Is Audacity Compatible with MacOS High Sierra?

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I’m currently running the latest version of Audacity on my MacBook Pro which is running Mac OS Sierra. Audacity has been working fine for my needs. But I’m interested in upgrading my Mac to the newly released High Sierra. I’m wondering if Audacity has any known issues with High Sierra that would prevent me from upgrading? My audio editing needs aren’t complex but I do use the software a lot. So, I don’t want to upgrade to the new MacOS if Audacity will break.

Thanks in advance for any info. I searched but couldn’t find much info. I’m guessing others might be wondering the same thing.

Mike

2

Apple recommend that you perform a full back-up before updating to high sierra.
As high sierra has only been out for a couple of days, there’s not much information about real-world performance of high sierra.

3

Thanks, Steve. Yes, I’m familiar with the upgrade process and backing up prior. I’m just hoping to avoid the hassle of reverting back to Sierra if Audacity functionality breaks. I’ve researched all my primary applications and know that all of them will work with High Sierra. It’s just Audacity that I can’t find any info on.

4

Here’s my experience with High Sierra 10.13:

I’ve notice a delay (roughly half a second) when listening to a track, but worse, recording using an application to redirect the internal sound to Audacity, Soundflower, give a choppy sound while recording. This is only cosmetic as the recording result is perfect. I thought the problem came from Soundflower, so I replace it with another application doing the same, iShowU Audio Capture, who give the same choppy sound while recording which make me believe the problem come from Audacity.

I’ve decided to downgrade to MacOS 10.12

5

For what it’s worth, I upgraded my MacBook Air to High Sierra a few days ago, without even considering Audacity compatibility. I did this because my Air is my secondary Audacity machine - my primary audio-editing Mac remains on Sierra for now.

Anyway, I can’t comment on recording with Audacity, but in terms of the usual editing stuff - loading up tracks, applying filters, zooming in and out, selecting audio, exporting, etc. - Audacity 2.1.3 works perfectly for me in High Sierra, just as it did under Sierra.

6

Thanks for that reassuring post tmtomh - much appreciated :slight_smile:

WC

7

Well, emboldened by tmtomh’s post, I set about upgrading my Sierra 10.12.6 Sierra Macbook Pro (used for Audacity QA testing) to 10.13 High Sierra.

I have successfully run both the released 2.1.3 released version of Audacity and the latest 2.2.0 alpha nightly - both run just fine.

Testing included recording, both from the onboard mic on the Mac - and recording with my external USB soundcard (Edirol UA-1EX) and the new MIDI playback that comes with 2.2.0

So yes, I’m pretty confident that Audacity runs just fine on High Sierra.

WC

8

Thanks, so much. As “editing” is my primary activity right now, this is particularly helpful.

9

Many of the mainstream tech writers are saying the shift from Sierra to High Sierra was not particularly serious, and they weren’t expecting much thunder and lightning certainly compared to some of the other upgrades.

Lots of background tweaks and deep system changes.

Koz