Record button might new track or might start recording

Audacity 2.1.2 on Linux Mint - distro’s release from Software Manager.

Hello. Maybe this is just a noob question, as I’m relatively new to Audacity, but I am attempting to make a recording, and the Record button (record icon) seems to be unpredictable as to whether it starts recording, adds a new track, or adds a new track and starts recording. It doesn’t seem to be affected by the current level of sound that would be recorded. This is from when I already have one track and am attempting to begin recording a second track from where the first track ended.

With default settings in Preferences

Record by itself or its shortcut R will record on the same track

Shift + Record or shortcut Shift + R will record on a new track

WC

On newer Audacity versions, you can reverse those two by setting a preference. Older Audacity versions R would always start a new track. Many people complained about that because they all wanted to add to the work they already had and saw that as natural. So now it is.
Screen Shot 2018-03-11 at 11.41.58.png
Koz

That’s slightly helpful, but doesn’t explain the behavior that I am seeing. I am left-clicking on the record icon (the red circle button) right under the menu, and sometimes I get one behavior, and sometimes I get the other behavior. If the original track is selected, I always get a new track if I am on the original track, but sometimes it starts recording and sometimes it doesn’t. If I’m already on a new track, sometimes it starts recording, and sometimes it just adds another track.

Koz, I take it that is on newer than 2.1.2? I do not see that setting in my version.

Yes. I think that showed up in 2.2.0…???

I can’t explain the symptoms.

Koz

Hello, I’m new here; but very glad to have found this forum!
I just installed Audacity through Ubuntu Software Center, running Ubuntu 17.10…
It used to be that, when I selected a range of audio on track 1 and then hit the record button, it would open a second track and begin recording parallel to the highlighted selection.
Now, when I hit record, it creates a new track, which opens up and then nothing happens; no recording taking place.
This behavior is the same if I have recorded track 1 and then hit record (without highlighting a section to overdub)

I found a workaround by going to “tracks” “add new mono track” After I add a new track manually, I can place the cursor somewhere in it (not at the beginning where it defaults to) and then hit “shift + R” and, sometimes it will insert silence before and up to the cursor; a second shift+R will start it recording under the selected area; it will stop recording at the end of the highlighted section but playback will continue.
When I unchecked "overdub -(listen to audio while recording new track) then a second track will start recording as normal, but I can’t hear what I am overdubbing to.
I have been able to do multitracking only by adding a new mono track manually, but it isn’t consistent…

The problem, I solved, by plugging my USB microphone into a different USB port. There are a few on my laptop, but one of them is designated by a bright yellow socket as being “live” (or a USB port that can stay on when the laptop is off, for charging USB devices) When I plugged in to this different port and did rescan devices, Audacity began to record normally; I can highlight a section of any existing track and hit record and it will start recording just in that time range…
I first noticed that it would record as normal when using internal microphone (very low quality and picks up sound of the fan, etc) but when I plugged USB mic in, I got a unable to open device for input type message; check your device settings…a different USB port was the answer;
I’ll wait until I’m less of a newbie before I try to find the driver code and see why this is so…

After I use the cheese webcam app, which recognizes my USB microphone, and then go to use Audacity, the latter won’t find the USB microphone. I have to restart the computer. I’m sure this is a configuration file acting up somewhere, right?