Hi,
ELAN v6.1
Praat v6.1.48
OS: Windows 10 Home
When I try ‘Clip Selection in Praat’, I get the following error message:
Please note that the blacked-out areas do not include whitespace.
When I look in the ELAN log, I see the following, which I suspect is the root cause:
I don’t know how to fix it though.
Thanks!
Hi,
I’m afraid this is a bug in ELAN 6.1, resulting from re-use of code for handling file paths. In the first image, produced by Praat, the fourth line from the bottom starts with “\C:\Users\etc”. The first back slash used not to be there; it is not a problem in many situations but it breaks this function of Praat. It will be fixed in the next release of ELAN (hopefully within weeks). If this is important functionality for your workflow, you could download ELAN 6.0 (e.g. the .zip version that can be run without installer) and work with that version for the time being.
The warning message in the log is a bit misleading, because Praat can be run (it produced the first message window).
Apologies for the inconvenience.
-Han
Super helpful response Han - thanks so much 
It only now occurs to me that your question was not about “Open Selection in Praat” but “Clip Selection with Praat”! I should have added that there is an alternative in the same menu labeled “Clip Selection”, which does not need Praat and which does work in ELAN 6.1. Sorry for that omission!
Hi Han!
It’s been a while, hope all is well over there!
This is an issue that came up a few weeks ago, seemingly out of nowhere. I had been using ELAN 6.1 on macOS Big Sur with a late 2020 or early 2021 version of Praat to open and clip .wav files with no problem for months, when all of a sudden most Praat commands stopped working: “Open File in Praat”, “Open Selection in Praat”, “Clip Selection in Praat”. The only one that’s still working is “Clip Selection…”.
I tried a few things: i) installing the latest version of Praat (6.1.5.0), ii) installing an earlier version of Praat (6.1.26), iii) installing the latest version of ELAN (6.2), installing an earlier version of ELAN (6.0), and also removing the old ELAN folder in Preferences and rebuilding it with a clean install. The problem is still there.
The curious thing is that when I click any of the commands "Open File in Praat”, “Open Selection in Praat”, or “Clip Selection in Praat”, Praat does open up, and there’s no error message. But nothing happens. The Praat Objects window stays empty and no files are created. Also, there’s no trace left in the elan0.log file. Very mysterious. As said above, the “Clip Selection…” command does work fine though. Any clues?
Many thanks,
Giovanni
Hi Giovanni!
It’s been a while indeed! Yes, all is well, I hope you are doing fine too. I’m sorry your post was put on hold for a few days by the system.
I just replied to a post concerning the same problem. As I mention in my reply there, I had the same experience as you, one week it works, suddenly it stops. Indeed silently, without messages in the log.
This probably has to do with “AppleEvent sandboxing” (at least that is my guess after some internet searching). A solution is still to be worked out, I’ll post it here if I find any.
All best,
Han
Hi again,
I just uploaded a new version of ELAN 6.2 for macOS, with hopefully this time the right “entitlements”. When for the first time trying to open a selection in Praat from within ELAN, macOS should ask the user to grant permission. After that it should work without the popup message.
Maybe you can try and verify?
-Han
Hi Han,
many thanks for your prompt response, and sorry for the delay following up: vacation and other things got in the way.
I’m relieved to know I’m not the only one with this problem!
So I just tried ELAN 6.2 and there’s good and bad news: the good news is that Praat does open up when called; the bad news is that “Open Selection in Praat” and “Clip Selection with Praat” still don’t work. “Clip Selection…” works as before.
This time the log has some information, and since I noticed that it mentions the clip-media.txt file I’m sending that too just in case.
Thanks!
Giovanni
PS: I noticed I can’t send .txt files so I’m sharing them with this Dropbox link: Dropbox - For Han - Simplify your life
Hi Giovanni,
I hope you had a nice vacation, away from the ELAN problems :).
Opening or clipping a selection with Praat is independent of the ‘clip-media.txt’ file and whatever it contains. Unfortunately the log file does not contain any information on why the selection is not opened in Praat. And apparently you don’t get any message dialog from either ELAN or Praat, indicating what the problem might be. I assume you tried opening a selection more than once, also when Praat was already running (to exclude timing issues as the reason for the selection not being opened)?
Best,
Han
Hey Han,
thanks! Yes I tried a number of combinations, with and without Praat already running, moving selections, changing the order of media files in “Linked Files”, and a couple other things, but not much luck, and no message dialog from either ELAN or Praat.
I uploaded my latest ELAN log to the same Dropbox link, but I haven’t noticed anything new in there.
Giovanni
Giovanni, I forgot to ask: did you, the first time you tried with the newly downloaded ELAN 6.2, see the message window asking for permission to send events to Praat? And, if you go to System Preferences->Security & Privacy->Privacy tab and select the Automation category on the left, do you see on the right an entry for ELAN with a sub-entry for Praat (indicating that ELAN is allowed to send messages to Praat)?
-Han
Hi Han,
I don’t think I ever saw a message asking me to give ELAN permission to control Praat (only the usual message asking to locate Praat). Anyway, I just looked into the Automation tab of Security & Privacy and ELAN is not there. And there doesn’t seem to be a +/– option to add it either.
Giovanni
Hi Giovanni,
And you did download (again) the ELAN 6.2 version after July 13th? Because if that version still doesn’t prompt you to give permission, I don’t know how to get this to work. It indeed doesn’t seem to be possible to manually add an application manually and grant it certain permissions; the OS prevents that (as far as I know).
-Han
Ah!!! That did it! I’m sorry I got confused when I read that you had uploaded “a new version of ELAN 6.2”. I mistakenly thought you meant 6.2 over 6.1 when in fact you meant 6.2(.1) of course. So I just downloaded 6.2 again and it did ask for permission to control Praat and then tadah! It works again.
Heel veel bedankt, Han!
Apologies for the confusion, Giovanni. It’s not elegant to upload the same application version twice, I know. Will try not to make it a habit.
But good that it works now!
Cheers, Han
