Computer and Audacity super slow after update

Audacity 3 Help Forum
1

I have been an Audacity user for many years, and whenever a new update arrives I download and install it, usually with very good results.

However, when I installed version 3.4.1, the application became very slow and heavy, and that is much more noticeable when I copy+paste an audio file.

Audacity takes forever to copy a simple segment of audio, let alone a large segment.

Does it only happen to me? Is there any solution for it?

My specifications:

HP Laptop, Winodws 11 64-bit, Intel Core i3-10110U CPU @ 2.10GHz, 16.0 GB RAM, Intel UHD Graphics.

1 Like
2

Yes. Well, at least with 3.4, you are the only one reporting this so far…

Yes. Typically, Audacity projects can get bogged down severely by a feature called smartclips. So what happens, is when you copy a small part of a much much larger clip, that larger clips remains in your project even if you delete it later! (which is common). But just the presence of that clip makes your project larger and slows everything down.

To correct this issue, it is a simple matter to copy your entire project to a new project without the “smartclips”. To this this there are four (4) steps:

  1. Ctrl+A (Select All)
  2. Ctrl+C (Copy)
  3. Ctrl+N (New Project)
  4. Ctrl+V (Paste), when prompted, do NOT past smartclips.

After you save (and close) the new project, make note of the difference in sizes.

1 Like
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I use audacity 3.4.1 on windows 10

when i open approx 288mb of mp3 file, it is taking close to 2min to load into Audacity.
In v3.x it only took approx 30 sec.

4

Is this the same mp3 file? Can you reproduce this with a WAV file ?

@waxcylinder, can you take a look at this ?

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hello Jademan,

tk u for responding

It is not exactly the same MP3 file but similar band music file and size. I already deleted the original MP3 file.

I do not have that in wav format either.

6

Yes, different MP3 files can take differing times to load.

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But files are same mp3 music files of about the same size. I notice a large time delay in loading mp3 file as compared to previous version of Audacity (v3.3x)

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OK; Export one of your files to WAV format, post a link to it, and I’ll take a look at it. Or just post of your .MP3 files.

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do i upload my mp3 files here publically?

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I would use a public file server and post or PM a link.

11

Noted

I sent to u direcctly a small music file of our band as one example

snoma01

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FYI, I never received this. May I suggest using a public file server and post or PM a link.

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message method3
message method3738Ă—450 29.3 KB

message method2
message method1
message method11046Ă—413 42.9 KB

that is how i sent u

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As before, I never received your file. However, I did some testing with 1 hour .WAV file.

To load the file, it took anywhere between 15 seconds 90 seconds. (both of which times occurred on 3.4.1). 3.3.3 had a similar variation in times.

I can’t account for the difference in times, although I suspect there may have been some competition from other processes on my computer.

Perhaps @LWinterberg or @waxcylinder wish to comment.

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since file is 290mb i was not able to send it.

will Audacity 3.4.1 take longer to load same size file VS Audacity v3.3x?

snoma01

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Thanks for your help. Anyways, I have updated to version 3.4.2 and now it works flawlessly.

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