Audacity/Mac Help Needed

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icequeen
LibriVox Admin Team
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Joined: March 3rd, 2009, 3:46 pm
Location: California

Post by icequeen »

This is a post from one of my readers needing help with Audacity on his Mac.

I have a problem.


After I recorded chapter one, and before I edited it, my computer became unplugged. I re-booted the computer and of course I had lost my recording. Then when I clicked on the Audacity icon it came up with a message to the effect that Audacity is "already running . . .etc. and that I can't run it with the other one running" Try as I may, which has included completely (I thought) deleting the Audicity app from my computer and installing it again, I cannot get rid of the Audacity is already running message. It is driving me crazy. Do you or can you refer me to someone who can give me any guidance about this? I have an iMac using macOS Mojave, Version 10.14.3
Ann

Audio, video, disco!
GrayHouse
Posts: 638
Joined: October 6th, 2012, 3:27 pm

Post by GrayHouse »

It's a known problem on mac:

Try this first:
- search for a file called: audacity-lock-xxxx (where xxxx is your user name).
- it's probably in ~/Library/Application Support/Audacity/Session Data were ~ is your normal home folder
- delete the file.
Shasta
Posts: 670
Joined: February 11th, 2017, 8:55 pm

Post by Shasta »

Thanks for undertaking to help. As it turned out, after I posted my problem I was able (and I really don't know how) to get a version of Audacity to work without the "already running" problem. So I went ahead and recorded chapter one of The Campfire Girls in the Snow. Now I have a new problem. When I get to the end of a recording the first thing I do to edit it is get rid of background noise. So I clicked on the "Effect" column and find that everything down to "Wahwah" is greyed out. Below Wahwah there are a number of not-greyed-things that are of no interest to me. So I have no access to "Noise Reduction" or any of the top listed Effect tools. It appears that the version of Audacity that I downloaded has a bug. To make matters worse, I am unable to save what I recorded because most of the items under "File", including Save and Export are also greyed out. Any suggestions?
Russ Bruno
GrayHouse
Posts: 638
Joined: October 6th, 2012, 3:27 pm

Post by GrayHouse »

If you still have your unsaved audio in an Audacity session then you could try File >> New (if that's enabled) to open a new window and try to copy the audio across to a new Audacity window and save it there.

More generally, a lot of menu options are initially grayed out until you open a track. And also when you're playing or recording, so make sure that you press the Stop button on the transport controls before attempting other operations.

If you still believe that you have a corrupted / glitched installation, then you could try to reset your Audacity preferences. The procedure for that is:
- Exit Audacity
- Search for a file called audacity.cfg - it's usually located in ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/ where ~ is your home folder.
- Delete the file.
- Restart Audacity. Obviously you'll have to reconfigure anything that you changed from the default settings.

If that doesn't help then you may need to reinstall Audacity. Try to uninstall all of your current version first. Generally it's quite a reliable program. As you say, a fresh download may help if you think your original download was bad in some way.

Does that get you anywhere? Let us know...
Shasta
Posts: 670
Joined: February 11th, 2017, 8:55 pm

Post by Shasta »

Thanks, again. During a brief window when things seemed to be working, I did complete and export the unedited recording. Later, as I was having the problem you advised me about, I decided to again delete the Audacit app and download the latest one, again. This time it seems to be working OK and, as a bonus, it is an easier to work with version of Audacity. Thanks, again.
Russ Bruno
GrayHouse
Posts: 638
Joined: October 6th, 2012, 3:27 pm

Post by GrayHouse »

Good work. Glad it's working for you.
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