Hi,
I am currently taking a Udemy course on Audacity and updated from Audacity version 2.0.5 to 3.0.0 so that my Audacity interface would be the same as my instructor’s. To my surprise, I didn’t need to uninstall my former version and the installation process was easier as expected.
Right after updating (about 4 days ago), I immediately used Audacity to capture audio from my PC two times, and everything seemed to work just fine. However, today I wanted to use Audacity for voice recording, but every time I opened Audacity, the program became unresponsive.
No matter where I pointed my mouse and clicked, Audacity didn’t respond. I couldn’t even close the program and had to use the task manager to force the program to close. Unfortunately, I’m not very knowledgeable with regard to technical stuff, therefore, I’d be grateful if whoever responds to my question could please “dumb it down” and use lay terms. 
I never had any issues with Audacity before and very much depend on Audacity for all my recordings. Hence, any help would be greatly appreciated! 
Thank you in advance!!!
Have you tried rebooting the computer? (Yes, even in the 21st century, rebooting can still fix a lot of problems).
Hi Steve!
Thanks so much for your response.
Yes, I tried rebooting, but that day it didn’t change anything with regard to my issue.
However, I used Audacity yesterday, and it was fine!
This morning, I needed to use Audacity again, and when I hit the record button, Audacity froze.
I am contemplating to uninstall Audacity completely, and then reinstall it. However, I’m wondering if I put all of my old Audacity project files etc. at jeopardy to be deleted along with the program if I choose to take that route?
Could you please advise? (THANK YOU!)
I have come to depend on Audacity and wouldn’t know what to do if I couldn’t get it to work reliably anymore 
It is sounding like the problem isn’t due to Audacity itself, but rather something else interfering with the sound system. If the problem was Audacity itself, you would expect the problem to be the same every day.
It is very unlikely that will make any difference by itself.
The part of Audacity that can change is the configuration files. By default, the configuration files are NOT removed by uninstalling and are NOT replaced by reinstalling.
However, the Windows installer has an option to reset the configuration files.
No need to uninstall, just run the installer again and it will overwrite the current installation. Look for the option “Reset Preferences” during the installation and ensure that option is enabled.
You will also need to confirm resetting Preferences when Audacity runs the first time after reinstalling.
Hi Steve!
What you say makes perfect sense, now I just have to figure out what is wrong with regard to the sound settings! It’s just so strange that I only got the problem after updating to the newest version…that’s where I wonder how it could NOT be Audacity.
But I will so as you proposed and hope that this will solve the problem!
Thanks again!
Steve,
I forgot to say that there is a another problem that started happening after I was able to record with the new Audacity version after I was successfully able to record for the first time (and has repeated itself every time I open Audacity):
I usually record audio from my PC, export it as an MP3, and then delete the Audacity project file or simply “x- the tracks” before exiting the program.
But what I could so easily do in my former version, doesn’t work with the new one. When I open Audacity the next time, a screen will come up asking me whether I want to discard the former project file, or if I want to save it. From then on I decided I would also go to File → close before exiting the program. But that didn’t have an effect on the issue either.
Today, Audacity once again opened showing that screen, so I discarded the file, but right afterward the program once again became unresponsive. So I used the task manager to end all processes before I opened Audacity again. The same “warning” screen disappeared and showed me the same project that I had told the program to discard before! I then chose “discard” again, and then Audacity became unresponsive once again…sigh…
That shouldn’t happen when Audacity exits normally.
How frequently does that happen?
We’ve had another report of what is probably the same thing, but we’re not able to reproduce the problem. If you could give us any clues to reproduce the problem that would be very helpful.
Hi Steve,
I am not sure what other information I could provide - other than what I’ve explained so far- that you could use to recreate the problem.
But sth interesting happened today:
I opened Audacity, and right away realized that I had forgotten to plug in my microphone (just to be clear: I didn’t do anything within Audacity, yet; no track was ‘open’ - I only OPENED the program, then immediately closed it). I didn’t want to “confuse” Audacity, so I closed the program before attaching my microphone opening Audacity again. And what showed up was that same prompt I told you about, asking me to save or discard a former project file - which was dated TODAY. This means that, for whatever reason, Audacity saved a non-existent project…
I took a screenshot and pasted it into a Word document as attachment to this post…
I so hope you guys will figure out what’s going on! 
Hi Steve,
I am not sure what other information I could provide - other than what I’ve explained so far- that you could use to recreate the problem.
But sth interesting happened today:
I opened Audacity (there was no prompt after opening), and right away realized that I had forgotten to plug in my microphone (just to be clear: I didn’t do anything within Audacity, yet; no track was ‘open’ - I only OPENED the program, then immediately closed it). I didn’t want to “confuse” Audacity, so I closed the program before attaching my microphone and opening Audacity again. And what showed up was that same prompt I told you about, asking me to save or discard a former project file - which was dated TODAY. This means that, for whatever reason, Audacity saved a non-existent project…
I took a screenshot and pasted it into a Word document as attachment to this post…
I so hope you guys will figure out what’s going on!
This is a known bug which is still foxing us:
https://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2732
Bug 2732 - Faux recovery offered on launch (very moonphase)
As far as we cant tell this causes no damage. If you accept the recovery it should “recover” an empty project - or if you are sure there was no crash and nothing to recover you can then just choose the “discard” option.
Peter