Help me find important Skype recording
November 25, 2019 8:42 PM

I did a two-plus hour recording of an inteview via Skype 35 days ago, and downloaded it to my Mac. I then dragged the MPEG-4 file from Downloads to a GarageBand project for editing, but forgot to save the project. Now I need the recording, and Skype no longer has it. It's not in my Downloads any longer, or anywhere else on the computer I can think to look. Where should I look on the Mac to see if there is a copy?
posted by Atrahasis to Computers & Internet (5 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
From Terminal:

find / -iname "*.mp4" >~/Desktop/find.txt && open ~/Desktop/find.txt

From Finder:

CMD-space (opens spotlight), type "Kind:mp4", select "Show all in finder".

(Assuming mp4 file extension)

...should each show every mp4 file on your system.
posted by pompomtom at 9:31 PM on November 25, 2019


Check your Trash? As long as you deleted it but didn't empty your Trash, you can restore it.
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 9:53 PM on November 25, 2019


I just dragged an mp4 file from my Downloads folder into a new Garage Band project and then quit Garage Band and pressed the "Don't Save" button.

My source files were not deleted. They are normally copied into the Garage Band project file.

The file should still be in your Downloads folder. Audio-only files using MPEG4 codecs are usually in .m4a files. Is it possible you are looking for the wrong extension?
posted by tomierna at 8:35 AM on November 26, 2019


Pompomtom: Thank you - I followed your instructions and got a long list of mp4 files, but I'm not sure what to do with it (I don't think I renamed the file after downloading it from Skype)

Matildatakesovertheworld: Thank you! I am unfortunately a compulsive Trash emptier, so there is nothing sufficiently old there.

Tomierna: Thank you for trying it out! Interestingly, it's not in Downloads, under either an mp4 or m4a extension.

If any of you have any other suggestions, I welcome them. Thank you!
posted by Atrahasis at 5:38 PM on November 26, 2019


If you use the finder instructions I gave, you should have the list of files in a finder window. I'd start by sorting by date and just opening things from the date you're after. Alternatively, look at the file sizes - a two-plus hour recording should be biggish.

Also: per tomierna, it may be that the extension is M4A, not MP4.
posted by pompomtom at 6:58 PM on November 26, 2019


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