# Saving

### From Audacity Manual

To return later to your unfinished work in Audacity with all tracks and edits as you left them, save an Audacity project.

To play your current work in other media programs or send it to others, export an audio file such as WAV or MP3.

This is what the two main commands for saving projects do.

File > Save Project saves an .aup project file and a _data folder containing the actual audio. To re-open a saved project, choose File > Open... or File > Recent Files and open the .aup file.

File > Save Project As... is for saving an empty project. It also lets you save an existing Project to a new name. This is the safest way to rename or make a copy of a project.

| The .aup file and _data folder must always be kept together as created by Audacity. Never move or rename them or change their contents manually. Don't delete them until your final exported file is exactly as you want. If coming back to your project later, it's always a sensible precaution to export a lossless backup WAV or AIFF file (or files) before you quit.

Read more about Audacity Projects.

Back to Getting Started.

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