Cant download Audacity 2.3.3. - virus alert

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

Hi all,

I have a Window 10 laptop with McAffee protection and Audacity 2.2.2. installed. I can’t download Audacity 2.3.3. Windows Installer or the .zip option from the fosshub site. I have added the fosshub website address to Window Internet security ‘trusted’ sites but no luck. I keep getting the message “Audacity-win-2.3.3.exe contained a virus and was deleted”. I get the same message for all other download options on fosshub as well. Very frustrated. I was hoping to spend this time learning the software and burning vinyl. Is this a McAfee issue? Is there another web source for 2.3.3.?

Any help is sincerely appreciated.
Regards

2

I think this is the only official supplier for Audacity 2.3.3.

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/

Koz

3

Hi Koz,

Thanks for your reply. That’s the site I have accessed. I can’t download the 2.3.3. .exe or the .zip. I get the message “Audacity-win-2.3.3.exe contained a virus and was deleted” with no options to bypass/override. I can’t recall when I downloaded version 2.2.2…it was probably with Win 8 and before McAfee. I wonder if my McAfee settings are too restrictive. Searched this problem for awhile today on Google…no luck!

I just started using 2.2.2. I successfully ripped a double vinyl to ALAC files but haven’t done much editing yet. I’m hoping to convert 100+ vinyl records to FLAC files for use in iTunes and iPod Classic and burning CDs.

I was hoping to learn the latest 2.3.3 version before spending too much time reading the 2.2.2 manual.

All help is appreciated…
Thanks!

4

Just downloaded it from fosshub, no problem at all, my antivirus is NOD32 from ESET. Try to recover the deleted files from your antivirus quarantine and whitelist them.

5

Hi Ivalogic,

Thanks for your reply.

I searched how to find antivirus quarantine and got the following:
1.Open Windows Security.
2.Click Virus & threat protection and then click Threat History.
3.Under Quarantined threats, click See full history.
4.Click an item you want to keep, then click Restore. (If you prefer to remove the item, you can click Remove.)

Unfortunately…there is no “threat history’” option to click/select. It does indicate McAfee in the window which I suspect is the source my problem and why the audacity software won’t download. Maybe it’s time to sack McAfee for a better option. McAfee was recommended by an IT-savvy acquaintance. This is fast becoming a time-consuming pain.

Any other options for downloading Audacity 2.3.3. Spent way to much time on this already today…

Thanks all!

6

Hi Ivalogic, I already sent you the following email 12 hours ago, nothing private shared so I will paste you once again its content:

It sounds that this might be a false positive from your AV. Let’s see if this is the case.

So you tried to download this file?

https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html?dwl=audacity-win-2.3.3.exe

I recommend you first check the file signatures. Click on our page to see the “file signature.”

You should see this:

SHA256 263cecf19ff27c7a2f0c04a4031f0e45cda5215eb0836a4e40e09605d83286e2

Now compare it with the one displayed on Audacity download page here:

https://www.audacityteam.org/download/windows/

As you can see it is the same:

SHA256 263cecf19ff27c7a2f0c04a4031f0e45cda5215eb0836a4e40e09605d83286e2

Try to disable your antivirus product and try to download again temporarily:

https://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html?dwl=audacity-win-2.3.3.exe

Do not execute the file - do not click on it.

Open VirusTotal and upload the file audacity-win-2.3.3.exe

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload

Once you scan the file downloaded from us you should see no signs of a virus and also the signature will be the same:

SHA256 263cecf19ff27c7a2f0c04a4031f0e45cda5215eb0836a4e40e09605d83286e2

Now you’re 100% that our file is clean, and this is a false positive from your antivirus.

As a conclusion, if the signatures are the same, please temporarily disable your antivirus and try to download and install Audacity 2.3.3
After this you can enable back your antivirus product. If it will detect Audacity as a virus you can safely flag it as a safe program.

7

Hi All - Thanks for you replies. I’ll try the above. I am also considering temporarily disabling real time scanner and firewall for McAfee and Win 10 Defender and then attempt Audacity 2.3.3 download, and then immediately enable virus protection. Any thoughts? Thanks again! Regards

8

It is not recommended to have more than one real-time scanner running. If you want to use McAfee, you should disable Windows Defender.

I’d suggest that you:

  1. Ensure that McAfee is fully updated
  2. Disable Windows Defender
  3. Run a full scan of your computer with Windows Defender (overnight)
  4. Assuming no problems reported by McAfee, download the file from FossHub.
    Are you able to download the file without being blocked by McAfee?

If McAfee does block the download, follow the steps given by FossHub in this post: Cant download Audacity 2.3.3. - virus alert - #6 by FossHub
Then, if the checksums match (and “only” if the checksums match), whitelist the file in McAfee.

9

Try downloading it from portable apps

10

I would not recommend that. We can ensure that Audacity supplied through are official channel (FossHub) is genuine, unmodified, and free of malware. We cannot make such assurances for downloads from anywhere else.

11

Hi All - Thanks for your replies/help.

Steve - Did you mean "3) Run a full scan of your computer with Windows Defender (overnight), or McAfee overnight? I assume you meant scan overnight with McAffee as you specify in step 2) Disable Window Defender. Is that correct?

Thanks again!
Regards

12

Yes, that’s what I meant.

13

I have used a lot of apps from PORTABLEAPPS.COM over the years, and never had a problem.#
In fact my copy of Audacity is a portable one run off a chip

Blueflame

14

This is going off topic, but are you aware that you can run the official Audacity release as a portable app? You just need the ZIP version, unzip it, and add a “Portable Settings” folder inside the application folder.

15

I don’t want this to continue off topic - but as one of the maintainers of the PortableApps.com build, I can confirm that the package is genuine, unmodified, and free of malware. I do appreciate your hesitancy regarding anything that is not official, however our record should speak for itself (See below).

Our package is built from the official zip, and all that’s done is that the files from the zip are placed in our format for consistency with our other applications, the “Portable Settings” folder is put in place, and we ensure paths are updated in settings files as users move drive letters. No changes whatsoever are made to Audacity’s program files at any time.

All of our software is virus-checked prior to release, with results available for each release.
Incidentally, we have had over 7.7 million downloads of Audacity Portable since our first release of it in 2006, with 68.5 thousand of those being 2.3.3.

16

Hey all - OP here. Happy Holidays!

Thanks again for the help. So, I finally succeeded in downloading Audacity 2.3.3. Apparently, I had both Windows 10 Defender and McAffee running concurrently. I uninstalled McAfee; tweaked some settings in WD (can’t recall which) and Audacity 2.3.3 downloaded over my previous version 2.2.2 without a hitch.

Let the vinyl rips continue…

Regards,