This page is an overview of the key new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.1.3
Details of all the major changes since 2.1.2 can be found in Audacity 2.1.3.
We have implemented the long-standing and popular feature request of a fixed and centered play/record head (called the "pinned head"). When the pinned head is selected the waveform scrolls continuously past the fixed head while you are playing or recording.
The pinned head can be selected by using the new button at the left of the Timeline. By default this is the familiar green downwards-pointing triangle (like the playhead) and the default behavior is the old familiar scrolling play/record head. The pinned head can also be selected in Tracks Preferences.
When pinned playback or recording is chosen, the playhead displays as a green drawing-pin (as shown in the image below) and the recording head displays as a red drawing-pin.
Clicking the drawing-pin reverts to default unpinned playback and recording, and the button will change back to the green triangle.
For this release we have changed the way in which scrubbing works.
We have introduced a new which is on by default and sits just under the . You can turn it on or off from the right-click dropdown menu of the Timeline.
If you hover the mouse over the Scrub Ruler you will see the Scrub widget's green left- and right-pointing arrows appear (along with a tooltip if you continue to hover). Clicking anywhere in the Scrub Ruler, releasing the mouse button then moving the mouse left or right will start Scrubbing from there. Note that in this image the green scrub widget is to the right of the green triangle playhead, indicating that forwards scrubbing towards the pointer is taking place.
To stop scrub play and set the cursor at the current playback position, just click the Stop button (or its shortcut SPACE).
The shortcut for has changed from SHIFT + A to the simpler and easier to use X.
We have added some new features to improve Timer Record.
You can now specify optional actions on completion such as Save and/or Export, quit Audacity and, on Windows, shut down.
Audacity will now warn you in advance if it calculates that you have insufficient disk space for the length of your scheduled recording.
A big improvement you will notice is that all effects plus edits and other functionality can now be actioned from paused state - Audacity will stop the audio and do the action or open the dialog requested. This should remove a common cause of confusion for our users.
We have introduced a new effect (which supersedes the "Leveller" and "Hard Limiter" effects found in earlier Audacity versions). Technically this effect is a . The result of waveshaping is equivalent to applying non-linear amplification to the audio waveform. Preset shaping functions are provided, each of which produces a different type of distortion. Presets are provided which suggest typical settings for a wide range of uses.
The former Click Track generator has been updated and renamed to with improved sounds and a new "Swing amount" control for unequal beat duration.
We have added a new Generator for which reads numeric values from a file and creates a sample for each numeric value read.
There are two new keyboard shortcuts to navigate between labels: ALT + RIGHT to Move to Next Label and ALT + LEFT to Move to Previous Label. Use these shortcuts to move the editing position to the label, without opening the label for editing. If audio is already playing, playback jumps to the label requested, which is useful if you have using labels.
These new shortcuts also let screen readers for the blind read the label's name and its order in the labels in that track, a feature lacking in Audacity until now. There are no corresponding menu entries or buttons for these shortcuts.
There are two new commands to aid making selections:
Use Edit > Store Cursor Position to store the position of the editing cursor (or when there is active audio, to store the position of the playback or recording cursor).
Subsequently, use Edit > Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Position to select from the editing cursor (or during active audio, from the position of the playback or recording cursor) to the stored cursor position.
In version 2.2.0 these commands were moved to the new .
Another new menu item is Tracks >Type to Create a Label (on/off). Previous Audacity already let you type to create a label in the focused label track, but this feature made it easy to accidentally create a label when you really wanted to use shortcuts to play or act on the audio. Uncheck this new menu item (or make the same change in Tracks Preferences) to avoid that risk.
In version 2.2.0 this command was moved to the Edit > Labels menu.
We have added to this Manual. It tells you about a few of the core Audacity features and about some of the more specialized features you might not know where to find.
This page gives an overview of further new functionality that has been introduced in Audacity 2.1.3
- detailed release notes for this release of Audacity
ALT + RIGHT to Move to Next Label and ALT + LEFT to Move to Previous Label. These shortcuts allow the name of the label and its order in the labels in that track to be read by screen readers. As well as moving the edit position, these shortcuts jump playback to the requested label.
There is a new Tracks Menu item "Type to Create a Label (on/off)" (turning it off prevents shortcuts accidentally creating labels in the focused label track). There is also an option in Tracks Preferences to make this setting.
When enabled (default), if there is already a label track that has the yellow focus border, you do not need to use "Add Label at Selection" or its CTRL + B shortcut to create a new label. Just type your required label text to create a new label at the position of the editing cursor or selection region. If the label track does not have focus, use the UP or DOWN arrow keys on your keyboard to move focus into the label track.
If you turn this option off, typing never creates a label in the focused label track. This lets you use shortcuts (for example, transport shortcuts to play audio related to the editing cursor or selection) without accidentally creating an unwanted label. When you want to create a new label, use "Add Label at Selection" or CTRL + B or "Add Label at Playback Position" CTRL + M.
There are new Recording Preferences settings to control the naming of recorded tracks:
Use Custom Track Name: Use this to replace Audacity's default name of Audio Track with one of your own choosing.
Add Track Number: Appends a track number to each new track name.
Add System Date: Appends the date to each new track name, in year-month-day format.
There is a new export option when exporting to MP3 "Force export to mono".
Enabling this checkbox always produces a mono (single channel) MP3 file, mixing down to mono if the Audacity content is stereo or would otherwise produce a stereo file. This is useful if stereo export is not required, because for variable or average bit rate or a Preset other than "Insane", the bit rate and hence the exported file size will be less than for stereo export, but with comparable quality to stereo. This is possible because fewer bits are needed for mono encoding than stereo.
If you are exporting only one mono Audacity track and that track is panned to center, Audacity will still automatically export as mono without the need to enable the new option.
Both Change Pitch and Change Tempo have a new option called "Use high quality stretching (slow)".
If this checkbox is enabled, the same high quality algorithm is used that is used in the Sliding_Time_Scale_-_Pitch_Shift|Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift effect. Change Tempo will process much more slowly if this checkbox is enabled, but will retain the complete content. For small to moderate tempo changes, the resulting quality will usually be higher, especially with percussive music (such as piano music).
The "Ratio" setting in Compressor effect now lets you use higher precision. "Ratio" now allows a setting between 1.1 and 10, with 0.1 precision (formerly, the minimum was 1.5, and the smallest increment was 0.5).
The Bass and Treble effect now supports Real-time preview - effect settings can be changed while playing and listening to the result in real-time. As with other real-time preview effects, the Enable checkbox acts like a live "Bypass" control, so that unchecking the checkbox Enable lets you hear the audio "dry" without the effect applied.
Bass and Treble also has a new checkbox item "Link Volume control to Tone controls". Enabling this automatically adjusts the Volume control for changes to Bass and Treble so as to lessen the change in the resulting output level.
Audacity now supports Mac Trackpad gestures for two-finger horizontal scroll and pinch/expand to zoom the waveform in or out at the pointer position. Previously a modifier key had to be used to perform these actions on a Trackpad.
Horizontal scrolling and pinch/expand should also work on most touchpads on Windows machines, but you may need to apply this or to install special drivers for your touchpad.
Back to: - detailed release notes for this release of Audacity
Audacity 2.1.1 was current from 16th July 2015 to 19th January 2016.
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.
Effects
Built-in effects now support presets.
New Limiter effect replaces Hard Limiter effect.
New Crossfade Clips effect to apply a simple crossfade to a selected pair of clips in a single audio track.
Crashes
Crash using Undo while dragging sample points
Crash using File > Close on project window when Screenshot Tools was open.
Many, but not all parts of the Audacity interface are accessible on Windows and 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
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.
(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.
Audacity's built-in generators don't yet work with Chains. Plug-in 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.
The minsrc tarball contains a superfluous (but harmless) .deps folder in lib-src/mod-nyq-bench.
(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).
"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.
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.
(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.
(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.
Real-time preview doesn't yet compensate for the latency many plug-ins 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).
Input cannot be made using the text boxes. Use the slider instead to adjust values.
(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) In some VST effects you cannot preview a Factory Preset or User Preset after you select it unless you select it while playing. If the preset is selected while playback is stopped it will be applied to the waveform when you press "Apply", but you won't hear that preset in the effect until you restart Audacity.
(Windows and Mac OS X) When running VST effects in the controls of many plug-ins do not visibly respond when loading a preset file from the "Load" button
(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.
Click the "Save / Manage Curves..." button
Select the "unnamed" item
Click the "Rename" button
Type a name for the curve
Next time you use Equalization, select the saved preset using the "Select Curve" dropdown.
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
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
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:
(Mac OS X) Importing and Exporting FLAC files is slower than in Audacity 2.1.0.
A-Law, U-Law and ADPCM export formats must be chosen by selecting "Other uncompressed files" then clicking the "Options..." button. We hope to redesign the export list in due course to make these formats easier to find and choose.
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.
In the "Custom FFmpeg Export" dialog, imported presets do not load.
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.
(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 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.
Audacity crashes after quit if quit from the Task Manager (Windows), Dock (Mac OS X) or Taskbar (Linux) while "About Audacity" is open. Any unsaved audio is saved correctly before the crash.
Audacity may freeze when Track-Control-Panel-dragging a track from the bottom to top of a project containing several dozen tracks or more. Workaround: Use the commands to move the focused track to the top (or upwards).
(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.
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 , 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" dialog to browse to the executable each time, or rename the executable to or some other unique name.
(OS X 10.5.8 PPC) "The How to Get Help" window that appears by default on launch of Audacity cannot be moved or closed. The Audacity Log window may also be affected. Workaround:
NewPrefsInitialized=1
[GUI]
ShowSplashScreen=0
Save the changes to audacity.cfg then restart Audacity.
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.
(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.
(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".
When Audacity's Interface Preferences are set to "System" language, a computer locale set to Traditional Chinese results in Audacity displaying in Simplified Chinese, and a Brazilian Portuguese computer locale results in Audacity displaying in European Portuguese. To change the Audacity language as required please see .
(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:
(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:
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.
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.
(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.
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.
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.
(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.
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 edit on a complete track takes as much in disk space as if you were recording that entire track, and partial edits 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) Crash closing project window immediately after saving project: After saving a project, if you close the project window immediately the "Saving project data files" dialog completes, there will be an unexpected "Save changes?" prompt and then a crash when you choose "Yes" or "No". As long as you say "Yes", the project will be saved correctly and can be reopened normally after you restart Audacity. To be sure there is no crash, wait after "Saving project data files" completes for any "Inspecting Project Data" dialog to appear and disappear before closing the project window.
When you hold CTRL then left-click to start scrub or 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.
Scrubbing unintentionally captures clicks in some toolbar areas. This may suspend scrubbing, especially if the toolbar is undocked. Click again in the waveform to resume scrubbing. Long-clicking in some docked toolbars while scrubbing (for example on the Zoom buttons or on the Mixer Toolbar sliders) performs an unwanted seek. The region over which scrubbing operates may be reduced in a future version of Audacity.
The displayed level of the upper, lower and center frequency lines is slightly inaccurate in linear Spectrogram view, and may drift up or down above the true level when zooming in or out on the vertical scale. You can use Spectrogram log(f) view or set the frequencies accurately in Spectral Selection Toolbar.
A created in either Spectral Selection view currently only works with the three specific and those effects can only be used in either Spectral Selection view. All other effects and for example cut or delete will act on the entire spectrum in the time range regardless of the spectral selection.
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.
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.
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 for the buttons instead.
(OS X Yosemite) 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 with details and include the crash report from /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/.
Audacity 2.1.0 was available from 29 March 2015 to 15th July 2015.
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.
Effects:
LADSPA, VST and Audio Unit (OS X) effects now support real-time preview, save/load of user presets and saving effect settings across sessions. Note: Real-time preview does not yet support latency compensation.
VST effects now support import/export of FXB preset banks.
Interface:
Typing "j" or "k" in a label track activated the "move cursor" shortcut.
Spectrogram log (f) view displayed incorrectly until vertically zoomed.
Addendum:
The previous Audacity 2.0.6 version fixed an issue that projects did not reopen correctly if they contained tracks having 2^31 samples or greater of audio (just over 13.5 hours at 44100 Hz).
Many, but not all parts of the Audacity interface are accessible on Windows and 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
There are some accessibility bugs in the parts of Audacity that are accessible (or behavior may vary according to the specific screen reader).
If you place the cursor or select a region using Selection Toolbar, apply an edit that moves the cursor/region then Undo, the cursor/region does not revert to its position before making the edit but reverts to its position before using Selection Toolbar. Workaround: Use the mouse or the
Audacity's built-in generators don't yet work with Chains. Plug-in generators should work.
Chains do not currently support export as AIFF, Other uncompressed files or any formats supported by FFmpeg.
Noise Reduction" does not yet support storing its parameters in a Chain. Noise Reduction will run at its current settings if used in a Chain.
(Linux) New libsoxr resampling library: Default ./configure will enable a new library for resampling and disable libresample and libsamplerate (the previous resampling libraries). is required to build libsoxr. We strongly recommend libsoxr for its combination of high quality and high speed.
Only one resampling library is permitted. If you enable either libresample or libsamplerate in configure, libsoxr will not be enabled. Any configure of resampling libraries other than libsoxr only will enable one only of libresample, libsamplerate or libsoxr in that order of precedence; however the intermediate configure output may suggest that other libraries will be favored.
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.
(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.
(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).
LADSPA generate plug-ins may fail to generate into an empty track or into white space separating audio clips. Workaround: Before using the LADSPA generator, generate audio using any of the Audacity Generators above the divider in the Generate Menu, then generate into that audio selection.
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.
(Linux) Sliding Time Scale / Pitch Shift may crash randomly in Audacity built with pre-2.0.2 versions of libsbsms.
Real-time preview doesn't yet compensate for the latency many plug-ins 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).
Unlike with built-in effects, it is necessary to select a track to open a real-time preview effect (VST, LADSPA or Audio Units), and to select audio in a track to apply the effect.
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
(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.
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.
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.
In the "Custom FFmpeg Export" dialog, saved or imported presets do not load. Attempting to import a preset crashes Audacity unless the "ffmpeg_presets.xml" file in Audacity's folder for application data is empty or does not exist.
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.
(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 and extract the files to your own preferred location.
(Linux) Opening the Audio Track Dropdown Menu to change settings may result in that track changing sample rate or sample format to match that of other tracks.
(Linux) If Audacity is configured with the option to use libsamplerate, an action involving resampling outside libsamplerate's limits of 1/256 to 256x will cause the progress dialogue to hang, or possibly a crash.
(Mac OS X) Audacity will crash when you OK or dismiss the track Gain or Pan adjustment dialog if you open that dialog by double-clicking the Gain or Pan slider in the Track Control Panel. Workaround: Open the adjustment dialog using the shortcuts SHIFT + G (to open the gain dialog) or SHIFT + P (to open the pan dialog).
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 , 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).
(OS X 10.5.8 PPC) "The How to Get Help" window that appears by default on launch of Audacity cannot be moved or closed. The Audacity Log window may also be affected. Workaround: To stop the Welcome Screen appearing, open Audacity > Preferences: Interface and uncheck "Show How to Get Help". You can also quit Audacity, open Finder, Go > Go to Folder and type ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ . Open audacity.cfg,select all the text and delete it. Then type the following at the top of the file:
NewPrefsInitialized=1 [GUI] ShowSplashScreen=0
Save the changes to audacity.cfg then restart Audacity.
(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) 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.
(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".
(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.
(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"
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.
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.
(OS X and Linux) Audacity now works very well with , 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.
(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.
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 edit on a track takes as much in disk space as if you were recording that track, 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) Crash closing project window immediately after saving project: After saving a project, if you close the project window immediately the "Saving project data files" dialog completes, there will be an unexpected "Save changes?" prompt and then a crash when you choose "Yes" or "No". As long as you say "Yes", the project will be saved correctly and can be reopened normally after you restart Audacity. To be sure there is no crash, wait after "Saving project data files" completes for any "Inspecting Project Data" dialog to appear and disappear before closing the project window.
The displayed level of the upper, lower and center frequency lines is slightly inaccurate in linear Spectrogram view, and may drift up or down above the true level when zooming in or out on the vertical scale. You can use Spectrogram log(f) view or set the frequencies accurately in Spectral Selection Toolbar.
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.
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.
Draw Tool: Holding CTRL to only move one sample then pressing Z (COMMAND + Z on Mac) to undo while still holding the mouse button will cause that track to be removed. The removal of that track cannot be undone.
(OS X and Linux) Draw Tool: Using keyboard Undo while dragging sample points will crash Audacity (this affects Draw Tool and Multi-Tool).
(Mac OS X) Audacity will crash if you File > Close a project window with Screenshot Tools open. Audacity > Quit Audacity does not crash.
(Linux) If Audacity is compiled with the option to use libsamplerate and the default "Best Sinc Interpolator" for high-quality conversion is used, Tracks > Resample may lead to truncation of the waveform. Workaround: change the project rate to the desired rate, export the track and re-import it.
(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)
Users on OS X 10.4 and PPC Mac users requiring Audio Units in Audacity should obtain Audacity 2.0.6 from Legacy Windows on the Audacity Website.
Audacity 2.1.1 may fail to launch without any warning message or crash report appearing. Audacity will not be running in Activity Monitor. If this problem occurs:
Open Finder, use Go > Go to Folder and type:
~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
In that "audacity" folder, open the "audacity.cfg" file in TextEdit.
If you see a line under "Directories" that looks like
TempDir=/tmp/audacity1.2-<your username>
delete that line and try launching Audacity again. Or try deleting audacity.cfg (note that this resets all your preferences).
Audacity 2.1.1 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.
Can now add/remove effects from Generate and Effects menus.
New version of Vocal Removal Effect.
Classic Filters now included as an opt-in effect.
Interface
Much faster editing with larger projects, thanks to a faster method for storing the autosave recovery file.
Performance improvements for Draw Tool and zooming of Spectrogram views.
Zero-padding Spectrograms Preference smooths the image for short window sizes.
Scrubbing and Seeking, including backwards play.
Quick-Play from Timeline enhancements, particularly for looping.
(Windows) Language of Audacity user interface is now set in installer.
More VI usability enhancements for track focus & navigation.
Other Changes
Upgraded to Nyquist 3.0.9 and libflac 1.3.1.
Upgraded LV2 libs, LV2 GUIs on Linux, LV2 factory Presets.
Crash report integration.
Modules can be enabled in Preferences. Mod-nyq-bench available as an experimental module (but not in the default download).
(OS X) Crash closing Track Gain or Pan adjustment box.
(OS X) Crash closing project window between save project dialogues
(Linux) TAL VST (but not other VST's) crashed if previewing built-in effect
(Linux) SPACE could not be used/could crash in context menus that have a checkbox.
Interface
LV2 effects did not use parameters when using Chains.
Built in Generators were not usable in Chains.
Plot Spectrum could not change values without losing focus.
Track dropdown menu settings could affect other tracks.
Slight mismatch of vertical scale with linear spectrogram view.
RTP effect Play/Stop button remained deactivated after built-in preview ended.
Contrast: "Move forward or backward through active windows" did not refocus Contrast.
LADSPA and LV2 generate plug-ins failed when white space selected.
Mac OS X
Confusing behaviour importing / exporting AU presets. In particular, Apple Audio Units silently applied an imported preset.
Spectral Selection Toolbar:
This toolbar is tied to the project rate so it does not accept entered frequencies above half the project rate even if those frequencies are valid for a track that is at a higher rate.
It is not possible to enter an undefined frequency into this toolbar using the keyboard, and thus not currently possible to run a high pass or low pass filter on the spectral selection using Spectral edit multi tool. A high or low shelving filer may be applied to the spectral selection using Spectral edit shelves.
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.
Analyze > Contrast: Once you use ALT + F6 or ALT + SHIFT + F6 to switch focus from this dialog, you can't return to it using the keyboard. You can switch to and from Contrast on Mac OS X by using the Window Menu.
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.
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.
(OS X) Audacity is not Retina-ready. If Retinizer is applied to Audacity as a workaround, the export format cannot be changed.
(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) 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 audacity
Audacity 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.
(Linux) SPACE cannot be used to change context menu items (such as Selection Format in the context menu of TimeText digits, or Mono/Left/Right and Set Rate and Set Sample Format in the Audio Track DropDown Menu). Workaround: Use ENTER instead of SPACE.
(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 plug-ins are not read.
Control labels for Nyquist plug-ins are read inconsistently in older version 3 or earlier plug-ins (Version 4 seems to read more consistently).
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 and OS X) Some USB or Firewire recording devices only record silence, or only offer mono recording for a stereo device, or only mono or stereo for a device that previously supported multi-channel recording. Workaround: You can try 1.3.10 Beta or earlier (including 1.2.5/6), but these versions may have other bugs or limitations.
Please report make and model number of devices that exhibit the issue, and your operating system details (for example, Windows 7 Service Pack 1).
(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.
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.
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.
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".
(Windows)
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).
AU
Digitech RP250 (effects pedal)
MNoiseGenerator AU and others in 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.
Equalization does not retain settings, so always opens with a "flat" curve. Nether the last used settings or user presets are retained. Workaround: To retain the current settings:
Click the "OK" button. If the name already exists, click "Yes" to overwrite or "No" to enter a new name.
Click the "OK" button.
(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) If you open a Real-Time Preview (RTP) effect then preview in a built-in effect, the Play/Stop button in the RTP effect will display Stop and cannot be used until you press Play in the main project window.
(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).
Workaround: Edit > Undo if necessary then drag from outside the selection region or single-click in the clip to remove the selection.
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).
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.
(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.
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.
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) 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 dialog does not respond to ENTER after clicking in the Formats or Codec selector.
(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 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) 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.
AAC: Artist and Year metadata is not exported or imported due to a bug in FFmpeg 2.2.2.
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.
(OS X and Linux) In some locales, Preferences text may be truncated or overlapped, or dropdown boxes truncated.
(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 or 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.
(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.
(Linux) Meters may not respond immediately to playback which could cause them to report incorrect peak level or not display clipping.
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....
(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 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 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.
(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.
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) dialog, 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) dialog, 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.
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.
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.
On first use of Audacity you need to confirm or cancel the Register Effects dialog for detected effects before you can launch Audacity.
MP3 Encoding: Users upgrading to Audacity 2.0.x versions from 1.3.6 or earlier must download the latest version of the LAME MP3 encoder.
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.
All Effect Menu items (built-in or plug-in) can now be used in a Chain.
Items in the Effect, Generate or Analyze Menus can be sorted or grouped by name, publisher or class of effect.
Noise Removal is improved and renamed to "Noise Reduction".
Change Speed has new time controls for current and new length. You can now enter the speed change as a multiplier e.g. "2" is twice as fast.
New "Crossfade Tracks" effect can be used for crossfading two tracks. This replaces Cross Fade In and Cross Fade Out.
Nyquist Prompt and most shipped Nyquist effects now have Preview button.
Interface:
Redesigned Meter Toolbars: The default shows separate Record and Playback Meters, half-height so they can be wider while docked, in gradient style.
A frequency selection can now be made (and spectral edit effects applied to those frequencies) when in a spectrogram view. You can also create or adjust frequency selections in a new "Spectral Selection Toolbar" (available at View > Toolbars).
Transcription Toolbar (Play-at-speed) can now loop play and cut-preview.
Timer Record now saves recordings automatically into an existing project.
New Armenian translation.
Operating system and sound device support:
(Windows) Audacity 2.1.0 requires Windows XP SP3 (32-bit) or XP SP2 (64-bit), Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or 8.1.
(Windows) Audacity is now compiled using Visual Studio 2013.
(Windows) Recording with WASAPI host now includes experimental support for physical inputs (up to 24-bit depth) as well as loopback recording.
(OS X) 10.10 (Yosemite) is now supported including Apple Audio Units.
Please report any issues with WASAPI recording/playback or Yosemite to .
(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 with the UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 environment variable. Audacity compiled from source will ship with src/audacity.desktop.in set to UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 but it will remain up to distributions to use this desktop file.
Selections made with Selection Toolbar were not restored after Undo.
Undo could fail silently if a selection included/touched a clip boundary.
Imports and Exports:
If there were invalid FFmpeg libs in system PATH this prevented Audacity recognising the installed FFmpeg or the FFmpeg specified in audacity.cfg.
Mac OS X:
Fix uninitialized buffer - this should correct playback buzz or crackle where the upper of multiple tracks started with or contained white space.
Device names were corrupted when using system language other than English.
Fixed crashes using (external program).
Waves v9 Audio Units should now work correctly.
GNU/Linux:
Fix "Audacity already running" error when using the command-line or context menu to open multiple or further files.
Fix segfault exporting an FFmpeg format to an unwritable folder.
Fix silent failure exporting FFmpeg, MP2 or OGG to an unwritable folder.
Fix ENTER activated an effect when OK button was greyed out.
Some interface text or markings remain in black when using High Contrast light-on-dark themes, so cannot be read properly.
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.
Analyze > Contrast: Once you use ALT + F6 or ALT + SHIFT + F6 to switch focus from this dialog, you can't return to it using the keyboard. You can switch to and from Contrast on Mac OS X by using the Window Menu.
(Windows only) Plot Spectrum: Changing the values loses focus on the dialog. Use ALT + F6 to return focus to Plot Spectrum.
Register Effects dialog: The list view of plug-ins is a check box list view, and all the plug-ins are checked initially. Unfortunately Jaws and Window-Eyes do not read whether or not a check box is checked, but you can still press SPACE to change this.
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.
(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) 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 audacity
Audacity 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.
(Linux) SPACE cannot be used to change context menu items (such as Selection Format in the context menu of TimeText digits, or Mono/Left/Right and Set Rate and Set Sample Format in the Audio Track DropDown Menu). Workaround: Use ENTER instead of SPACE.
(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 plug-ins are not read.
Control labels for Nyquist plug-ins are read inconsistently in older version 3 or earlier plug-ins (Version 4 seems to read more consistently).
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.
(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 supports FFmpeg 1.2 or higher (FFmpeg 2.2.3 is known to work) or libav 0.8 or higher.
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.
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".
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.
(Windows)
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").
Waves v5 may cause Audacity to hang if you select it in the "Register Effects" dialog then click OK.
iZotope Vinyl that has not yet been registered cannot be used in Audacity 2.1.0 because it causes the "Register Effects" dialog to freeze. You can register it in a previous version of Audacity.
(Linux)
If a TAL VST is open when a built-in effect is previewed, Audacity will crash.
(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.
(OS X) Some VST plug-ins no longer allow text input in the presets drop-down, either by typing or pasting. Examples are Sound Hack "Delay Trio / Freesound Bundle" and Blue Cat.
(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 .
(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) If you open a Real-Time Preview (RTP) effect then preview in a built-in effect, the Play/Stop button in the RTP effect will display Stop and cannot be used until you press Play in the main project window.
(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).
"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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Workaround: Edit > Undo if necessary then drag from outside the selection region or single-click in the clip to remove the selection.
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).
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.
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.
WAVEX (Microsoft) headers: GSM 6.10 files cannot be exported, and U-Law/A-Law files may not be playable.
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) 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) 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 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) 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.
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.
AAC: Artist and Year metadata is not exported or imported due to a bug in FFmpeg 2.2.2.
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.
"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.
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.
(OS X and Linux) In some locales, Preferences text may be truncated or overlapped, or dropdown boxes truncated.
(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.
(Windows) There may be substantial delays drawing the waveform in some circumstances. These include fitting longer zoomed-in projects to the window, or when zooming in on fitted projects, also after importing files or running effects.
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 or 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.
In projects containing an hour or more of total audio, there may be a delay compared to previous versions of Audacity when:
Dragging sample points with Draw Tool
Using Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete or Silence Audio.
The delay may be more evident on slower computers. In addition, label text may not be recovered if there is a crash.
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.
(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.
(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.
(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) Meters may not respond immediately to playback which could cause them to report incorrect peak level or not display clipping.
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 Vista and later) The "Windows WASAPI" host supplies playback, plus a "loopback" device for recording computer playback and as of Audacity 2.1.0, 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 to 44100 Hz and setting Default Format in Windows sound to 44100 Hz. Setting the same higher or lower rate in both places may also work.
Physical inputs may fail "error opening", especially when overdub recording. Try setting Audacity project rate to 44100 Hz with Exclusive Mode enabled for the device in Windows Sound for both playback and recording, or set project rate to the same as Windows "Default Format" with Exclusive Mode off.
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.
(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.
"Register Effects" dialog:
When you use Audacity for the first time, Audacity will scan for supported plug-ins of all types. The Register Effects dialogue lists all LADSPA, VST and Audio Unit (Mac OS X) plug-ins that are detected, with checkboxes to enable each plug-in or not. On Windows and Mac, this first time dialog will list a minimum of hard_limiter_1413 and sc4_1882. Those two plug-ins are shipped with Audacity and you will usually want to enable them. Therefore you should just click OK on the dialog if you have no third-party effects.
VST instruments will appear in the list but are not supported, so will not load even if checkmarked.
The dialog is on top of other windows, so could hide any prompts that VST effects show when effects are loaded after pressing OK. This would be evident by the "loading progress" arrow in the check boxes coming to a halt and the VST dialog losing focus. To continue loading the effects in this case, press ENTER on your keyboard to OK the hidden prompt, or drag the VST dialog away to reveal the prompt then click OK on the prompt.
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.
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.
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....
(Windows Vista or later) 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 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 and OS X) Some USB or Firewire recording devices only record silence, or only offer mono recording for a stereo device, or only mono or stereo for a device that previously supported multi-channel recording. Workaround: You can try 1.3.10 Beta or earlier (including 1.2.5/6), but these versions may have other bugs or limitations.
Please report make and model number of devices that exhibit the issue, and your operating system details (for example, Windows 7 Service Pack 1).
(Windows) There may be substantial delays drawing the waveform in longer projects. These include:
opening saved projects that were fitted to the window
fitting an already zoomed in project to the window or zooming in on a fitted project
progress dialog remains white for a long time after the progress bars complete for a file import or effect.
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.
Effects
Noise Reduction defaults changed.
Interface
We’ve made several improvements to the spectrogram view of tracks which are particularly valuable for vocal work.
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
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 or view the .
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
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.
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 . 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.
(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.
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.
(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.
"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.
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.
(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.
(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.
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).
(Windows) Installing the latest 1.7.1 "Queen Mary" Vamp plugins to any of the 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 instead.
(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 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)
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.
(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.
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
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.
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
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.
(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 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.
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.
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 , 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.
(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.
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.
(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 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.
(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:
(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:
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.
(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.
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.
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.
(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.
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.
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 may be more convenient if you scroll scrub with short tracks.
There is no button or menu command yet to enter , only the CTRL (COMMAND on Mac) with left-click or double-left-click gesture.
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 created in Spectrogram view currently only works with the three specific . 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.
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.
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.
(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 for the buttons instead.
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.
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 audacity
Audacity 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).
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.
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.
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.
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".
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 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 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).
AU
Digitech RP250 (effects pedal)
MNoiseGenerator AU and others in 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.
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).
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.
(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.
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.
M4A/MP4 (AAC): Artist and Year metadata is not exported or imported due to a bug in FFmpeg 2.2.2.
(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.
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.
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".
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.
(Linux) Meters may not respond immediately to playback which could cause them to report incorrect peak level or not display clipping.
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....
(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 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.
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 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.
Audacity 2.1.3 was released on 17 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.
(Windows) is now supported (there should be no "Internal PortAudio Error" or failure to find any devices as long as the built-in audio devices are enabled).
(macOS) We now support Trackpad and Magic Mouse horizontal scroll without SHIFT key and Trackpad pinch and expand to zoom at the pointer.
PortAudio upgraded to r1966 - includes Windows 10 fix.
These links should be right, once the manual is moved
Added to Manual.
Added to Manual.
Many bugs from 2.1.2 fixed. Some examples:
Incorrect calculation of free disk space when using 24 bit audio.
(Windows) ReaPlugs plugins froze Audacity upon interacting with the plugin.
In 2.1.2, closing an effect window using the red close button at top left rather than the button on the dialog led to a crash.
(Mac and Linux) Nyquist effects were excessively slow when a label track was present. This fix has also speeded up Nyquist effects generally compared to Audacity 2.1.2.
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 or view the .
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
There are some accessibility bugs in the parts of Audacity that are accessible (or behavior may vary according to the specific screen reader).
Toolbars that show disabled at View > Toolbars and are then re-enabled will launch undocked if Audacity has already been restarted. Workaround: perform View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars before enabling any disabled toolbars.
(Linux Ubuntu) On high resolution monitors, Plot Spectrum may initialize with the lower part of the display and the effect controls off the bottom of the monitor. As a Workaround: you could try holding ALT and pressing E on your keyboard to export a text file of the plot.
If Audacity 2.1.1 or earlier had the interface language set to "Simplified" (an optional English language that can remove menu items) then current Audacity will show an error on each launch "Language "en-simple" is unknown". No menu items will be hidden. Workaround: To prevent the error occurring at each launch, open Preferences then OK which changes the language to English.
Simplified menus are also not currently supported in any other languages, but no errors are shown. Menu items that should be hidden will be shown starting with an "!" exclamation mark.
(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.
Bass and Treble is a real-time preview effect but may sometimes not be openable when audio is already playing, or adjusting the effect controls may not be audible. You can still apply the effect to the audio as expected.
(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.
Audacity's built-in generators don't yet work intuitively with Chains. In particular, using the generator from the Generate Menu resets the Chain to use the settings last used from the Generate Menu. Plugin generators should work better with Chains.
Chains do not currently support export as AIFF, Other uncompressed files or any formats supported by FFmpeg.
For some effects (Equalization is a known example) parameters stored in Chains may not persist are not independent of the settings saved when running the effect from the Effect Menu. Changing the effect parameters from the Effect menu will thus change the effect parameters stored in the Chain and vice-versa. Workaround: For Equalization, you can use Save / Manage Curves... to save the required curve as a named curve, then choose that curve from the "Select Curve:" dropdown when setting the parameters for the Chain command.
Audacity cannot build against wxWidgets compiled with STL. . There will be many errors of the form "cannot convert ‘const wxString’ to ‘const wxChar*". The best approach to a solution has not been decided, but if you would like to help with this please start a discussion on our mailing list.
(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).
Plug-in Manager dialog:
The dialogue may include some VST instruments or VST 3 effects but these are not supported so will not load even if enabled.
(macOS) After upgrading to 2.1.3 from previous Audacity, the Generate, Effect or Analyze Menu will show working duplicate copies of shipped Nyquist plug-ins if you have not yet deleted the old /Applications/Audacity/Plug-ins folder. Duplicates or single copies of other previously shipped plug-ins might appear even if they no longer exist, in which case they will fail to run.
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.
AU effects cannot show graphical interface if Audacity is set in its Preferences to a language that uses comma as decimal separator. French however is a known exception to this.
In LV2 effects that operate in textual mode, any saved User Presets are not recalled but reset the effect to default settings. In graphical LV2 effects, resetting to defaults or recalling a saved User Preset may not affect the controls.
Many LV2 plug-ins can only be used in Chains at default parameters. Attempting to edit the parameters in the Edit Chains > Select Command window may crash Audacity. MDA and swh LV2s are among those affected.
MDA LV2 plug-ins on macOS crash Audacity if applied in a Chain, even at default parameters.
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).
Many Nyquist plug-ins will fail or may be sluggish if the track selection is too long, or could cause Audacity to crash. This is because the maximum selection length is limited by the amount of available ram, up to a maximum of 2 GB. Workaround: Unless you know that a particular Nyquist plug-in is safe to use with long selections, do not select more than about 1 hour of audio (44100 Hz sample rate) at a time. For higher sample rates the limit is proportionally less. If necessary, apply the effect to sections of 1 hour or less.
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.
(MacOS) Audacity CPU use will be 100% if a non-Real time preview effect (such as most built-in effects) or other modal dialogue is open at the same time as any Audio Unit effect or a graphical VST or LV2 effect. This is currently necessary to prevent a modal dialogue freezing Audacity when certain graphical VST or Audio Unit effects are running. Workaround: Excessive CPU use will not occur if you open the Manage button in the VST or LV2 effect then disable the option for graphical interface. Excessive CPU use will occur even with AU effects running in textual interface.
(Windows) Installing the latest 1.7.1 "Queen Mary" Vamp plugins to any of the 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 instead.
If the track rate or project rate is other than 44100 Hz, metering, equalization and time-based effects such as delay or reverb may give unexpected real-time preview results. Providing the project rate matches the track rate, then as a Workaround: click "Apply" in the effect, Edit > Undo in the Audacity menus, then preview.
(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 the controls of many plug-ins do not visibly respond when loading a preset file from the "Load" button
(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.
"Classic Filters" which can be enabled at Add / Remove Plug-ins has no vertical scale for the graph.
A new clip created with Split New will often fail to drag back into its original track because the new clip may not be sample-aligned with the track it came from. If you CTRL-drag and the clip won't go back, you can Edit > Undo Time Shift to put the clip back. Disabling the "Enable dragging of left and right selection edges" might sometimes make it easier to drag the clip back.
If audio is created at other than time zero, a selection made in that clip could act on the sample before the first visually selected sample but not act on the last visually 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.
In a few cases, pasting into a track containing clips could remove the envelope points in the clip being pasted into.
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.
When exporting, tracks with Mute button down are excluded from the export mix as intended but currently no warning is provided about this.
(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.
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.
After saving a project or importing audio, export always offers .aiff extension if you choose "Other uncompressed files", even if you choose other than AIFF header.
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.
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.
Although first installation of Audacity will default audio export and project save to the user's Documents folder, TXT and XML exports such as for labels files, Plot Spectrum or keyboard bindings may offer to export elsewhere.
On Windows the offered location will be the Audacity installation folder - if you are not running Audacity as Administrator, you must change the export folder in order to save the file.
On Mac, keyboard bindings will open first time in Applications if you have not already exported or saved any files. You must change the export directory to save if you are not running as administrator. If you cancel keyboard bindings export after it offers the Applications directory, all other TXT and XML exports will then default to saving in Applications.
Audacity does not alert you if it cannot write to its configuration or settings files or cannot remove its temporary settings files. The problem could occur due to interaction with a virus checker (this is most likely on Windows) or due to permissions problems.
If the problem occurs, you might find a change you made in Preferences does not take hold, or that changing the settings in an effect then trying to apply the effect won't run the effect. On Windows, you will also find a build up of aud*.tmp or plu*.tmp files in Audacity's though these are noted at Help > Show Log... .
If Audacity is displayed on or mainly on a secondary monitor, some dialogs still open on the primary monitor instead of the secondary monitor.
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 , 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.
(Mac) If you use Libraries Preferences to locate LAME manually, it is necessary to change the "File type:" filter to the choice for Dynamic Libraries or All Files in order to make libmp3lame.dylib selectable.
The Tracks preference "Type to create a label" for typing in the focused label track doesn't work if you play audio then arrow-key into the label track to give it focus. Workaround: During playback, either use CTRL + B to add a label at the selection then type, or make a different selection in the label track then type.
The frequency range stored in a Region label created in a Spectrogram track with Spectral Selection enabled can only be modified by "Edit..." from the label's right-click context menu.
Currently there is no validation on OK'ing the entered frequency value, so invalid values can be entered with unexpected results.
(Mac El Capitan) Audacity may not launch and a "Can't be opened" message will be displayed. Console log messages may refer to "Could not store lsd-identifiers file at /private/var/db/lsd/com.apple.lsdschemes.plist".
Workarounds: Right-click or CTRL-click over Audacity.app, choose "Show Package Contents", then in the "MacOS" folder, double-click the "Audacity" executable. This will launch a Terminal window and Audacity will also launch. Alternatively you can try resetting the LaunchServices database by running the following Terminal command then rebooting:
sudo /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user ; killall Dock
For languages that use comma decimal separator, comma can only be used in effects on OS X by choosing that language in Audacity Preferences. This applies even if Mac system language is set to a comma-separated locale. On all systems, comma separator in effects after choosing a comma-separated language in Audacity Preferences requires that language to be installed on the system.
(Linux Ubuntu/Debian): If Ubuntu or Debian is installed in a right-to-left (RTL) language such as Hebrew or Arabic, most of the Audacity interface will be empty and thus unusable. The only guaranteed solution is to set system language to English in system settings then restart the computer and change Audacity language to Hebrew at Edit > Preferences..., "Interface". There will still be some less serious RTL issues.
(Linux) If system locale is set to Valencian and Audacity language in Interface Preferences is set to "System", Audacity will be in Catalan.
(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:
(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:
Soloing or unsoloing a track in Mixer Board when in "Multi-track" 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.
(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.
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.
Clicking in Timeline Quick-Play plays from the editing cursor or plays the selection instead of playing from the click position as intended if Snap To is enabled and Selection Format is seconds, hh:mm:ss or dd:hh:mm:ss. As Workaround, click exactly above the yellow snap line.
Having mouse-dragged a selection in the waveform, you must now on Windows and Linux release the mouse before you can use SPACE to play or stop. This is because we now disallow shortcuts with mouse down for greater safety. On MacOS, shortcuts are currently still allowed with mouse down but this may change. The best current
(Linux) If your project window is not maximised and you OK in Preferences with a label track present, the project window will be resized very narrow and there will be an assert in the terminal and possibly the project. Audacity will not be usable if a whited out assertion dialogue appears in the project window.
Importing an audio file or opening an AUP file may no longer permanently set the Save Project path to where the file came from. After closing the project, Save Project reverts to its previous path. Also if you import an audio file or open an AUP file after importing a MIDI or Labels file, Save Project may not change its path even temporarily.
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.
Currently we allow Scrub or Seek to be paused, but there are two problems if Pause is used:
Unlike during other paused playback, menu items cannot be clicked on in order to stop playback and carry out the requested action. If you pause scrubbing, press ESC, SPACE or the Stop button when you want to edit.
If you start Scrub or Seek by menu item, Scrub Toolbar button or shortcut then engage Pause, move the mouse then release Pause, moving or dragging will not start Scrub or Seek. If you click and release in Scrub Ruler then engage Pause, move the mouse then release Pause, moving the mouse will not start Scrub.
A created in Spectrogram view currently only works with the three specific . 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.
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.
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.
(Mac) The Timer Record setup, "Waiting" and "Progress" dialogs may show the date in UK dd/mm/yy format even if the language in System Preferences is set to "US English". The exact behaviour may depend on the machine or version of OS X.
(MacOS and Linux) If Timer Record is set to "Exit Audacity" after recording completes, a crash will be reported on exit. The project and/or audio file will be still be saved correctly.
Toolbars fail to arrange correctly when maximizing or restoring the size of the main project window. As Workarounds:Try resizing instead, for example resize larger until the toolbars fill the space, then maximize. If that doesn't help, select "View > Toolbars > Reset Toolbars" then manually rearrange the toolbars the way that you want them.
(Windows) Hover tooltips for toolbar buttons are only shown when the button is active (enabled).
Meter Toolbar vertical orientation is not remembered across sessions, and resizing the meters reverts from vertical to horizontal.
2.1.3 is the last version of Audacity that will officially support Windows XP.
Pinned (fixed and centered) play/record head for playing and recording
New scrubbing features
Scrub Ruler
Scrub Toolbar (off by default, enable it at View > Toolbars)
Effects and Generators:
Effects, edits and other functionality are now not grayed-out when paused during playback or recording and thus the editing functions can be selected and performed
New Distortion effect (replaces Leveller)
Change Tempo and Change Pitch have new options to use the higher quality but slower SBSMS algorithm, which ensures the selection length does not change and no content is lost.
Click Track generator updated and renamed to "Rhythm Track" with improved sounds and new "Swing amount" control for unequal beat duration.
New Generator for
New and changed shortcuts
ALT + RIGHT to Move to Next Label and ALT + LEFT to Move to Previous Label. These shortcuts allow the name of the label and its order in the labels in that track to be read by screen readers. As well as moving the edit position, these shortcuts jump playback to the requested label.
The shortcut for Play/Stop and Set Cursor has changed from SHIFT + A to the more easy to use X.
New and changed menu items
New Edit Menu items "Store Cursor Position" and "Select > Cursor to Stored Cursor Position" (during transport, the position of the playback or recording cursor is stored)
Edit > "Region Save" and "Region Restore" renamed to "Store Region" and "Retrieve Region" respectively
New Tracks Menu item "Type to Create a Label (on/off)" (turning it off prevents shortcuts accidentally creating labels in the focused label track)
New options and preferences
New option when exporting MP3 to mix to mono
New recording preferences for naming of recorded tracks
New Timer Record features:
Options on completion e.g. Save and/or Export, quit Audacity, shut down (on Windows).
More informative dialogs, including warnings on disk space.
Protection against accidental canceling.
(Linux) On Linux only, Audacity now supports FFmpeg/libav up to avformat/avcodec 57.x.x, which is compatible with current FFmpeg 3.x.x releases.
(Mac) On Mac, audacity.app is now added to /Applications/ directly rather than adding a folder there.
Audacity is now digitally signed on Mac and Windows (but not Windows XP).
After mouse down to drag a docked toolbar to a new docked or undocked position, the track focus is removed and the selected control loses its focus border even though that toolbar still has focus. When dragging or resizing an already undocked toolbar, the selected control similarly loses its focus border.
Some interface text or markings remain in black when using High Contrast light-on-dark themes, so cannot be read properly.
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:
You can't enter a new low frequency first if it is above the current high frequency - in that case, you must enter the new high frequency first.
If you change low and high frequencies to kHz, then typing or incrementing values in the High Frequencies box has unpredictable results.
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/man/edit_menu_select.html#left ). Different Scrubbing modes may also be started using shortcuts or the Transport Menu, but there is no keyboard interface yet to control scrubbing. Scrubbing may be started by shortcut even if the pointer is in the waveform, although the Status Bar messages don't refer to moving the pointer to Scrub.
(Windows):
In certain parts of the main window, NVDA does not speak typed characters (JAWS and Window-Eyes are not affected):
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/macOS):
Audacity is not yet fully Retina-ready. It is known that the Track Control Panel appears fuzzy. Please let us know of any other issues. Retinizer can no longer be applied to Audacity. If Retinizer is applied to previous Audacity this will prevent the export format being changed.
Selection is not in the first control of Generators, Effects or Analyzers. In most effects the selection is invisible and one TAB puts selection in the Manage Button. In Change Speed the selection is "Current Length" and in Change Pitch the selection is the first octave.
If you apply a real-time preview effect while focus has remained in Audacity, the effect loses focus. If you apply a real-time preview effect after task switching away from and back to Audacity, the effect will go behind the project window. The effect may be brought back to focus in both cases with ALT + F6.
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/macOS) Issues with VoiceOver: Unfortunately, current Audacity is not accessible for users of VoiceOver for the reasons given below. This was also the case for releases starting from Audacity 2.1.1. 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.
(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.
GNU/Linux:
(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 terminal with
env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 audacity
Audacity 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.
Access keys mostly do not work except for radio buttons and checkboxes.
(Linux with Xfce desktop) It is not possible to move forward through modeless windows, undocked Toolbars and the main project window using ALT + F6. You may move backward using ALT + SHIFT + F6, but focus may get trapped in windows or undocked toolbars.
(Linux) It is not possible to TAB through the search box in Keyboard Preferences. However, as long as the "Tree" or "Name" button is selected, you can use DOWN arrow to move out of the Search box into the list, then TAB into the lower controls.
(Linux) Playing or recording then stopping causes the currently focused track or tooldock area to lose focus. Some shortcuts for example those for Tools Toolbar will then not work until focus is restored. Workaround: To restore focus, deliver a mouse click in the interface or create a shortcut for Reset Toolbars and use that shortcut.
(Linux) 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) The shortcut to "Move backward from toolbars to tracks" does not cycle from the audio track to upper tooldock, only to Selection Toolbar. The shortcut to "Move forward from toolbars to tracks" does not cycle from Selection Toolbar to upper tooldock, only to the audio track.
(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).
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.
(Mac and Linux) Audacity will not launch if the temporary directory is set to a USB or hard drive formatted with FAT16, FAT32 or exFAT. To make Audacity launch again, open the audacity.cfg settings file. Underneath the [Directories] line, change TempDir to any drive or partition formatted with the operating system's native file system (MacOS Extended (HFS+) on Mac, or ext3/ext4 on Linux).
If you launch Audacity by COMMAND + Space (Spotlight Search) then ENTER (or double-click the search result), a false error prompt appears "The application "Audacity.app" can't be opened" when in fact it will open anyway.
(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 and MacOS) On a few machines, Timer Record may not respond to a request to stop the recording or may carry on recording past the scheduled end time. The Elapsed and Remaining Time counters may stop counting. In this case it will be necessary to force quit Audacity. On a few affected machines, the problem can be avoided if you leave focus on Audacity or ensure it has focus when recording is due to end.
(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:
Opening and closing large projects one after the other may eventually cause project opening to slow significantly
Import or effect progress dialogs may stall "whited out" for a few seconds after the progress bars complete before the waveform is drawn.
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.
(Windows) LV2 effects can only be used in a Chain at their default settings.
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.
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.
You can remove any duplicates that don't run by using Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins... then click OK. This does not remove the duplicates from the Plug-in Manager's list. Alternatively you can remove all unwanted duplicates, whether you have deleted the old Audacity installation folder or not, by deleting the file pluginregistry.cfg in ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/.
If you delete the Audacity folder from a previous installation, remember to move any optional plug-ins you added to its plug-ins folder to the new Audacity Plug-Ins folder at ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Plug-Ins.
Effects, Generators or Analyzers plug-ins (except Nyquist) that are no longer available remain listed in the menus until you open the Plug-in Manager. The plugins will then be removed from the menus after restarting Audacity. This also applies to previously shipped plug-ins that are no longer available in current Audacity, such as Hard Limiter.
(Windows) The Plug-in Manager does not properly disable the SC4 effect. It will remain disabled during your current Audacity session but the next time you re-open Audacity the SC4 effect will be shown as enabled and will be available for use.
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".
LV2 plug-ins cannot be added to Chains if the corresponding LADSPA version of the same plug-in is also enabled. Audacity will in this case show two copies of the LADSPA plugin in Select Command.
(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.
(Windows)
Betabugs PhaseBug and PhaseBug Mono hang the Add/Remove Plug-ins dialogue on high CPU usage after Enable and OK. Try Audiocation Phase instead, or use Audacity 2.0.6 from Legacy Windows on the Audacity Website if you need to use these Betabugs plugins.
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 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 or if stopping and starting playback.
ReaPlugs plugins do not see user presets which were saved in Audacity 2.1.0 or 2.1.1.
You must restart playback to hear the result of enabling or disabling ReaEQ tabs. "Enable" or "Active" checkboxes work correctly while playing in other ReaPlug effects.
SimulAnalog Guitar suite plugins may crash Audacity at the default Buffer Size of 8192. For the most stable results, use the Manage button in the effect, then Options... and change Buffer Size to 8000. If crashes persist, use the effect by just applying it, without playing audio while the effect is open.
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.
AUNBandEQ
AURoundTripAAC from "Apple audio mastering tools" (this requires OS X 10.6 or later so may crash on 10.4 or 10.5).
AU
Digitech RP250 (effects pedal)
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", snd press OK. If Audacity won't launch you can instead add lines: to the audacity.cfg settings file. 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.
AUPeakLimiter when opened only shows its title bar or shows a visually corrupted title bar containing black pieces from the interface. To correct the interface it may be possible to click on the plugin controls or to click the Apply button then undo the effect.
Plot Spectrum and Contrast cannot currently be removed from the Analyze Menu.
(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) Opening the "Help on the Internet" dialog from the Help menu or from Contrast... creates an additional empty and unclosable dialog, and the real help dialog asserts when closed. Be sure to press "Continue" in the assertion error dialog. If you press "Stop", Audacity will force quit.
(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.
(Mac) Typing or pasting values in the parameter boxes will either not change the parameter applied or set it to zero, as shown by the slider positions. Workaround: User the sliders to set effect parameters. To do so using the keyboard, CTRL + F7 if necessary to enable Full Keyboard Access, then TAB into the slider and use arrow keys or Page Up/Down.
(OS X/macOS) Many items in the Generate, Effect and Analyze menus (except for example Plot Spectrum) cannot by default be applied/closed by ENTER on the keyboard unless you first press TAB once. An alternative which avoids having to use TAB is to CTRL + F7 once to enable Full Keyboard Access for all applications. In any case, without this setting enabled, it will be impossible to navigate dialog buttons or Audacity Preferences using only the keyboard.
(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) Very rarely, Audacity may show no built-in effects, generators or analyzers after upgrading from an earlier Audacity 2.1.x version. If this happens, open Effect > Add / Remove Plug-ins..., enable the built-in effects if not already showing as enabled, then click OK.
(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.
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.
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.
You may not be able to drag a clip into another track if the clip's starting position overlaps a clip in the target track. As a workaround: release the mouse when the horizontal drag is complete, then drag vertically.
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.
When pasting audio into tracks with envelope points, the envelope points may move in unexpected ways, so causing unwanted amplitude adjustments.
(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.
(Mac OS X) When exporting using (external program) using any encoder, or 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.
(OS X) If you include / in the file name when using File > Export Audio... or Export Selected Audio..., the text before the / will be missing from the exported file name. As a Workaround: add the required file name to a label then Export Multiple.
(macOS) The Export Multiple progress dialogues may be hidden behind the Export Multiple window for each file after the first one. Files are still exported normally, and you can move the Export Multiple window to one side to view the subsequent progress dialogues. The confirmation dialogue listing the exported files appears normally on top of Export Multiple after export completes.
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.
You can change or remove the extension in the export dialogue, or if you leave the extension unchanged, the extension of the exported file will be changed automatically to the correct default for the chosen header.
On Linux, .aiff extension will be offered after project save or audio import for all formats, not just for "Other uncompressed files". For other than "Other uncompressed files", the extension will be wrongly exported as AIFF unless you change or remove the extension, but the encoded data will still be correct.
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.
On a fresh installation of Audacity or initialized Preferences, the "FFmpeg-compatible files" filter cannot be used to make FFmpeg import native Audacity formats such as WAV, AIFF or MP3. Similarly on macOS, the "QuickTime files" filter cannot be used to make QuickTime import MPEG-4 files instead of installed FFmpeg.Workaround: Open Preferences and click "OK" then the FFmpeg and QuickTime filters will work as expected.
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".
When exporting using the "Other uncompressed files" option, the extension of the exported file is forced to the default for the format. For example it is not possible to export AIFF files with .aif or .aifc extension except by using the "AIFF (Apple) signed 16-bit PCM" option instead.
(Linux) When using Export Multiple, asterisks (*) or question marks (?) in track names or labels are wrongly rejected as illegal characters. As a Workaround you can force use of * or ? by exporting each region with File > Export Selected Audio... instead.
(Linux) After opening a sufficiently long audio file, opening a second file of any size might lead to locked GUI/console messages until the 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) 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 Pre El Capitan) iTunes files cannot be opened from Media > Music in the Sidebar 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) When exporting using the "Other uncompressed files" option, the "Save As:" dropdown always offers .aiff extension even when other headers are chosen. However the file will be exported in the correct format with the correct default extension for that format, even if you don't change the Save As extension from AIFF.
(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.
When importing a MIDI track, the channel selection buttons to left of the track are not currently available.
On Linux, TXT and XML exports default to the root of your Home directory.
(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.
Performing an action which can be undone, making some types of display change then undoing the action will unexpectedly undo the display change as well. Examples of display changes that will be undone are changes to track height, track view mode or per-track Spectrogram Settings.
(Linux) Audacity currently does not support being extended across multiple displays, so that Audacity is visibly straddled between monitors. If Audacity is quit when the greater part is on the primary monitor, Audacity reopens centred on the primary monitor. If Audacity is quit when the greater part is on the secondary monitor, Audacity reopens on and at left of the secondary monitor.
(Mac) Copying or cutting from text boxes in file save dialogs using COMMAND + C and COMMAND + X respectively does not work. You can however right-click or CTRL-click and choose the option to Copy or Cut.
(Mac) Pasting into file save dialogs using COMMAND + V has been restored with some limitations.
COMMAND + V can only paste into the "Save As:" box even if another box has focus. You can use right-click or CTRL-click to paste into other boxes.
The entire contents of the box are replaced with the pasted content, ignoring the selection cursor or partial text selections.
(MacOS) The "Window" menu does not currently provide a list of open windows for moving between projects. Use the Mac shortcut COMMAND + Accent (`) instead to navigate open project windows. You can customize this key binding at System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts, then choose Keyboard in the list on the left.
(OS X and Linux) In some locales, Preferences text may be truncated or overlapped, or dropdown boxes truncated.
(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.
(macOS) If upgrading from Audacity 2.1.1 directly to 2.1.3 release or later, the Audacity Title Bar and window buttons may be hidden under the Menu Bar. Workaround: Use Window > Zoom or restart 2.1.3.
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 or left selection edge invisible. Pressing Play to resume then scrolls the waveform to start at the playback start point, hiding the previously visible context before the cursor or left selection edge. Workaround: Left arrow after Stop centers the view at the cursor position. or move the left or right selection edge into view with the edge centered, so can show context that has been moved out of view.
Zoom to Selection shows none of the surrounding context
Zoom Normal doesn't always keep the selection or cursor on screen.
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.
Crashes on incorrect behaviour on quit:
(Windows) Audacity crashes after quit if quit from the Windows 7 Task Manager and "About Audacity" is open. If you save changes to a project, these changes are saved correctly.
(Windows) Audacity cannot be quit from the Task Bar icon if "About Audacity" is open.
(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.
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.
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.
(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.
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.
You can instead change the frequency range and save a new label in the same time selection then click in each label to display its frequency range, but if you TAB between labels in the same time selection all labels will show the frequency range of the last added label.
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".
(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.
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.
(Linux) Meters may not respond immediately to playback which could cause them to report incorrect peak level or not display clipping.
(Windows and Linux) The Select All (CTRL + A) and Deselect All (CTRL+ SHIFT+ A) shortcuts may not work when focus is in Mixer Board. Workaround: CTRL+TAB to return focus to the main project window, then use the shortcuts there.
Sound Activated Recording mode is disabled if there is no displayed recording meter (neither Recording Meter Toolbar or Combined Meter Toolbar). Recording will proceed regardless of the Sound Activation Level threshold and the actual recording level.
The level of an active recording can be changed by the Mixer Toolbar sliders in any other open project windows.
Timer Record warns of insufficient disk space to save the recording as a project, but does not warn about sufficient space to export. If space is insufficient to export, the exported file will be shortened to fit the available space.
(Mac OS X) The default 100 ms "Audio to buffer" setting in Audacity's Recording Preferences (which also affects playback) is too high, especially for many USB or firewire devices or if using Soundflower. 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. Also see: How can I prevent clicky recordings on Mac OS X?.
(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 and OS X) Launching Audacity or using Devices Preferences or Device Toolbar to change host or device resets the left/right balance of connected audio devices to center. Workaround: on a few Windows machines choosing Windows WASAPI host in Device Toolbar or Devices Preferences might prevent the balance reset.
(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 the named recording and playback devices that are the current Windows default devices, rather then the MME "Sound Mapper" devices which are permanently mapped to whatever the current defaults are. Workaround: If you lose playback audio or only record silence after changing the Windows default devices, 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.
If you move tracks while playing for example using the Audio Track Dropdown Menu, playback does not change, and if you use that menu to Swap Stereo Channels during playback, the left channel is silenced. Playback responds to the other commands in that menu.
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.
When Windows is installed in a language using Unicode characters (such as Russian or German), WASAPI host in Device Toolbar shows incorrect characters for the names of Playback and Recording subdevices.
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 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 may fail to play the buffered length at the end of the selection). Setting the buffer setting to zero when using WASAPI host may make it more likely that audio will play fully.
(macOS) The button order in the "Save Changes?" dialog changed in 2.1.2 to a less Mac-like sequence of Cancel, No. Yes.
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.
Horizontal scrolling is permitted during Scrubbing and Seeking although it is unhelpful for the waveform to shift while in Scrub mode. If you are using a Magic Mouse on MacOS (or other mouse with a control surface) be careful not to brush the mouse surface during Scrub, or try temporarily disbling horizontal scroll in the mouse's preferences.
Scrubbing or Seeking with Pinned head:
To Scrub at normal 1x forwards speed without using the mouse 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. To backwards play at 1x, move the pointer to the start of the project. You can Seek at 1x with the pointer in the center of the window.
If you try to forwards scroll-scrub in a less than half-width project by moving the mousewheel downwards to reduce backwards speed, moving the pointer to the end of the window will then achieve less than 1x speed. In that case, move the mousehweel upwards.
You cannot easily forwards-scrub from the start of the audio or backwards-scrub from the end of the audio because playback might cease before the pointer moves far enough to change playback direction. Enabling "scrolling left of zero" in will make scrubbing easier for these use cases.
Starting Scrub using Scrub Ruler, or then changing to Seek by clicking or dragging in Scrub Ruler, changes any pre-existing waveform selection or cursor position
(MacOS) If Scrub Toolbar is enabled and you remain hovered over a button after clicking it, the button tooltip may incorrectly change to "Hide Scrub Ruler" (or to "Show Scrub Ruler" if Scrub Ruler is turned off).
(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.