Audacity 2.1.2
Audacity 2.1.2 was available from 20th January 2016 until 16 March 2017.
Tip: You can use CTRL + F to search this page for different words to do with the issue you are looking for. Use Command - F on Mac.
Mac OS X:
Audacity 2.1.2 requires OS X 10.6 to 10.10.x. There are legacy versions for older OS X at http://audacityteam.org/download/legacy-mac/ .
Using the red close button top left of an effect window removes access to the main Audacity window, requiring force quit. See Bug 1318.
Windows:
Audacity 2.1.2 requires the CPU to support the SSE2 instruction set which should be available on any Intel hardware produced after 2001 and any AMD hardware produced after 2003. To check what SSE levels your CPU supports, you can install CPU-Z. If your hardware only supports SSE, you may download Audacity 2.0.6 see the Legacy Windows page on the Audacity Website.
Users on Windows XP: You may see "Entry Point Not Found" when first launching Audacity after installation. This error occurs if you are running less than the latest "Service Pack" of updates for your Windows XP system. Please see https://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#entry_point for how to install the latest Service Pack and for advice about the potential security risks of running XP now that Microsoft no longer supports it.
Changes since previous version
Improvements
Effects
Noise Reduction defaults changed.
Interface
We’ve made several improvements to the spectrogram view of tracks which are particularly valuable for vocal work.
New option ‘Spectral Reassignment’. This algorithm deduces a ‘finer’ spectrogram for vocal work.
Four new Spectrogram scales.
Improvement to the Pitch (EAC) algorithm – cleaner (sharper) display.
Spectrogram Settings are now available per-track.
Other Changes
Upgraded from wxWidgets 2.8.12 to wxWidgets 3.0.2.
Restructuring of the Preferences Menu
Restructuring of the Track Dropdown Menu (for the Spectrograms)
The Noise Reduction "Frequency smoothing" default has been increased to 3 to help avoid metallic artifacts. Resetting Preferences or deleting audacity.cfg will set the new default.
(Windows) The location of Audacity's work-in-progress folder has been changed, to avoid problems where certain disk cleaners treated them as deletable temporary files.
Bug Fixes
Crashes
Crashes on reading .wav files with many channels (CVE-2016-2540) and corrupt .mp2 files (CVE-2016-2541) have been fixed. Thanks to Chris Navarrete from Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs for notifying us of these bugs and associated security risk.
Interface
Mac OS X
Known Major Issues at Release
Use CTRL + F (COMMAND + F on Mac) to search this page for a word or phrase that describes the issue you want to know about.
You can also search the entire Audacity bugs database by multiple keywords at https://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/query.cgi?format=specific or view the complete list of open bugs.
Accessibility
Many, but not all parts of the Audacity interface are accessible on Windows and Mac (read the alert above about Mac) to those who can't use a mouse, and/or use a screen reader. It may be possible to make more of Audacity accessible in the longer term. For details, see https://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/accessibility.html
There are some accessibility bugs in the parts of Audacity that are accessible (or behavior may vary according to the specific screen reader).
Some interface text or markings remain in black when using High Contrast light-on-dark themes, so cannot be read properly.
Edit Labels Dialog: After closing the labels editor, the editing cursor is always set at the label that was selected when Edit Labels was opened. If you closed the labels editor with some other label selected, you can navigate to that label using TAB or SHIFT + TAB with focus in the label track.
Keyboard Preferences: Window-Eyes doesn't read the key bindings when View by Tree is selected, and may not always read the bindings in other views. VoiceOver and Orca do not read the key bindings at all. You could export the bindings, modify them in a text editor then import the modified list.
Spectral Selection Toolbar:
Typing a 0 (zero) in the High Frequency box when its digits are dashed (undefined) resets existing Low Frequency values to zero. Typing or incrementing digits in either box may require the wanted digit to be typed or incremented twice and may increment digits in the other box. It is usually best to enter the high frequency first and then TAB through both Low and High Frequency boxes to ensure that they contain correct values.
It is not possible to use the keyboard to move the cursor or selection region to an arbitrary position when playing or recording. However you can use the [ or ] shortcuts respectively to set the left or right boundary of the selection at the playback or recording position ( https://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/edit_menu_select.html#left ). The Status Bar messages that you can CTRL + drag to select audio during scrubbing are incorrect.
(Windows) In certain parts of the main window, NVDA does not speak typed characters (JAWS and Window-Eyes are not affected):
Typing numbers into the time controls in Selection Toolbar or Analyze > Contrast...
In the main window, not speaking a character if it is a command for example, j,k,[ or ]
In a label track, not speaking characters typed into a label.
(OS X) Audacity is not Retina-ready. If Retinizer is applied to Audacity as a workaround, the export format cannot be changed.
(OS X) COMMAND + F6 and SHIFT + COMMAND + F6 may not cycle correctly between tracks and tooldock areas, especially on El Capitan and with VoiceOver off. Focus may get trapped in Project Rate unless a mouse click first places focus elsewhere in Selection Toolbar. Using the cycle shortcut for the opposite direction can sometimes escape out of trappage.
(OS X and Linux) Focus can get trapped in dialogues when using ALT + F6 or ALT + SHIFT + F6 to move between modeless windows and the main project window. If you want both Plot Spectrum and Contrast open you can avoid getting trapped on Linux by opening Plot Spectrum before Contrast.
(OS X) It is not possible to TAB through Keyboard Preferences.
(OS X) It is not possible to move through docked toolbars using the ALT + F6 or ALT + SHIFT + F6 shortcuts.
(OS X) It is not possible to move between the main Audacity window and some VST and Audio Unit effects using the ALT + F6 or ALT + SHIFT + F6 shortcuts when the effect is in Graphical Mode. You can use the "Manage" menu then Options... to change the effect to textual mode.
(OS X) The Timeline text numbers are very large, but the text labels or dropdown contents in Selection Toolbar and Spectral Selection Toolbar are small and hard to read.
(OS X) Issues with VoiceOver:
(reported on OS X 10.9.x) After exporting, the black accessibility area is trapped in the Tooldock area, so there is no way to read the tracks. Workaround: Save as a project, close the project then reopen it. You can then navigate the tracks with VoiceOver.
If you use arrow keys to navigate the Timetext controls in Selection Toolbar, VoiceOver stops reading. Workaround: Use Control-Option-W
When you TAB forwards from "Audio Position" in Selection Toolbar, the "Selection End" or "Selection Length" radio button is read as "Selection Start". When you use COMMAND + F6 or COMMAND + SHIFT + F6 to move directly into "Selection End" from another toolbar, the button is read as "Selection Start".
Mixer Toolbar input/output sliders are not read, but just described as "multiple indicators". The "Graphic EQ" and vertical sliders in Equalization *are* read.
Metadata Editor table not read.
Edit Labels dialog not read.
In the "Edit Chains" window, only the first command in the "Chain" list is read, and it is only read when first accessed. In the "Select Command" window for inserting a new command in a Chain, commands in the table are not read.
"Manage Curves" table in Equalization not read.
(Linux Ubuntu) Under Unity, keyboard shortcuts are not visible in the Audacity menus. Keyboard shortcuts are visible if you install the classic GNOME Flashback interface or under Unity if you open Audacity from the termimal with
env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 audacityAudacity will now ship with src/audacity.desktop.in set to UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 so Audacity compiled from source will show shortcuts in the menus and will have its own menu bar in the application. It will remain up to Ubuntu whether they use this desktop file in packaged versions of Audacity.
TAB unexpectedly navigates out of the current tooldock area instead of staying inside it, and CTRL + F6 from Selection Toolbar and SHIFT + CTRL + F6 from the Tracks table do not navigate to the upper tooldock area but leave focus in the previous toolbar. However you can use the TAB navigation behavior described above to access the upper tooldock area.
(Linux) Issues with Orca:
Audacity tracks are not read.
Not all toolbar controls are read, examples being Timetext controls, Project Rate and controls in Device Toolbar.
Not all controls in Preferences are read.
Control labels for Vamp and VST plugins are not read.
Control labels for Nyquist plugins are read inconsistently in older version 3 or earlier plugins (Version 4 seems to read more consistently).
Unfortunately, Audacity 2.1.2 is not accessible for users of VoiceOver, and this was also the case for the Audacity 2.1.1 release. However, an accessible version of Audacity 2.1.1 is available on our Mac OS X downloads page. The name of this accessible version is "2.1.1-screen-reader" (DMG and ZIP downloads are available). It is hoped that future versions of Audacity will be accessible for users of VoiceOver.
Bugs requiring more investigation
(Windows Vista or later) On upgrading to current Audacity from earlier versions, "error opening sound device" occurs when recording from the inbuilt sound device where there was no error in the previous Audacity with the same device configuration and operating system. Workaround: Use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices, or go to "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel and click OK. Note that if devices listed in Device Toolbar are disabled in "Sound" then the error is legitimate - you will need to enable those devices.
Please report make and model number of sound devices that exhibit the issue, along with driver version number. Please first ensure your sound device drivers are up-to-date and not generic Microsoft drivers - help available here.
(Windows Vista) If you change the input volume in Audacity and then record, the volume is reset to its original level. This appears to occur mostly with a few specific USB devices, and sometimes only on Vista SP1, so it is currently hard for us to fix. Workaround: Check if the manufacturer supplies their own drivers for the device and try those. See if upgrading to Vista SP2 or Windows 7 helps.
Please report make and model number of devices that exhibit the issue, also the drivers and exact version of Vista and Service Pack in use (for example, Vista 32-bit, SP1)
(Windows Vista, 7) When a USB device is connected, the listing of inputs for the built-in sound device in Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences may become corrupt, indicating single inputs as multiple inputs. It may only be possible to record from the built-in input which is currently set as default at "Sound" in the Windows Control Panel, irrespective of the input selected in Audacity. Workaround: Try Transport > Rescan Audio Devices, or a computer reboot.
Please report make and model number of devices that exhibit the issue, along with description of symptoms and any steps you have noticed that create the issue.
(Windows) Some devices that used to offer multiple recording channels in Audacity without ASIO may now only offer mono or stereo recording instead of the expected number of channels. Usually the multi or similar device only has 2 channels instead of the expected number. Occasionally the multi device is missing, leaving only two-channel devices to choose from. These devices have been reported:
Alesis Multimix-8 USB
DSP2000-CPort
M-Audio Delta 66
Motu 896 AD/DA FW
Tascam US 1641 and US 1800
If you experience this issue please report make and model number of the device, your operating system (for example, Windows 7 Service Pack 1) and the device driver version number you are using. It is possible that more than stereo recording may be possible if you can find earlier drivers that are still compatible with your version of Windows, or if you try the Windows WASAPI host in Device Toolbar. See Multichannel Recording for a list of devices reported to record multi-channels into Audacity without ASIO.
(Windows) There may be substantial delays drawing the waveform in longer projects of an hour or more. The main problems are with opening saved projects that were fitted to the window, and fitting already zoomed in projects to the window, such as a new recording. Additionally, import or effect progress dialogs may stall "whited out" for a few seconds after the progress bars complete before the waveform is drawn.
Chains
Audacity's built-in generators don't yet work with Chains. Plugin generators should work.
Chains do not currently support export as AIFF, Other uncompressed files or any formats supported by FFmpeg.
LV2 effects cannot yet store their parameters in Chains so if non-default parameters are required in a Chain these must be set for each Audacity session in File > Edit Chains before running the Chain.
You cannot set export format options or export sample rate in the Chain. If you need to specify export options other than the current default, import or generate some audio, File > Export, select the audio type, click "Options..." then choose and save the option and cancel the export.
Noise Reduction" does not yet support storing its parameters in a Chain. Noise Reduction will run at its last used settings if used in a Chain.
Compiling
(Windows) LADSPA effects cannot be categorized even when Audacity is compiled with USE_LIBLRDF defined.
(Linux) Audacity may not always compile against supported versions of libav or FFmpeg. Audacity 2.0.6 and later supports FFmpeg 1.2 to 2.3.x (or libav 0.8 to 0.10.x).
Dynamic loading (as in default Audacity ./configure) requires building against the FFmpeg project - it will not build against the libav* headers from the libav project. Workarounds: Configure Audacity with --disable-dynamic-loading. If dynamic loading is required, build against FFmpeg instead of libav, or you can build against libav if you remove the "#define IS_FFMPEG_PROJECT 1" line in src/FFmpeg.h.
Audacity may still build against no-longer-supported FFmpeg versions (such as FFmpeg 0.8 which is system-installed on Debian Wheezy), but configuring with --disable-dynamic-loading will be necessary. FFmpeg 0.8 has at least one known issue in Audacity 2.0.6 or later: mono WMA files export with no audio data. This issue will not be fixed given FFmpeg 0.8 is no longer supported by Audacity 2.0.6.
Building against self-compiled FFmpeg 2.2.2 with --disable-dynamic-loading the only argument fails on Ubuntu 13.10 with "undefined reference to 'av_codec_is_encoder'". Workaround: Configuring with --disable-dynamic-loading and --with-lib-preference="local" (or at least --with-ffmpeg="local") may build successfully, but may not disable Libraries Preferences. The best solution may be not to disable dynamic loading.
Effects
"Plug-in Manager" dialog:'
The dialog may include some VST instruments or VST 3 effects but these are not supported so will not load even if enabled.
Effects (Audio Units) (OS X)
All User Presets you select in the export dialog are exported at the same current settings you see in the effect, not at the preset's currently saved setting. This means that:
To export a preset as saved you must first load it from User Presets before selecting it in the export dialog
You cannot export more than one preset at a time at different settings.
When you import a preset into an Apple Audio Unit, that preset's settings are applied by the effect without the effect controls updating to the new settings. Other AU effects may ignore presets when you import them. To be sure the imported preset you want to use is loaded into the effect, select it from "User Presets".
Effects (LADSPA)
(Windows) When Region and Language format for the computer is set to a language using comma as decimal separator (for example, French or German), effect settings cannot be changed from the Manage menu to Factory Defaults or to saved User Presets. Also, current settings are not saved after Audacity is quit.
Effects (LV2)
(Mac OS X and Linux) LV2 instruments that Audacity should ignore because they are incompatible are listed in Plug-in Manager (64-bit Linux may not be affected). These plug-ins will not work in Audacity even if you re-enable them.
Effects (Real-time preview)
Real-time preview doesn't yet compensate for the latency many plugins introduce in order to provide smooth processing of audio. Real-time preview therefore may have small gaps in the audio, or timing artifacts may be audible when previewing multiple tracks. Compensation is applied when applying the effect, unless you disable compensation in the options for the effect).
Effects (Vamp)
(Windows) Installing the latest 1.7.1 "Queen Mary" Vamp plugins to any of the supported locations causes Audacity to crash when clicking any of the three "Add/Remove Plug-ins" menu items. You can use the 1.7 plug-ins from https://code.soundsoftware.ac.uk/projects/qm-vamp-plugins/files instead.
Effects (VST and Audio Units)
(OS X and GNU/Linux): When saving VST effect presets, the FXP or XML file extension is not automatically offered in the file name, and not added by Audacity if you omit it. Make sure the extension you add is the same as that shown in the "File Format" drop-down menu, otherwise the preset will not be loadable.
(Windows and Mac OS X) When running VST effects in graphical mode the controls of many plug-ins do not visibly respond when loading a preset file from the "Load" button. The new settings are however loaded internally, will apply when running the effect and will be visible if you reopen the effect after running it. Controls do respond to loading a preset file if you turn off graphical mode.
(Windows)
Playing audio while Ambience VST plug-in is open (including previewing any non-real-time preview effect) causes Audacity to crash.
Amplio 2 is likely to crash after being enabled at Add / Remove Plugins or when previewing the effect in real-time. If enabling Amplio2 crashes, try enabling it again. Then make sure audio is not playing, open Amplio2 and press "Apply", without pressing the Play button in the effect.
Audiocation Phase crashes if closed and reopened.
DFX Geometer from http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/ may crash Audacity when loading the effect from the Effect Menu. This usually happens only once or twice when the effect is first loaded in the operating system session. Once the effect is open in Audacity it should work properly.
DISTRHO Mini Series VST's from http://distrho.sourceforge.net/plugins.php crash Audacity in graphic mode but will run in text mode (open the Effects Preferences and uncheck "Display VST effects in graphical mode").
MDA Tracker may crash if the effect is applied while playing audio. For all the MDA VST's, the sliders have no effect and only the default effect settings can be applied.
Waves v5 may cause Audacity to hang if you select it in the "Register Effects" dialog then click OK.
(OS X) The following plug-ins may cause Audacity to crash if they are used after starting Audacity.
AURoundTripAAC from "Apple audio mastering tools" (this requires OS X 10.6 or later so may crash on 10.4 or 10.5).
Digitech RP250 (effects pedal)
MNoiseGenerator AU and others in MFreeEffectsBundle crash if you preview them
Native Instruments B4 and Native Instruments Guitar Rig v3 and v4 (v5 does not have this issue)
PredatorFX
Waves Version 7 and 8 AU: These effects may crash Audacity on quit, after project data has been saved. Waves Version 9 AU should now work correctly.
Workaround: If Audio Units are not needed in Audacity, restart Audacity then open Audacity > Preferences and choose "Effect". Under "Enable Effects", uncheck "Audio Unit", press OK and restart Audacity. Alternatively, look in the Mac Crash Report for the AU plug-in that crashed, move it from <Your Home>/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components or /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components then restart Audacity. See this page for more help.
Effects and Analysis
(Windows 64-bit) There is no HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ registry key where Audacity detects VST plug-ins. The HKEY_CURRENT_USER key searched is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VST\VSTPluginsPath instead of the expected HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VST .
"Play" or "Preview" features that are included in a few Nyquist plug-ins do not work on Mac OS X and may cause Audacity to freeze or crash on Linux.
Analyze > Plot Spectrum and Contrast do not currently appear in Plug-In Manager: Effects so cannot be disabled.
Noise reduction: Preview is not possible if the sample rate of the project is different from the rate of the track to be processed - an error message appears "Sample rate of the noise profile must match that of the sound to be processed" (even if that condition is met). Providing the noise profile rate does match the track rate, you can still apply the effect. Alternatively, change the project rate temporarily to the rate of the track.
Nyquist plug-ins: In locales where comma is the decimal separator, entering a comma in a text input box that has no associated slider will produce an error message, or only result in the whole number before the comma (for example, in Regular Interval Labels). Workaround: Use a dot (period) as the decimal separator.
Truncate Silence when run on multiple selected tracks only looks for and truncates "silence" regions which are common to all those tracks. If you want to truncate silence independently for each track it is currently necessary to run the effect on one selected track at a time.
(Linux) On Ubuntu with the Unity interface enabled in audacity.desktop, previewing a built-in or Nyquist effect or generator in one project then opening the same effect or generator in another project will cause a crash. There may sometimes be a crash if opening any built-in or Nyquist effect or generator in another project when such an effect is already previewing.
(Linux) Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift may crash randomly in Audacity built with pre-2.0.2 versions of libsbsms. This may occur for example in the Ubuntu package of Audacity 2.0.5 on Ubuntu 14.04. Workaround: Build Audacity configured --with-sbsms="local", or use the Audacity package in Ubuntu 14.10 which uses libsbsms 2.0.2-1.
(Windows and Linux) Some LADSPA "Blop" plug-ins ( http://blop.sourceforge.net/index.html ) are reported to crash in Audacity on Linux Debian. On Windows, the Blop plug-ins included in http://opensourcepack.blogspot.co.uk/p/ladspa-for-win32.html can also crash, but this can be avoided if you ensure the "blop_files" folder contains the necessary "_data.dll" files for the plug-ins and that this folder is present in the Audacity "Plug-Ins" folder.
(Windows and Mac OS X) The SC4 compressor shipped with Audacity crashes if used in a Chain.
(Windows) LADSPA Multiband EQ may not be visible in Effect menu (occurs on Windows XP), and crashes soon after opening
Cut Preview only plays the upper track of multiple selected or Sync-Locked tracks.
Nyquist effects render the space between clips as silence. Workarounds: Edit > Clip Boundaries > Detach at Silences (this may also remove parts of the original audio if any of it was totally silent).
The following effects remove envelope control points: Change Speed/Pitch/Tempo; Equalization; Noise Removal; Sliding Time Scale/Pitch Shift; any Nyquist effect in the Effect menu. Workaround: Use Tracks > Mix and Render to apply the envelope to the waveform before applying the effect.
The Reverse effect retains the control points, but does not move them.
Nyquist effects may crash Audacity if used on extremely long selections containing more than 2^31 samples (just over 13.5 hours at 44100 Hz). Workaround Apply the effect to multiple shorter regions (you can drag the selection back on itself to create a region contiguous with the previous one).
Envelopes and Clips
A clip may now be vertically dragged from inside a selection region, but if that region extends over the edge of the clip into space or into an adjoining clip there may be unexpected behavior:
one channel of a stereo clip may jump sideways
a mono clip may fail to horizontal-drag in its new track
faint, specious clip lines could occur if the clip is dragged back to its original track.
Workaround: Edit > Undo if necessary then drag from outside the selection region or single-click in the clip to remove the selection.
If audio is created at other than time zero, a selection made in that clip could include the sample before the first selected sample but exclude the last selected sample. If fully selecting such a clip or dragging to or from its left border, the first sample will appear unselected despite being selected.
Set Rate in the Audio Track Dropdown Menu does not work correctly when there is a separate clip in the track or when there are envelope points. Clips will cause Set Rate to shorten the audio too much or insert white space into it. Envelope points will not move in response to Set Rate.
Vertical-dragging a clip into a track at a different sample rate where the clip contains a selection that transgresses into another clip will corrupt the project if you drag from within the selection. Playback, export and project saving will be at the wrong position or speed. Workaround: Vertical drag without or outside a selection. If you need to retain the selection when vertical dragging, use Edit > Region Save, remove the selection before drag then Edit > Region Restore. If the problem occurs, Edit > Undo to where playback is correct (dragging the track back where it came from will not resolve the issue).
Boundary Snap Guides often do not appear when snapping to Split Lines created with Snap To enabled at hh:mm:ss + milliseconds or higher resolution. You could label the split lines or turn Snap To off to see the guides.
Left-clicking in a stereo track to merge a clip at a split line may cause other clips to move. It is believed this only happens after having used the Track Drop-Down Menu to make two mono tracks into stereo. Workaround: Select over the split line and Edit > Clip Boundaries > Join.
When pasting audio into tracks with envelope points, the envelope points may move in unexpected ways, so causing unwanted amplitude adjustments.
Exports
When exporting or rendering a longer mix and one or more tracks are much shorter than the others, the progress bar will appear to show no progress and "remaining time" will increase continually. However the mix or export will complete normally in reasonable time if you wait for the progress dialogue to close.
WAVEX (Microsoft) headers: GSM 6.10 files cannot be exported with WAVEX headers. Use WAV headers instead (note that GSM 6.10 only supports mono). A-Law and U-Law files with WAV headers may not be playable - use WAV headers instead. Choose "Other uncompressed files" then "Options..." to export to GSM 6.10 or A-/U-Law with WAV headers.
(Linux) Exports using "M4A (AAC) Files" are very slow irrespective of the AAC encoder FFmpeg is configured to use. Workaround: choose (external program) when exporting, entering an appropriate path and command (for example, /usr/bin/ffmpeg -i - "%f") to run FFmpeg using Audacity's command-line encoder.
(Linux) Files exported using the FFmpeg native AAC encoder included with many system versions of FFmpeg may be of poor quality. This is an issue with the library itself. Workaround: When compiling FFmpeg, configure with the libfaac encoder thus: --disable-encoder=aac --enable-libfaac --enable-nonfree. Note that libfaac has an issue not present in the native FFmpeg encoder that saved files are short at the end by about 3000 samples. Alternatively build the VisualOn AAC encoder library and configure FFmpeg with --disable-encoder=aac --disable-encoder=libfaac --enable-libvo-aacenc.
(Linux) Mono AAC files import as stereo if FFmpeg uses the libfaad decoder. This is again an issue with the library itself.
Audacity may freeze if using the Nero AAC encoder to export via (external program). It is reported this only occurs when using multiple CPU cores. Workaround: Export to AAC directly by adding FFmpeg to your computer, or set Audacity to use only one CPU core.
Custom FFmpeg Export: many combinations of formats and codecs are incompatible, as are some combinations of general options and codecs. Some files may be exported as zero kb files.
Imports and Exports
A-Law, U-Law and ADPCM export formats (also RF64 for PCM exports larger than 4 GB in size) must be chosen by selecting "Other uncompressed files", ensure the "Header" is "WAV (Microsoft)", then from the "Encoding" dropdown menu select your desired encoding. We may redesign the export list in due course to make these formats easier to find.
AAC exports using "M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)" with project rate below 22050 Hz produce a zero bytes file if the linked to FFmpeg is configured with the default AAC encoder or libfaac. This will not affect the recommended builds of FFmpeg for Windows and Mac OS X which are built with libvo-aacenc. Workaround: You can export AAC below 22050 Hz using default-configured FFmpeg by choosing (external program) export instead.
Exports chosen using the "Other uncompressed files" type may be saved with incorrect extension and so not be playable - on Windows and OS X, AIFF extension is always used regardless of format and on Linux, the extension for the last saved format is always used. Workaround: Add a period and the correct extension for the format (or on Mac OS X, change the supplied extension). Be sure to add the correct extension, because Audacity may not warn if an inappropriate extension is added.
Files containing PCM audio but misnamed as MP3 cause a freeze or crash if an Extended Import rule is set in Preferences to force import of MP3 files using the MP3 importer.
ID3 metadata tags in imported MP3 or MP2 files may display incorrectly if the metadata is UTF-16 encoded. The tags will seem to have Chinese characters and these incorrect tags will also be present if the files are re-exported. Workaround: Before importing the file into Audacity, open it in a tag editor or an audio application that can edit tags. If the tags are seen correctly, save the file in that application. On Windows you can use Foobar2000 for this purpose.
Importing multiple files at once into new project windows using File > Open... or the command-line may show incorrect Timeline length including corrupt or missing values. Clicking above Mute/Solo will show the correct length of the track. If the Timeline length is incorrect, you can zoom in or out to get the correct length (and refit the project if you want). Multiple import into the same project window is not affected.
The Import / Export Preference "When importing audio files, Normalize all tracks in project" will cause import of WAV/AIFF files using "Read the files directly from the original" to lock up at the Normalize step. If you require normalize on import for WAV/AIFF, please change the Import / Export Preference to "Make a copy... before editing".
(Linux) Importing a file will cause the export dialog to always offer AIFF extension irrespective of the selected export format. Workaround: Remove the period (dot) and extension from the file name or add the correct extension, then the file will export correctly.
(Linux) After opening a sufficiently long audio file, opening a second file of any size leads to locked GUI/console messages until first file completes play.
(Linux) Custom FFmpeg Export dialogue does not respond to ENTER after clicking in the Formats or Codec selector.
(Mac OS X) When browsing to and opening LAME from Libraries Preferences the required libmp3lame.dylib file may be grayed out and unselectable. Choose "Dynamic Libraries" or "All Files" in the "File type:" dropdown. This will let you select the file and open it even if it still appears grayed out.
(Mac OS X) Dragging audio files to Audacity's icon in the Dock will only import the file for WAV, AIFF, AU, MP2, MP3, OGG, FLAC and M4A. Workaround: Rename MP4 files (audio or video) to M4A extension. Alternatively the files may be dragged to the Audacity icon in the folder where you have Audacity installed, dragged into the open Audacity window or imported using the Audacity menus.
(OS X 10.10) iTunes files cannot be opened from Media > Music in Audacity's file open dialogs. You could drag your iTunes "Music" folder to the Finder sidebar to give quicker access in Audacity open dialogs.
(OS X and Linux) When using Export Multiple, asterisks (*) or question marks (?) in labels are wrongly rejected as illegal characters, and forward slashes (/) cause a false "cannot export audio" warning. Workaround: To force use of * or ? (and / on OS X), export each region with File > Export Selection instead (/ is illegal in a file or folder name on Linux).
(OS X) Audio files cannot be dragged into the Audacity window. You can drag files to the Audacity icon in /Applications or in the Dock, or import the file from within Audacity.
(OS X) Files imported from iTunes could create invalid characters in the .aup project file in previous Beta versions of Audacity. If you re-open such a project in the current release, an error "reference to invalid character number" may occur. Workaround: Save and open a back-up copy of the .aup file in a text editor, turn off word wrap, then in the line indicated in the error message, remove the string of characters that starts with &# and ends with a semi-colon (;). There is more help with fixing this here.
(Windows Vista, 7) Audacity will crash if attempting to open WAV files while they are still being rendered by the open source Psycle tracker program.
If WAV/AIFF files are imported into a project using "Read Directly" import but then become unavailable, warnings are given when playing, recording, applying effects and exporting, but not all editing and project save actions are warned.
If you import an audio file from a folder other than the one you last exported to, you cannot export over that file without changing the export directory manually.
"Background on-demand loading" for FFmpeg (in the Libraries Preferences) does not currently allow changing the focus of waveform computation by clicking in the track. You can apply an effect to a selection wherever the normal waveform has appeared, but if you do so before the normal waveform has appeared, the audio will be silenced.
(Linux): When exporting to MIDI over an existing file, no overwrite warning is given.
By default, the importer used depends on the import method. For example, to be able to use FFmpeg to import native Audacity formats like WAV and MP3, you must choose the "FFmpeg-compatible files" filter in File > Open or File > Import > Audio and always use one of those import methods. To force FFmpeg to import native Audacity formats when using File > Recent Files or dragging in, add rules for those formats in Extended Import Preferences. To force FFmpeg import irrespective of the filter when using File > Open or File > Import > Audio, uncheck "Attempt to use filter in OpenFile dialog first" in Extended Import Preferences as well as adding the rule for the format.
Export Multiple does not pass metadata common to all tracks to the Metadata Editor windows for each track. Workaround: Export by unchecking "Show Metadata Editor before export step" in Import / Export Preferences, then enter any tags common to all tracks at File > Open Metadata Editor... before exporting. Audacity will then silently add the common and automatically generated Track Title and Track Number tags for each exported file.
Import > Raw Data... imports files as noise if the Quality Preferences are set to 24-bit Default Sample Format. Set this to 16-bit or 32-bit float instead.
WAV and AIFF exports will fail without warning if you import a WAV or AIFF by reading it directly, delete the file and its track then export new audio to the same file name and location as the deleted file. Workaround: Set the Preference in the above link to "Make a copy" of uncompressed files when importing.
(OS X) Audio files containing a backslash (\) in the name will fail "Could not open file" if you import them using File > Open... , File > Import > Audio... or File > Open Recent. This is a bug in wxWidgets. Workaround: Drag the file into the Audacity window instead.
Dither (corrective soft noise) is applied by default when it should not be applied when exporting to most formats having the same or higher bit depth than the project. For example, this occurs if exporting to 16-bit WAV, 16-bit FLAC or MP3 from a 16-bit project. OGG is unaffected. Workarounds: Set "High Quality" dither to "None" in the Quality Preferences. To fix any files that have already been affected, see this Forum topic.
Metadata:
Album art and lyrics in imported metadata are lost when exporting. Workaround: Copy the lyrics (or search for them online) then add them back to the exported file in your favorite media player. Extract the album art using a tag editor such as IDTE (or use Windows Media Player or iTunes to search online for the art) then add the art back to the exported file using your media player.
Tags other than the seven default Metadata Editor tags will be rewritten as custom ID3 TXXX tags, which will cause them not to be seen in applications like Windows Media Player and iTunes. Common tag examples include "Album Artist", "BPM" and "Composer".
ID3 v2.4 tags in imported MP3 files are not seen and will be removed on export.
Audacity writes both ID3 v2.3 (TYER) and v2.4 (TDRC) tags for "Year", but any applications that require the older TYER on its own (without TDRC) will not see "Year" in Audacity-exported files. The id3 command-line application on Linux is one example.
WMA and APE (Monkeys Audio): "Artist Name" is not seen on importing the file (Audacity bug)
Other metadata import/export may not always be consistent. This may depend on the program that created the imported tags and the program used to read the exported tags.
On a fresh installation of Audacity or initialized Preferences, the optional FFmpeg library cannot be used for import of native Audacity formats such as WAV, AIFF or MP3. Workaround: Open Preferences and click "OK".
When importing a MIDI track, the channel selection buttons to left of the track are not currently available.
Imports and Exports (FFmpeg)
Custom FFmpeg Export dialog: It is necessary to save a preset before exporting it but there is no error message when exporting from an empty presets list and no advice in the interface that presets must be saved before export.
(Mac OS X) When exporting using Custom FFmpeg Export, you must agree to create and replace an unwanted "NoOverwritePrompt" file before you can export. The exported audio file is correct.
M4A (AAC) exports: The Quality Slider in "Specify AAC Options" has no effect if the FFmpeg library is built with the libvo-aac encoder, as are recommended builds of FFmpeg for Windows and Mac OS X. Workaround: You can specify a constant bit rate if you select "Custom FFmpeg Export". Click the Options... button, choose "mp4" in the formats list and "libvo_aacenc" in the codecs list, then set bit rate in bits per second. Up to 320000 bps (320 kbps) is supported. Given the alternative AAC encoders for FFmpeg also have problems as described in these notes, you can instead export as WAV and convert to AAC in iTunes on Windows and Mac.
M4A/MP4 (AAC): Artist and Year metadata is not exported or imported due to a bug in FFmpeg 2.2.2.
Installation
(OS X 10.6 or later) Administrative (and occasionally, root) permissions may be needed on some machines to read the optional LAME libraries at /usr/local/lib/audacity. In case of difficulty, please download the zip version "Lame Library v3.98.2 for Audacity on OSX.zip" from the download site and extract the files to your own preferred location.
(Windows) In the Audacity installer, selecting the language to use during installation now selects the language Audacity will run in, even if Windows is running in a different language.
Interface
Audacity crashes after quit if quit from the Task Manager (Windows) or Taskbar (Linux) while "About Audacity" is open. Audacity always crashes after quit if quit from the Dock on Mac OS X. On Linux, any quit by any method produces "OS_IS_BAR (bar)" and "GTK_IS_WIDGET" (widget) assertion errors in the terminal if Audacity is launched from there. Any unsaved audio is saved correctly before the crash.
(Linux) Using a file manager (for example, context menu) or the command line to open further files gives an error. Even if Audacity is closed, only one file can be opened from the file manager. Workaround: Use File > Open, or (for audio files) File > New then drag the files in.
(Mac OS X) When zooming in to maximum level (or close to maximum) in tracks exceeding about 6 minutes in length, the view position might move. This might un-center or remove the cursor from view, or cause the COMMAND + [ or COMMAND + ] shortcuts to not center or display the selection edge.
(OS X Yosemite or later) Random occasional crashes may occur when importing or exporting files or when opening/saving projects. If you have found steps that almost always reproduce this crash, please write to our feedback address with details and include the crash report from /Applications/Utilities/Console.app.
(OS X and Linux) In some locales, Preferences text may be truncated or overlapped, or dropdown boxes truncated.
(OS X) The "Window" menu is not currently available.
(OS X) If the Audacity window buttons get trapped under the menu bar, there is no way to minimize Audacity because the COMMAND + M / COMMAND + OPTION + M shortcuts do not currently work. You can use COMMAND + H to hide Audacity instead.
(OS X) In projects that have a vertical scrollbar you cannot mouse-drag a track up or down beyond the visible vertical area because the drag does not vertically scroll the project. You can drag the vertical scrollbar then drag the track again, or use the Audio Track Dropdown Menu to move the track.
(OS X) Period must be used as the decimal separator in effects even when the system language is French, German or other language that specifies comma separator.
(OS X) The "Cmd - Wheel - Rotate" mouse binding does not zoom in unless you modify the default System Preferences. ** On OS X 10.6 or later, go to Universal Access / Seeing / Zoom / Options and uncheck "Use scroll wheel with modifier keys to zoom".
Prior to OS X 10.6, go to "Mouse and Keyboard" and uncheck "Zoom using scroll ball while holding Command".
(Windows) The "Files Missing" warning always restores maximised windows to smaller size.
After changing language in Preferences, a few parts of the interface don't change until Audacity is restarted.
Audacity has several weaknesses in preserving the context of the audio being worked with:
If playback scrolls, pressing Stop leaves the waveform where it stopped and the cursor invisible. Pressing Play to resume then scrolls the waveform to start at the left edge, hiding the previously visible context before the cursor position. Workaround: If you had a selection and a special playback command like Cut Preview or Quick-Play caused the waveform to scroll, use View > Go to Selection Start or View > Go to Selection End to move the selection back into view.
Current scrolling behaviour makes it too hard to watch the waveform progress, with a single shift of cursor and waveform position when cursor reaches the right edge
Zoom to Selection shows none of the surrounding context
By default, all audio in the project is selected if an action requiring a selection is requested when there is no selection (this behavior can be turned off in the Tracks Preferences). If enabled:
You can always apply effects to the whole project in one step, but you can also delete audio in all tracks if you press Delete when there is no selection. That is easy to Undo, but we aim to tweak this behavior and make it more customizable in a future Audacity.
A few items in Edit menu are incorrectly grayed out if no track is selected.
If Sync-Lock Tracks is enabled, there is no indication of the cursor in the Sync-Locked tracks.
Mouse Bindings are not currently configurable by the user.
Snap-To does not move the cursor when first enabled or when the selection format is changed.
We're aware that some error messages in Audacity are not as helpful as we would like them to be. If you see a cryptic error message from Audacity, try a search (or ask) on https://forum.audacityteam.org/
When using TAB to move into a TimeText control (for example, in a Generator, Change Speed or Selection Toolbar) the first character is highlighted instead of the first non-zero character.
While in Pause mode, editing and effects functions are not available while playback is paused, nor is Save or Export. You must press the Stop button for these commands to become available.
(Linux) If Audacity is left open but without focus, its CPU use will rise slowly until all available system CPU is consumed. This is a bug in wxGTK 2.8.10 (not previous versions) - see http://trac.wxwidgets.org/ticket/11315 . This issue can be fixed by updating to wxGTK 2.8.11 or 2.8.12.
For Package Maintainers / Distributors / anyone building against 2.8.10: The upstream change in wxGTK is simple and can easily be patched into wxGTK 2.8.10 if desired: Grab http://trac.wxwidgets.org/changeset/62397?format=diff&new=62397, run it through dos2unix (as it seems to come with dos line-endings), and apply it to the wxGTK 2.8.10 sources (with -p3 to get the paths right if you patch from the top level of the tarball distribution).
(Windows) It is not yet possible to drag .lnk shortcuts to audio files or projects into Audacity, or to drag them to the Audacity executable's icon. Workaround: Use File > Open or File > Import > Audio, or double-click the shortcut to the .aup from Windows Explorer.
(Windows) The Audacity executable cannot be added to the Explorer "Open with" context menu if you have another version of Audacity on the system which is also called "audacity.exe". Workaround: either use the "Open with" dialogue to browse to the executable each time, or rename the executable to or some other unique name.
Dragging a clip or track up or down with Time Shift Tool does not scroll the project window when tracks exist out of view above or below the scroll. Workaround: Choose View > Fit Vertically before drag, or click and hold the piece to be dragged, use up or down arrow on the keyboard to scroll to the target track, then drag and release the clip or track.
Sync-Locked Tracks are not affected by all actions that change the length of a track in the Sync-Locked Track Group. Applying Paulstretch or using the Audio Track dropdown menu to change sample rate will leave the other Sync-Locked tracks desynchronised.
Keyboard Shortcuts
(Windows) SHIFT + A (Play/Stop and Set Cursor) and custom unmodified shortcuts for playback or recording write a label at the cursor position if the label track has the yellow focus border. Workaround: use up or down arrow to move focus out of the label track before using the shortcut.
Label Tracks
Export multiple by labels may add unwanted silence to exported files if multiple tracks are present that don't all start at time zero. You can workaround this by using Edit > Select > All then Tracks > Mix and Render to render the audio to one track, or by generating a short amount of silence at the start of each track that is offset from zero.
(Linux) In projects containing several hundred labels or more, Audacity will freeze on 100% CPU when opening the "Audacity Karaoke" window, and will freeze again while that window is open when editing a label or performing other actions on the project. Workaround: Open or place an empty label track above the one you want to use.
Unless Tracks > Sync-Lock Tracks is on, pasting or inserting audio does not affect labels even if the label track is included in the selection.
Yellow "snap" guidelines do not appear in re-opened projects or imported label tracks when dragging a selection to a label edge if "Snap To" is checked and a high resolution Selection Format chosen. Formats affected include "hh:mm:ss + CDDA frames (75 fps)", "hh:mm:ss + milliseconds" and "hh:mm:ss + samples".
Localization
(Linux) If system locale is set to Valencian and Audacity language in Interface Preferences is set to "System", Audacity will be in Catalan. You can change to Valencian language in Interface Preferences.
(OS X) Audacity set to "System" language in Interface Preferences as in a new installation or after preferences reset will always be in English language irrespective of the Mac system locale. Workaround: Follow the steps at https://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_about_audacity.html#language to change the Audacity language in Interface Preferences.
(Windows) Audacity must be explicitly set to use Galician or Valencian in Interface Preferences to display those languages. Setting the Windows Region and Language format to Galician or Valencian and Audacity to "System" language will only display Audacity in English.
Miscellaneous platform-specific issues
(Mac OS X) If using Audacity when the "Hear" audio plug-in is running (or has been since boot), there will be excessive memory usage which could cause a crash: this appears to be due to buggy memory allocation in "Hear"
(Mac OS X) Very occasionally, users may find that after running Audacity, other media players don't produce any sound, or crash: to resolve this, set up your sound device in Apple Audio MIDI Setup to work in stereo, 16-bit, with a sample rate of 44100 Hz or 48000 Hz, and set the sample format and rate identically in Audacity. More help at: http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=5064
(Linux) A playback or recording freeze, recording dropouts or fast playback may occur when using PulseAudio. Freezes may be caused by repeatedly starting and stopping playback or recording in quick succession (or by holding down the Play or Record button). Workarounds: Try launching Audacity from the terminal with the pulse latency set to 30 ms in an environment variable:
env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 audacity
If you get underruns noted in the terminal, try a higher number in the PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC command. If the problem is unchanged, try a lower number. Alternatively, bypass pulseaudio by setting the playback and recording device to an ALSA (hw) choice in Device Toolbar. More help with this can be found here.
Mixer Board
Soloing or unsoloing a track in Mixer Board when in "Standard" Solo button mode may not immediately update the Solo button or waveform greyed/ungreyed state in the project window. Workaround: Click anywhere in (or task switch back to) the project window to refresh it (on Mac, you must click in the waveform or Track Control Panel or wait for the tracks to scroll when playing).
(Windows and Linux) If Mixer Board is open and more tracks are added so that the horizontal scrollbar must be used, newly added tracks may not be visible or newly deleted tracks may show as empty space. Workaround: To see all the tracks without redundant space, close and reopen the project then reopen Mixer Board.
If you change the meter range in Preferences this is not reflected in the Mixer Board meters until restart.
(Linux) Meters may not respond immediately to playback which could cause them to report incorrect peak level or not display clipping.
Modules
(Windows, Mac OS X) Modules originally shipped with obsolete 1.3.x versions of Audacity will cause Audacity to crash once at launch if they exist in a "modules" folder alongside the Audacity executable and are enabled in Modules Preferences.
Moonphase
Very occasionally, Audacity projects may reopen with missing block files, orphan block files and/or silenced audio data. There may be unwanted renaming or moving of AU files within the project. We believe having multiple projects open at once or having projects open in file manager programs are among the possible causes. See Bug:137 for more background to this.
The AUP file may be saved with references to only a few of the AU files, again leading to "orphan block file" warnings. Sometimes the AUP file may not be found after saving and closing the project.
Sometimes errors occur when saving the project or when Audacity autosaves, perhaps wrongly suggesting the disk is full or not writable (if this happens, try exporting the audio as WAV).
Please write to our feedback address if you encounter any of the above symptoms. As many as possible of the following will help us enormously if you can attach them to your report:
A copy of the saved AUP project file
A copy of the AUTOSAVE (temporary project) file. This file is stored inside the "AutoSave" folder in Audacity's application data folder.
For problems that occur when reopening or working in a project, the log file at Help > Show Log....
Playback and Recording
Append Record with Transport > Overdub (on/off) enabled may cause periodic playthrough of previously recorded audio. If you use the Stop button or SPACE to stop the previous recording instead of SHIFT + A (Stop and Set Cursor), this may reduce occurrences of the issue.
(Mac OS X) The default 100 ms "Audio to buffer" setting in Audacity's Recording Preferences (which also affects playback) is too high for many USB or firewire devices. There may be immediate clicky playback of good audio and more rarely, recordings may be corrupted with clicks after a period of time. Set Audio to buffer as low as you can consistent with still getting a good recording, or use the built-in output or input instead.
(OS X Yosemite or Mavericks) 'Random occasional crashes may occur after recording or monitoring in a second project window then zooming or fitting the project in that window. If you have found steps that almost always reproduce this crash, please write to our feedback address with details and include the crash report from /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/ (~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports on Mavericks).
(OS X and Linux) Audacity now works very well with JACK, with the following bugs and limitations:
Clicking in the input meter to start monitoring will crash Audacity if it has not yet used JACK for playback or recording in that session. Workaround: Before recording the first track in a session, click "Pause" then "Record" to enable the recording meter.
The best way to connect to available JACK inputs and outputs is directly from Device Toolbar. Use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices when necessary, for example to make new JACK applications ports available to Audacity. See here for details.
On Mac, Audacity may freeze if JACK is launched by QjackCtl then Audacity is launched. Workaround: Use JackPilot to launch JACK, or launch QJackCtrl after Audacity and JACK are running.
(OS X and Linux) PortAudio's default latency values which are used when recording with software playthrough are much lower than Audacity's default "Audio to buffer" setting. This may cause playthrough or recording glitches when recording with software playthrough enabled, especially when using pulse on Linux. Workaround for Linux: record from an (hw) device instead if software playthrough is required.
(OS X) Playback to Bluetooth headsets gives an error. Workaround: Revert to Audacity 1.3.3 (this may only work with stereo headsets), or use Soundflower to send the Audacity output to an audio application that works with the headset.
(OS X) The "Hardware Playthrough" option in Recording Preferences is currently unsupported on all known Mac hardware. Try the "Software Playthrough" preference instead. If that does not work, the third-party LineIn application also provides software playthrough.
(Windows) When a USB device is connected, the Mixer Toolbar input slider for that device (and sometimes for any device) may wrongly appear active even though it has no control over the device's input level. Sometimes the Audacity slider will apply a software gain to the level (which is dangerous as it will only make the same clipped input quieter rather than stopping the clipping). Sometimes the Audacity slider will not affect the input volume at all. Workaround: use the slider in the Windows Control Panel where available, or any gain control on the device, or reduce the output being sent to the device.
(Windows) When you install Audacity for the first time or launch it after resetting Preferences Audacity will choose a specific output and input device rather than the Sound Mapper devices that are the current Windows default devices. Workaround: If you lose playback audio or only record silence for this reason, use Device Toolbar to change the devices as needed, then Audacity will remember them.
(Windows) Audacity is incompatible (or not fully compatible) with some professional sound cards or audio devices, and may crash or have limited or faulty functionality. Occasionally, this may be true of some AC97 devices built into the motherboard. Workaround: make a different sound card your default when using Audacity, but please e-mail the following details to our feedback address:
Your version of Windows and Service Pack
Name, model number and driver version number of the sound card or device.
Note: Multichannel Recording in Audacity is often not possible with professional devices unless you compile Audacity with ASIO support.
Adding or removing an external audio device while Audacity is open will not be automatically reflected in the list in Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences. On Mac, unplugging then replugging an external device will give "error while opening sound device" (on Linux, pressing "Record" a second time will remove the error). Workaround: Use Transport > Rescan Audio Devices.
Calculation of "disk space remains for recording (time)" incorrect when recording in 24 bit quality.
Play-at-Speed slider: Change of playback speed is no longer automatic after you move the play-at-speed slider. To change speed, move the slider, then click the green button to left of the slider to play at the new speed.
Timer Record cannot maintain scheduled duration if system clock changes
(Windows Vista, 7) If you change the explicit output and/or input device selected in Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences and then change "Host", the selected devices will change back to those originally selected.
(Windows XP and earlier) Changing the default playback or recording devices in the Windows Control Panel while Audacity is open may cause all the playback or recording choices in Device Toolbar to produce silence (or to fail with "Error opening sound device"). This problem may also occur when connecting or disconnecting a USB device while Audacity is open. Workaround: Click Transport > Rescan Audio Devices then you can play or record.
(Windows Vista and later) The "Windows WASAPI" host supplies playback, plus a "loopback" device for recording computer playback and experimental support for physical inputs.
Not everyone will necessarily experience all or any of the issues noted below, but please report any WASAPI issues not covered below to our feedback address.
Although volume slider support for WASAPI is implemented, on some devices the Mixer Toolbar recording volume slider will be grayed out when selecting the Windows WASAPI host. Even if the Audacity recording slider is available, the sound device may not support Audacity adjusting its system playback or recording sliders. To control loopback recording on those systems, try adjusting the playback level of the audio player.
On many other devices, the Audacity recording and playback volume sliders will be "linked" together when loopback recording with playback and recording device set to the same device. Adjusting either slider will often adjust the sound you hear without affecting the achieved recording level, enabling you to record without listening. If "silent" recording does not work, mute the "Device" slider at far left of the Windows "Volume Mixer" or plug in speakers or headphones and turn off their volume.
If the achieved loopback recording level is too low, try turning up the volume in the application playing the audio.
Adjusting linked sliders during loopback recording may cause audio breakup or recording glitches.
Loopback recording may fail "error opening" when Audacity is set to record in mono.
You will normally need to start playing the loopback stream (or to have previously played some other audio in the application you are using for playback) before starting loopback recording in Audacity.
Changing Default Format or Exclusive Mode settings in Windows Sound while Audacity is open may cause "error opening" when starting to play or record. Try Transport > Rescan Audio Devices or restarting Audacity.
If you receive dropouts or poor quality when recording, try setting the Audacity Project Rate to 44100 Hz and setting Default Format in Windows Sound to 44100 Hz, with both "Exclusive Mode" boxes unchecked. Other rates may work, providing the same rate is set in both places. The most likely place for a dropout is within the first second or two of recording.
Physical inputs may fail "error opening", especially when overdub recording. Try setting Audacity project rate to 44100 Hz then for both the playback and the recording device in Windows Sound, ensure both "Exclusive Mode" are checked (enabled). You can also try setting Audacity Project Rate to the same as Windows "Default Format" with both Exclusive Mode boxes unchecked.
Latency when overdubbing may substantially increase shortly after starting the recording.
"Audio to buffer" in Recording Preferences cannot be used to adjust recording latency.
Non-looped playback plays the selection minus the "Audio to buffer" (for example, standard playback will fail to play the buffered length at the end of the selection). The buffer setting may be set to zero when using WASAPI host.
Program Launch
(Linux) If a Bluetooth audio device is in use on a PulseAudio system, Audacity may hang on launch on initial attempts, then after eventual launch Bluetooth will no longer work on the system. Workarounds:
Remove and reconnect the external Bluetooth adaptor, then launch bluetooth-applet from the command line.
To prevent Audacity affecting Bluetooth support, move /usr/share/alsa/bluetooth.conf to another location then reboot, or create a symbolic link from /var/lib/alsa/asound.state to /dev/null and reboot.
Projects
There are currently no message box warnings when projects run out of disk space. If you run out of disk space when editing or recording, patches of silent or corrupted audio will appear, which will also be present if you save and reopen the project. Be aware that every effect applied to a complete track takes as much in disk space as if you were recording that entire track, and partial changes take proportional amounts of space, due to the ability to undo and redo. You can go to View > History and discard Undo levels to free up space.
(OS X and Linux) Entering a backslash "\" in a file name when saving a project gives a "Could not save project. Path not found." error.
(OS X) If Audacity crashes in a project that has not yet been saved, you must recover the project before restarting the computer because the default Audacity temporary directory is cleared out when the computer restarts. You can change the default temporary directory at Audacity > Preferences: "Directories" section.
It is no longer possible to use Save Project or Save Project As to overwrite another pre-existing project, even if that project is not in use. Functionality to overwrite a project not in use will be restored in a future version of Audacity when we are sure it will always be safe.
Projects created by Audacity 1.1.x or earlier are no longer supported. Workaround: Export each project track as WAV using the appropriate legacy version of Audacity, then import the WAV files into current Audacity.
Projects created by Audacity 1.2.x are partially supported - there is a possibility Audacity could corrupt them. Please make a backup copy of the project's .aup file and _data folder to a new folder before opening the project in this version of Audacity. Once you save the project in this version, it cannot be opened in 1.2.
Projects created by previous versions of Audacity may contain audio "block files" longer than the project format allows. Reopening such projects in previous versions might or might not result in deletion of the overlong audio. Audacity has been provisionally fixed so that it can no longer create or delete overlong files, but it cannot read any such files it encounters. If overlong files are found, a "Problems Reading Sequence Tags" message will display .
If you continue with the offered repair then choose "Continue without deleting" in the Orphan Block File(s) dialogue, the overlong files will be retained as "orphans" in the project's _data folder but will appear as silence in the track(s).
As long as you choose "Close project immediately" in the Orphan Block File(s) dialogue, the project will quit and will not be changed in any way.
If you encounter the "Problems Reading Sequence Tags" message, please write to our feedback address with a copy of the .aup file and the log as found at Help > Show Log.
Time Track warp points saved in a 2.0.3 or later project will be preserved if opened in previous Audacity versions, but playback and display will be incorrect.
Scrubbing
In order to forwards scroll-scrub at normal 1x speed without using the scroll wheel it is always necessary to move the mouse to the end of the window, even if the project is shorter than the window width. However if you try to forwards scroll-scrub in a less than half-width project by reducing the backwards-only speed, moving the pointer to the end of the window will not achieve 1x speed - it will be necessary to advance the scroll wheel once the pointer is at the end of the window. Enabling "scrolling left of zero" in Tracks Preferences may be more convenient if you scroll scrub with short tracks.
There is no button or menu command yet to enter Scrubbing and Seeking, only the CTRL (COMMAND on Mac) with left-click or double-left-click gesture.
When you hold CTRL (COMMAND on Mac) then left-click to start scrub or left-double-click to start scroll-scrub there is no indication that scrubbing is active. Move the mouse pointer to be sure scrubbing is active.
Scrubbing disables the Pause button and the Pause command in the Transport menu but neither of these is grayed out as inactive.
While scrubbing if you click on any of the tools in the Tools toolbar, apart from the already active Select tool, then scrubbing will stop.
Spectrograms
Frequency range cannot be changed in the session for scales other than "Linear". This applies to both the track's "Spectrograms Settings" amd to Spectrograms Preferences. Workaround: Restart Audacity after changing frequency for non-linear scales.
A Spectral Selection created in Spectrogram view currently only works with the three specific spectral edit effects. These effects can also only be used while in Spectrogram view and require that Spectral Selection be checked "on" in either the Track Control Panel for the track or in Spectrogram Preferences. All other effects and for example cut or delete will act on the entire spectrum in the time range regardless of the spectral selection.
Sync-Locked Track Groups
If Sync-Locked Track Groups are enabled but "Editing a clip can move other clips" in Tracks Preferences is disabled, sometimes not all sync-lock-selected tracks will be affected by Timeline-changing edits, and sometimes audio clips may be removed. You can Edit > Undo any unwanted changes.
Time Tracks
The lower and upper speed limits are not stored in the project, so will be restored to their default values of 90 and 110 respectively when reopening or recovering a project, or if removing a Time Track then undoing removal. Please make a note of the correct values before closing the project or the Time Track.
Toolbars
(Linux with XFCE desktop) Toolbars are not tall enough when undocked. Single height toolbars are reduced to an unmanageably small height. Resizeable toolbars, such as meter toolbars, may be restored to the desired height if you can see the resize handle bottom right.
Meter Toolbar vertical orientation is not remembered across sessions, and resizing the meters reverts from vertical to horizontal.
(Windows XP) Transport and Tools Toolbar buttons all display as Pause buttons. The buttons may redraw correctly if you hover over them. Workaround: You can use keyboard shortcut alternatives for the buttons instead.
Last updated
