Crash reports 3.6.1

Audacity is crashing continually on closing the program and since the reports won’t up load Im gonna post em here
crash reportWindows NT.txt (281.9 KB)

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next one
crash report2Windows NT.txt (186.8 KB)

crash report3Windows NT.txt (178.2 KB)

crash report4Windows NT.txt (273.5 KB)

this time crashed in the middle of recording voice rather than when closing audacity :frowning:
crash report5Windows NT.txt (190.2 KB)

One good crash is enough to create problems that invite the next crash. Just cranking away at it isn’t good. Let’s see if we can fix it.

— Make sure your internal drive C:\ has lots of room. Audacity takes up way more data space than you think it’s going to. For one example, every time you do an edit, the size of the memory needed increases by one whole show.

— Also, there are no external drives. No USB, Firewire, Remote, Network, Wireless, Internet, or Cloud Connections. Audacity hates those. If your day-to-day operations requires those connections, then maybe Audacity isn’t for you.

— Do a clean Shutdown. Windows has a thing they call Fast Startup. In English, when you shut down, it doesn’t shut everything down. If you have problems, really, really, really shutting down is a good idea.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/full-clean-windows-1011-shutdown/e26a3ee2-cf82-4395-ada3-f46c1f7ed555

— Defragment. When the machine comes back up after a clean shutdown, do a defragmentation. Windows doesn’t store files. It stores pieces of files wherever they fit and the pieces get smaller and smaller as you go. Eventually, the machine can take about a million years to play a file to you. Audacity hates that.

— Uninstall Existing Audacity.

Note. Projects created in an Audacity version may not play in earlier versions. If your shows open, Export the work as WAV (Microsoft) backup files. If your projects are large multi-channel productions, this may be difficult. Regular WAV only supports mono and stereo.

This version obviously isn’t working for you, so rip it out and start over with an earlier Audacity.

Uninstall Existing Audacity

— Install an older Audacity. Do you know which version worked OK?

— After you get the new one installed (I have had reasonable luck with 3.4.2), do a Tools > Reset Configuration. That should not do anything, but it’s a good cover-your-bets step.

Everything working OK now?

Koz

A note here. Any Projects you were working on with Audacity 3.6x may not open in earlier versions. That’s why I strongly recommend doing file backups in WAV (Microsoft).

Koz

Some of these steps interact. If you have a snug or full drive, the defragmentation step can take a crazy long time. It’s also possible for the machine to automatically defragment itself more than once.

So if the machine goes into defrag and seems to get stuck there, then the machine doesn’t have enough free space to easily clean up its bits and fragments.

That will also tell you that the C:\ drive doesn’t have enough room to do Audacity sound production.

Koz

Thanks but I have nearly 500gb of free space on C:\ no usb drives used and my Pagefile is 2.8 gb
I think I have plenty of free space!
and its a new clean install like 2 months ago
I’m putting these crash reports up here to help the devs in the hope thet they can sort out some of these problems

So you’re not going to do any of the things in my suggestion post? Most people don’t have constant crash problems.

Also, a clean uninstall and reinstall after cleaning the drive isn’t the worst idea.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#How_do_I_install_and_update_Audacity.3F

Koz

I’ve had weird problems in Windows 11 with both 3.6 and 3.6.1. When I Close a project after saving, the menu bar flashes continuously for some time while it’s saving (I guess). Usually, Audacity will close the file, but sometimes it crashes. This started with 3.6. I have lots of disk space, I’ve never disconnected external drives or shut down the network (nor will I), I often restart the computer rather than shutdown, and defragging a hard drive is unnecessary with current hardware and software. So I don’t know what to call it other than an Audacity bug.

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All on the same machine?

OK.

Koz

Yes, all on the same Dell XPS.

So you decided to step the machine back to the last Audacity that worked (3.5.1??) so you can get work out the door while we’re waiting for the rescue party.

Right?

You can get older Audacity installers from here.

And you can either do a first pass reset with the replacement Audacity by Tools > Reset Configuration, or you can do a complete burn-off.

https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#How_do_I_install_and_update_Audacity.3F

Post back how it goes.

Koz

This does remind me of early days of video software. Suddenly, people who have never maxed out their machines were using enormous amounts of resources and memory. And people found problems in “high memory” that weren’t apparent when they were sending emails and listening to music.

I had this. "Element 36—Row 4—Memory Stick 8 is not responding.

When was the last time you did a MemCheck?

Up to you. Audacity assumes any drive it can see can be used for any job no matter how delicate, difficult, or critical. No, you can’t set up a musical overdubbing job with a Cloud Drive in Houston— but Audacity might try.

Koz

If you mean temporarily disconnecting the drives, etc. as a diagnostic tool, then that’s OK. I get that. As a solution to the problem at hand, then nope. I’ve been producing podcasts since 2008 and have over 1000 episodes under my belt. My current i9 hardware has 32 GB of memory and a solid-state drive with 485 TB free. This flashing menu bar problem started with Audacity 3.6. Everything else is the same. (Famous last words, I know.) Something is making Audacity unhappy and I haven’t figured out what yet.

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This is where the person wearing the Producer’s Hat gets to decide whether to wait for the notoriously reclusive Developers, or step the machine back and get work out the door.

We should remember that as a very fuzzy rule the x.x.2 versions tend to be Production Stable. I used 2.4.2 for years. I’m still using 3.4.2.

There was never a 3.5.2 We don’t talk about that series.

There are two rumors. One is that a ton of desirable fixes and increased stability will arrive as 3.6.2. Nobody wants to think about the possibility of 3.7.0.

Koz

my whole machine is less than 3 months old 3.6.1 was a fresh install I have 500gb of free space on the SSD with 32 gb of RAM
it seems you dont have actually have any answers and suggest all the unhelpful things that people on windows forums suggest reinstall app, reboot, defrag, reinstall yer OS, these are generic answers
Like I said I’m not looking for answers I’m posting the reports (which you obviously haven’t looked at) for others who have the knowledge to analyse

how on earth would saving a copy of a .wav file help you to open an .aup project
that is pretty misleading info

Really? where do you find rumours like this?

So you dont know a lot about 3.6.x

crash report5Windows NT.txt (186.1 KB)
'nother one, same again whilst recording, when reopening the project the recording is mostly there
its kinda weird