Can I download & run 2 versions of Audacity: 3.0 and 3.7?

I have been using Audacity 3.0.2 for a dozen years or more. Now I would like to update to the latest, but worried that I will not be able to use it quickly and easily.

So can I download the newest Audacity, while still keeping and using my old Audacity as a backup, in case of difficulties with the new?

Sure? Audacity 3.0 was introduced on March 17, 2021…

Do you feel an urgent need to use a newer version? If the old one still runs on your system and does what you want it to do, I would stick with it.

What Mac do you have? What version of macOS are you running? Please check you Audacity version number.

You can have two (or more) versions of Audacity installed, but you cannot run both at the same time.

If you really have been running the same version for 12 years, you probably have version 2.0.3. At the very least you have some 2.x.x version. Version 3.0 introduced a new file format that is not backwards compatible with version 2 files, so any project you create in version 3 cannot be opened in version 2.

Many new preferences have been introduced (or deprecated) in that time. In my experience, running version 3.7.2, then running version 2.4.2, can seriously wreck the settings file. My advice is to make a backup of the preferences file before running version 3.7.2. The settings file is named audacity.cfg and it is in

~/Library/Application Support/audacity

Many thanks for your reply. The 3.0.2 does still run on my system, and I don’t use half of its tricks (normally can’t work them out!). I just felt that some marvellous things must have been discovered over the years that I should explore - I make up tunes to poems and record them unaccompanied usually onto Soundcloud. Your answer makes me feel ok about staying put.

Many thanks for your reply Bill. My mac laptop is up-to-date with Sequoia, but the Audacity has remained with the 3.0.2 I started with. It’s interesting to hear I can instal and run versions 2 and 3, even if just at different times. I wouldn’t want to open a version 3 file on version 2, though I might like to open a version 2 in 3. If I couldn’t, that would be ok.

But I note your experience that running the two systems - even separately - can seriously wreck the settings file. I am not at all tech savvy, so that problem is a disincentive for me. Thank you for the advice to back up the preferences file, if I should go in that direction.

Sorry - I forgot about the check! Yes it is definitely 3.0.2. Well it feels like I have been using it a dozen years, but now I stop and think, yes maybe it is just coming up to 4 years. I have been writing tunes much longer, which is my only and feeble excuse for confusion :frowning:

So maybe the jump from 3.0.2 to 3.0.7 is not one to worry about.

If you are happy with version 3.0.2, keep using it. I recommend against going back to version 2 at this point - version 2 cannot open your version 3 projects.

Running different 3.x.x versions should not create any problems with the settings.

However, projects created or saved in version 3.7.x can not be opened on older versions. So don’t do anything critical in 3.7.x until you’re sure you like it. If you open a 3.0.2 project in 3.7.x, be sure to use File > Save Project As to save it with a new name.