This error indicates a problem with the hardware used for playback, whether it is permissions, drivers, connections, or if you ask the device to do something it cannot do. You can attempt the following steps to resolve it.

Causes

This error occurs if you try to record an unsupported number of channels.

Fixes

Go to Audio Setup -> Recording channels and choose a different number of channels. Values which typically work are 1 (mono), 2 (stereo), and the highest number presented on the list. So for a 8 channel interface, 8 should work.

Causes

This error can indicate an unsupported sample rate.

This error can also occur when using Audacity on Windows to record a track while listening another existing track (also known as overdubbing) with Windows WASAPI as the Host if the sample rate of the recording device is different than the sample rate of the playback device.

This error can also occur when you are trying to record a number of channels that is not supported in the current configuration.

Causes

This error means "something is wrong", most commonly

• A lost connection to a USB audio device

Causes

This error indicates that the device that's being attempted to use is not valid, for example:

• The device got unplugged

This error occurs when the file you're trying to open has no decoder available.

Causes

This may be caused by several things:

• The FFmpeg library may be missing.

Causes

This error indicates a problem with the hardware used for recording, whether it is permissions, drivers, connections, or if you ask the device to do something it cannot do.

Fixes

You can attempt the common troubleshooting steps to attempt to resolve it

Causes

This is caused by an unexpected system state. Specifically, macOS typically allows allocation of 32 instances of shared memory, out of which Audacity requires one to start. However, other apps on your computer may have filled up these allocations, in which case Audacity cannot start.

Fixes

• Rebooting the computer generally resolves it as it clears the shared memory.

• You also can edit the macOS kernel to allow for more shared memory, but this is a very technical process. Essentially, various shared memory limits need to be increased. (Catalina) or (Sonoma) may have further instructions.

Causes

This error indicates that FFmpeg isn't loaded correctly.

Fixes

Restarting Audacity fixes this. If the problem persists, try reinstalling FFmpeg and Audacity.

Other names

• Error code 11

• Error code 13

The setup program may return one of the following exit codes:

Before returning an exit code of 1, 3 or 4 an error message explaining the problem will normally be displayed.

Future versions may return additional exit codes, so applications checking the exit code should be programmed to handle unexpected exit codes gracefully. Any non-zero exit code indicates that Setup was not run to completion.

Causes

This is caused by missing realtime effects.

Fixes

• You can replace any missing effects from the effects sidebar.

• Before opening a project on a new computer, ensure that all plugins you've used are in the same location as where they would've been in your old computer.

Causes

If you are on a low-end machine, this may be caused by insufficient resources, specifically memory.

This also can happen if you assign yourself a static IP in the hosts file.

Fixes

• Try closing other programs or restarting your computer to clear up memory.

• If you're using static IP assignments in the hosts file, simply commenting out the assignment may solve this.