Audacity not recording despite signal going into interface

Audacity 3 Help Forum
1

Hi,
I have Audacity 3.5.1 on a an older Mac laptop that runs on OS Catalina 10.15.7. My audio interface is a Steinberg UR22.
At first Audacity did not recognize my interface but I was eventually able to fix that (I had to download the driver for Steinberg UR22-C not just for UR22). However, no matter what I try, Audacity will not record. The signal is definitely going into the interface but even if I switch to ‘internal mic’ no recording is made.
Please help.

2

Did you grant access to “Microphone” for Audacity (system settings / privacy & security)?

3

Hi, thanks. I just now did that. Then relaunched Audacity, but it still won’t record, not even from the internal mic of the laptop. I have now spent 3 hours trying to fix this issue, this is either some kind of compatibility issue or a major bug.
What else could I try to make it work?

4

I solved the problem by updating my Mac to OS Monterey.

5

Good to hear.

However, I do not think that Catalina really was the problem. It might have been that something needed by the operating system was “lost” (damaged or deleted by accident, or so). I do not have a working Catalina installation here to test - but I believe that Catalina did not have a problem with the treatment of sound recordings.

For others encountering the same problem: if you can’t update to a newer operating system because your Mac is “too old”, just install the same version of the operating system again, over the existing installation. This should replace any damaged system files and reinstall any “lost” system files.