Bugzilla – Bug 2539
No "?" help button on disk full error message(s)
Last modified: 2020-09-21 12:30:44 UTC
Created attachment 1003 [details] Disk full error message There are several situations in Audacity where a user can run out of disk space e.g. 1) Recording 2) Importing 3) Generating 4) Editing 5) Export. See: Bug #2512 Recording onto a full disk causes project loss Bug #2514 Applying effects that would fill up a disk loses the project with no recovery available Bug #2515 Exporting to a disk with insufficient space gives messages that are not user-friendly or helpful Bug #2530 Mac: When a recording fills a disk the project cannot be saved This is a serious (and complex) situation for a user, with a potential for serious data loss (hence the P2 rating for this bug) and our error message is stark and offers no advice in what to do. The actions that the user may need to undertake can be more than can sensibly be provided in a short error message. Therefore it make eminent sens to provide a "?" help button on the disk full error dialog(s). I have already created a nascent, draft, FAQ Error page in the Manual as a target for such a help button: https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Error:_Disk_full_or_not_writable Apart from any other consideration such error messages deserve a "?" help button for consistency with other messages in the app,
See attachment for an image of the error message
Testing on W10 and macOS 10.15.6 with Audacity 3.0.0 f06b9a9 The new Yellow-Zone message has a "?" help button and it works properly going to the new target page in the Manual. But none of the pre-existing Red-Zone error messages have a help button (I think there may be several scattered around Audacity)
I added help buttons to those too. https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/caf4eadb97c6ecb9e482c95e0812178e1673f95c Marking DEVEL-FIX MADE, because I think I got them all.
(In reply to James Crook from comment #3) Testing on W10 with Audacity 3.0.0 1d8cbf2 We now have "?" help buttons on the Yellow-Zone message and the Red-Zone message Yellow Zone ----------- >Disk is full. For tips on freeing up space click the help button. >Could not write to G: > "OK" "?" 1) This would be much better structured, more readable as: >Disk is full. >Could not write to G: >For tips on freeing up space click the help button. > "OK" "?" Red-Zone -------- >Audacity failed to write to a file >Perhaps G: is not writable or the disk is full > "OK" "?" 2) this has no tip for guiding the user to the "?" help button so can we pleas add one thus: >Audacity failed to write to a file >Perhaps G: is not writable or the disk is full >For tips on freeing up space click the help button. > "OK" "?" This is important as there occasions (e.g. failed Import/Export) where only the Red-Zone message is displayed. 3) I note that with the Red-Zone message the in-you-face red "X" for error has been replaced with the yellow exclamation mark warning triangle. So although technically the bug as written here now works as there are "?" help buttons on both messages I do not want to close this until we address the three residual issues listed above.
Testing on macOS with Audacity 3.0.0 1d8cbf2 We now have "?" help buttons on the Yellow-Zone message and the Red-Zone message But issues 1 and 2 from Comment #4 apply on Mac too. Re issue 3 - Both messages have red-triangle exclamation mark icons
DEVEL - FIX MADE https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/6a237d67f1fd4ae0a9f01ea3aa6345e91848c668
Residual (wording changes) do not need testing on all OSes.
(In reply to James Crook from comment #7) See Bug #2515 Testing on W10 with Audacity 3.0.0 0b633c5 testing exports WAV and AIFF (and I tested a couple of "other uncompressed...") work fine. They display what looks like the Red-Zone disk full error message - and the help button there links to the disk-full error page. FFmppeg: on disk full all FFmpeg exports also display what looks like the Red-Zone disk full error message - and the help button there links to the disk-full error page. But onece you dismiss that a second error message appears >Unable to export >Error FFmpag:1041 This also has a help button which links to a page that does not exist in the Manual "Unable to export" All the others MP3, Ogg,FLAC, MP2 all display >Unable to export followed by an error code relevant to the export >Error MP3:1966 >Error OGG:341 >Error FLAC:410 >Error MP2:346 All of these also have a help button which links to a page that does not exist in the Manual "Unable to export". There is no message about disk full - which is what the problem is in this test. So yes the explicit statement of this bug is "fixed" in that there are help buttons, but a) the error messages are unhelpful and techy b) I question the target page that is linked to
Testing on W10 with Audacity 3.0.0 e3bd5cf These now all have help buttons which a) show the Red-Zone message which has b) Improved, more helpful, text c) a help button linking to the Error: Disk Full page in the Manual
Testing on macOS 10.15.6 Catalina with Audacity 3.0.0 e3bd5cf As with Windows these now all have help buttons which a) show the Red-Zone message which has b) Improved, more helpful, text c) a help button linking to the Error: Disk Full page in the Manual
