I’m getting some strange behavior while using Audacity 2.0 with a Macbook Pro running OS X 10.7. IIRC I downloaded Audacity from the zip. Here’s the weirdness; sometime during my recording sessions (and I have no idea when) several hundred Audacity files are created and saved in ‘Music’. These are not the files containing my recording projects. I haven’t tried opening one–just dragging them all into the trash can. Any idea what’s going on? Shall I just delete Audacity and reinstall? Another thing that may be related, is sometimes when I minimize Audacity during recording it won’t maximize again even though Audacity still appears on the uppermost toolbar, and I end up having to close it and reopen it. Thank you in advance for any help.
several hundred Audacity files are created and saved in ‘Music’.
What exactly are they called and what does INFO think? Control-Click > Get Info. How big are they?
What is your system directory pointed to?
Audacity > Preferences > Directories.
Koz
So, this time either during recording or exporting six rehearsal songs 602 of these files were created.
“What are they called and what does info think?”:
the file name is e0002bca.au.
Kind: AU audio file
Size: 1.1MB on disk
Where: /Users/(my name)/Music/(Song name)_data/e00/d02
The system directory is pointed to /var/folders/np/db0_q4zd7nz8n_sjwykyndmm0000gn/T/audacity-(my name)
So they are the audio data for your saved (Song name) project. See:
Index of /man .
Are you suggesting that when you quit Audacity, launch it, (not launch it by opening a saved project), record (to your temporary /var/ folder as above) then export (say, to your Desktop) that /Users/(my name)/Music/(Song name)_data is acquiring additional .au files created while you were recording or exporting?
Gale
Aswell as the identical behaviour described,more importantly…
I can’t record from “Built-In input”. Eg I play a tune on the internet, and click red button, the record levels show flat and playback is soundless.
I can record from Microphone, the levels and playback are normal. I know how to export and burn that file too.
As a new user, I may be missing something obvious in the set-up of a project…help please.
I am new to my Mac and Audacity.
Total Recorder on Windows was more straightforward i must say !
HELP !!
You mean that when you record you are getting lots of .au files produced?
As Gale wrote, please see here: Index of /man
Mac computers do not have built in support for recording sounds that are playing on your computer.
See here: Missing features - Audacity Support
What a performance !..in order to do something so simple on my Mac I need Sunflower, then more convoluted procedures with Audacity…plus you tell me “Mac computers do not have built in support for recording sounds that are playing on your computer”. ??
I found another solution. AUDIO HIJACK PRO which proves you can record sounds on your Mac computer, and apparently does what it says on the tin. Not simple to navigate (compared to Total Recorder and Windows, but effective !
Just about to trash Audacity (unless I am missing something folks…)
Not “Sunflower”, that’s a plant 
That’s correct. As it says in the links that were provided, to record sounds that are playing on the computer you need to use additional software such as Soundflower or Audio Hijack Pro, or use a loopback cable.
If you are only wanting to record and do not need to edit or process the audio then you probably don’t need Audacity.