Where Does Audacity Store Temp and Project Data?
Audacity SessionData temp folder on Windows, macOS and Linux, and where saved .aup3 projects keep their audio.
Last updated
Unsaved Audacity audio lives in a SessionData temp folder. Saved work since version 3 lives inside a single .aup3 project file instead of the old .aup plus _data pair.
After a crash, reopen Audacity first and let automatic recovery try. Manual rescue from SessionData is the fallback, and the exact path shows in Directories preferences.
Where Audacity stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Audacity\SessionData
Holds per session workfiles for never saved audio. Check Directories preferences for the live path, since it is user changeable.
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/SessionData
In Finder use Go > Go to Folder. Keep the temp folder on a fast local disk; network drives cause recording dropouts.
/var/tmp/audacity-[username]
Per user temp dir. Exact path may vary by distro and version, so confirm it under Directories preferences before digging.
Frequently asked questions
How do I recover an unsaved Audacity recording after a crash?
Relaunch Audacity and accept automatic recovery. If that finds nothing, sort the SessionData folder by time and import the .au chunks oldest first.
Where did the _data folder go in new Audacity?
Version 3 packs everything into one .aup3 file. The _data folder layout only applies to legacy .aup projects.
Notice an outdated path? Let us know.