Audacity 2.3.2 / Catalina PLAYBACK problem

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

I’m having some problems with Audacity (2.3.2) on Catalina (latest supplemental, but problems have existed since initial install). I’m aware (now) that Audacity on Catalina is not supported, but I’m posting because my problems seem to be different than what others have described. As I understand it, most users on Catalina are experiencing an issue where Audacity mostly works correctly, but trying to record results in silence. In contrast, I am getting error messages on both playback and recording.

When I open an audio file in Audacity and attempt to play it, I get the following error: “Error opening sound device. Try changing the audio host, playback device, and the project sample rate.”

When I attempt to record, I get the following error: “Error opening sound device. Error code: -9997 Invalid sample rate.”

I’ve tried changing the project sample rate and the other settings on the help page about this error (in Transport->Transport Options). My only option for Host is “Core Audio”. When I go to Help->Diagnostics->Audio Device Info, the devices listed appear to support no sample rates:

==============================
Default recording device number: 0
Default playback device number: 1
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: Built-in Microphone
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 0
Low Recording Latency: 0.00294785
Low Playback Latency: 0.01
High Recording Latency: 0.0131066
High Playback Latency: 0.1
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: Built-in Output
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 0
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.01
Low Playback Latency: 0.0126077
High Recording Latency: 0.1
High Playback Latency: 0.0227664
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: Soundflower (2ch)
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 2
Playback channels: 2
Low Recording Latency: 0.01
Low Playback Latency: 0.00145125
High Recording Latency: 0.1
High Playback Latency: 0.01161
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: Soundflower (64ch)
Host name: Core Audio
Recording channels: 64
Playback channels: 64
Low Recording Latency: 0.01
Low Playback Latency: 0.00145125
High Recording Latency: 0.1
High Playback Latency: 0.01161
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected recording device: 0 - Built-in Microphone
Selected playback device: 1 - Built-in Output
Supported Rates:

I tried running Audacity via the Terminal workaround recommended for Catalina users, and I can see how it is trying different sample rates when trying to play or record:

||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 48000 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 88200 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 96000 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 176400 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 192000 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 352800 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Failed to open AUHAL component.||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| Error on line 1263: err='-50', msg=Unknown Error
||PaMacCore (AUHAL)|| OpenStream @ 384000 returned: -9986: Internal PortAudio error

Has anybody else encountered these errors on Catalina or on other MacOS versions?

2

The error message in the terminal indicates that Audacity (actually “portaudio”, which Audacity uses) is unable to recognise any AudioUnit devices.

When you launched Audacity via the terminal, were you asked to grant permission for the application to access audio devices?

3

I’m having the same problem as the OP.

When you launched Audacity via the terminal, were you asked to grant permission for the application to access audio devices?

No, I wasn’t. I’ve tried manually granting permission in System Preferences and that didn’t change anything.

Thanks for your help. Very much appreciated.

4

Please see this topic: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/audacity-2-3-3-under-macos-10-15-catalina/54279/1

5

Thanks but that’s exactly what I’m doing. That’s why I can see the error messages in Terminal.

6

Has anyone figured out how to resolve this issue? I’ve seen a couple folks on this board have it. I was plugging along just fine using the Terminal workaround until this evening, when out of nowhere this began happening to me. When I run the terminal command I now get an enormous long terminal list of errors that read like “PaMacCore (AUHUL)||Failed to open AUHAL component” etc etc etc “OpenStream 44100 returned -9986: Internal PortAudio error” (Not just 44100, but also 48000, 22050, etc etc etc). See attached image.

When I am in Audacity, and regardless whether I opened it with the terminal command or in the standard way, when I attempt to play a sound file I get “Error opening sound device. Try changing the audio host, playback device and the project sample rate” and when I try to record I get “Error opening recording device. Error code: -9997 Invalid sample rate.” See images.

Also of note: 1) All these errors happen whether I’m using an external microphone or just my computer’s mic/speakers. 2) Both Audacity and Terminal are granted audio access in permissions. 3) The sample rate is consistent (44110) in all places, Audacity and across my system, and 4) Garageband and Quicktime audio recording both work just fine. Only Audacity is screwed up, it seems. I have also tried reinstalling Audacity to no avail, and even resetting my NVRAM.

Can anyone help me? I am on Macos Catalina (of course) and Audacity 2.3.3 I’m at my wits end and need this for work. Sincere, humble thanks in advance. :frowning:
Screen Shot 2020-04-16 at 9.45.04 PM.jpg
Screen Shot 2020-04-16 at 9.45.20 PM.png
Screen Shot 2020-04-16 at 9.45.37 PM.png

7

That begs the question: What changed?

This post may help you to see if there have been recent Mac updates: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/104989/how-to-view-software-update-history

8

Have you tried rebooting your Mac?

9

Thanks for your reply! I have indeed rebooted my mac a number of times, along with the other stuff listed above.

I did check my recent installations as you kindly suggested. It does look like Apple updated/installed “XProtectPlistConfigData” to Version 2119 yesterday. Could that possibly shine any light on this?


10

Have you some decisions? I see on the same errors on catalina with Audacity 2.4.2

11

I continued having this issue all the way up to Audacity 2.4.2. I was able to finally resolve it by removing several .component and .vst files from the various audio plug-in directories:

  • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins


  • /Library/Audio/Components


  • ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins


  • ~/Library/Audio/Components

I didn’t go to the effort of figuring out exactly which ones were problematic.

12

Did anyone manage to solve this?

I have the same error message, and the same symptom that the diagnostic panel shows no available playback rates.

(I tried renaming my plugin directory, so Audacity didn’t see it) but that didn’t help.)

Catalina 10.15.6

13

Hi, I would like to join this topic, moving here from another one.
So months later it seems this issue hasn’t been solved. I also got this list of failed AU validations after upgrading to Catalina, trying the ‘terminal way’. But by no means am I getting anywhere near to the point to be able to grant permissions to the microphone (and thereby to any audio device).
MacOS 10.15.7 Audacity 2.4.2.
Any new findings out there?

14

Windows guy here. I see you are already on 2.4.2. Did you try the suggestions posted by jonwithoutanh?

I ask this because did a little google searching on this error and came up with this link that offered a similar solutions to the issue: https://mixxx.discourse.group/t/macos-catalina-portaudio-errors/18514/7

I hope this helps. :smiley:

15

No, actually I didn’t. I don’t want to run into any issues moving AUs because Logic and ProTools are my main DAWs and these are working fine. And well, as a workaround I am able run Audacity on my Parallels Desktop Windows system.