too much reverb on the vocals. Unfortunately they had not saved a version of the project before they added the reverb. There was no way to remove the reverb from the vocals so their only recourse was to record the vocals again.
