Where apps hide your files
Audacity saves each project as one file wherever you choose, but work you have not saved sits in a hidden temporary folder in your Library. Here are both, and how to recover from a crash.
Audacity keeps two kinds of data in two places. A project you saved is a single .aup3 file wherever you put it. Audio for a project you have not saved yet goes to Audacity's temporary folder, which on a Mac defaults to:
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/SessionData/That is the path Audacity's own support site gives for the temporary folder. Its parent, ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/, also holds the audacity.cfg settings file and folders such as Macros and Theme.
Your copy may use a different temporary folder if someone changed it. Audacity's documentation says the exact location is shown in Directories preferences: on a Mac, open Audacity > Preferences (⌘,) and choose Directories.
Older Audacity versions (2.x) also wrote an AutoSave folder here for crash recovery. Audacity 3 keeps its recovery data inside the project database instead (its repair tool has a -drop_autosave option for exactly that), so a missing AutoSave folder is normal.
In Finder choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G) and paste the path. Or in Terminal:
open ~/Library/Application\ Support/audacity
ls ~/Library/Application\ Support/audacity/SessionDataThe ls command only lists names, which is all you need to see whether anything was left behind.
Audacity 3 saves a project with File > Save Project > Save Project (⌘S) as a single .aup3 file with all the audio inside, so it is easy to move but can be large. Audacity 2.x and earlier saved a small .aup file plus a _data folder next to it, full of small .au blocks. If you have an old .aup, the _data folder must stay beside it.
| Item | Where | What it is |
|---|---|---|
MyProject.aup3 | Wherever you saved it | The whole project, audio included |
MyProject.aup3-wal, MyProject.aup3-shm | Next to the project, while it is open | Working files of the SQLite database inside the project |
SessionData/ | ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ | Temporary data for projects not yet saved |
audacity.cfg | ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ | Your preferences |
Audacity's documentation gives two warnings worth following. Avoid saving active projects on external drives, USB sticks or network storage, because Audacity needs fast, uninterrupted access while recording and editing. And do not keep an open project in a cloud sync folder other than audio.com: the project format creates temporary files as it works, which sync services can handle badly, and Audacity says this can corrupt data. Work locally, then copy the finished .aup3 out.
If Audacity crashes or the Mac loses power, Audacity should offer to recover the project the next time you open it.
audacity folder from Application Support somewhere safe in Finder, so the originals stay intact.For a damaged .aup3, Audacity's support page says that simply opening it in the latest version sometimes recovers it. Its repair utility, audacity-project-tools, comes with steps for Windows and Linux only; the page says macOS is not supported yet. If you go that route on another computer, it advises allowing about four times the project's size in free disk space.
The manual recovery from loose .au files described on Audacity's support site applies only to versions up to 2.4.2. It restores unedited recordings at best, which is the real reason to save early.
A project is not a sound file. To get something you can send, use File > Export Audio (some 3.x versions put it under File > Export) and pick WAV, MP3 or another format. Exporting does not replace saving: keep the .aup3 if you may edit again.
File > Save Project > Backup Project writes a copy of the .aup3 under a different name or location. It is a good habit before a big edit.
Everything in an Audacity project lives in one database file, so it can grow large. To free space:
.aup3 files to an external drive.SessionData. It is normally empty or nearly so. Anything left can be the only copy of unsaved work from a crash, so open Audacity once to see whether it offers recovery before you move leftovers to the Trash in Finder.audacity.cfg alone unless you mean to reset your preferences, and only with Audacity quit.Size check, read only:
du -sh ~/Library/Application\ Support/audacity/SessionDataThe Directories preferences also let you move the temporary folder to a drive with more room. Pick a drive that stays connected, avoid cloud sync folders, and restart Audacity afterwards. Menu names here are from Audacity 3; Audacity 4, in preview at the time of writing, reorganises the interface.
Spotlight indexes .aup3 files in Documents or on the Desktop, but not the temporary data in ~/Library, and not a drive that is unplugged. Typing SessionData into Everywhere jumps straight to the hidden temporary folder after a crash. With Full Disk Access, which macOS requires before any app can list Documents, the Desktop or an external drive, typing .aup3 or part of a project's name lists every Audacity project on the Mac. ⌘↵ reveals the result in Finder. It matches file names only, so it cannot find a recording by the words spoken in it.
Wherever you choose in the Save Project dialog, as a single .aup3 file. Audacity does not use a fixed projects folder.
By default it is ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/SessionData. Open Audacity > Preferences and choose Directories to see the folder your copy uses.
Reopen Audacity and accept the automatic recovery. If the result looks wrong, force quit rather than closing or saving it, so the temporary data survives for another attempt.
Audacity's documentation advises against keeping an open project in a cloud sync folder other than audio.com, because the temporary files it creates can sync badly and corrupt the project. Work locally and copy the finished file.
Everywhere keeps track of every file on your Mac — including the folders Spotlight hides and drives you have unplugged. Free for a day, then $19 once.
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