So, I gather it would be best to not upgrade to Catalina?
No.
If you want to use Audacity, then it is recommended to not update to Catalina yet.
If you want to use other audio software, then check their website before updating - many say “don’t update yet”.
That’s what we’re recommending for now on our Website
And our Facebook page:
I’m not taking the risk at the moment - and I’m an Audacity QA bod 
Peter
I am one of those “always upgrade to the latest version” people. Apparently not a good idea in this instance. I am downgrading to the previous macOS and will watch this forum. Thanks for the assistance.
I’m having the same issue as newtestleper79. In order to use Audacity, I have to keep this page open on Safari so I can copy and paste the command into Terminal every single time. I’m guessing this is a Catalina issue not an Audacity issue, so I wonder if there’s a way to let the appropriate Mac team know about it…
Have any of you that are successfully using the command line, tried making a Desktop alias to the Audacity executable? If so, does that work for you?
I just tried waldron’s work around, and, indeed, it does work. For the time being, I guess that’s what I’ll do, and hope Apple eventually fixes things on their end.
See this Forum announcement Audacity under macOS 10.15 Catalina
And many thanks to noraa for posting that workaround
Peter
Like an idiot I downloaded Catalina without checking. I tried your fix and did not work.
Just a weird though, but would it be an idea to create a web version of Audacity, with just its basic features? The web audio api brings lots of possibilities, and if something like this happened you could just recommend people they temporarily use a different browser. People might even use it on phones/tablets.
So I got soft playthrough via Terminal trick on macOS Catalina GM, but my playthrough via iMic USB (with USB-C to USB adapter) has uneven audio. When left in is 0 dB, right in is -24 dB. This was not a problem for me before. Is this another one of those “We don’t want you to record our stuff so we’re gonna frustrate your efforts by screwing around with your audio settings” things that I am somehow supposed to fix?
I also tried recording audio via Quicktime Player, same thing, left is clear, but right is faint.
I updated to Mac OS Catalina (official release) I also updated Audacity to 2.3.2
It is not possible to select the microphone (even on this public Catalina release)
I understand that a new thing in Catalina is extra security, with disc access not being automatically granted but being set by the user. I assumed the Microphone access was similar and went to change it in System Preferences / Security and Privacy / Privacy tab - select Microphone. Clicking on Microphone gives a dialogue box listing “Allow the apps below to access your microphone” which for some reason has only VirtualBox (I don’t know why)
There isn’t a " + " button to add Audacity etc - like there is for the disc access setup window.
I did make sure Audacity had full disc access.
Incidentally, after setting GIMP to full disc access, it still wouldn’t open files on the desktop.
Am I the only one who can’t get this “workaround” to work? I CAN open a terminal and paste that original code that’s on page one and it does work- but I have to do it every single time. I tried to do this workaround but number one I don’t have anything in my utilities called finder.app. Is that just my terminal? I am NOT a computer expert- but when I pasted the code from Noraa’s workaround- it DID open audacity- but it didn’t prompt for microphone permission, and it didn’t actually DO anything- I can’t record with that code at all. I had to close it out- come back here, and paste that orginal code
/Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity;
what am I doing wrong?
Sorry that was a typo in my part (that noraa caught for me).
At Step 2 it should say “Launch Terminal.app” (I have now corrected that)
And yes you do have to do this every time you launch Audacity from scratch - but not if you leave it dormant in the bottom dock. That’s the drawback of this app - and why in the longer term we aim to try to fix this in Audacity.
WC
This did not work for me. Audacity opens and runs normally, with no audio coming in. Opening it with this method yields the same result- still no audio input.
Audacity 2.3.2 in Catalina 10.15 no audio in from microphone.
I took the advice to check the Apple page.
It tells me to select the apps I want to connect to the microphone but does not say what to do if the desired app (Audacity) is not offered to be ticked.
Works fine for me on Macbook Pro 13" (2015) Catalina 10.15 Thanks so much.
Great - Thanks Razacks.
Interestingly, Security and Privacy Microphone now shows Terminal as having access to the microphone - But Audacity still does not appear.