I am reporting several serious problems I have encountered with the current Audacity 4 release. (I sent unanswered emails prior to the release during Beta.) I am using Audacity for professional voice/audio editing, and these problems are now significantly interfering with my ability to safely edit and preserve audio.
I understand that Audacity 4 is a major rebuild, but these issues are serious enough that I needed to report them directly rather than assume they are individual user errors and since my emails went unanswered.
1. Audacity crashes after selecting “Save As”
When I choose the Save As option, Audacity will crash after the option is selected/saving is initiated.
This is particularly concerning because I am using Save As to create versions of my projects while editing. A crash during this process creates a significant risk to work that has already been completed.
2. Playback/editing repeatedly jumps back to the beginning or a previous position
This is one of the most disruptive problems.
While editing a long recording, Audacity will unexpectedly send me back to the beginning of the reel/clip or to the last position I clicked.
For example:
- I am editing at a specific location in the recording.
- I attempt to stop playback.
- Instead of simply stopping where I am, Audacity moves me back to another location or the beginning.
- I then have to find my editing position again and redo any editing I have already done.
The space bar is no longer reliably usable to stop playback.
If I attempt to stop playback by clicking, I can also be sent back to the beginning or another previous position, or it simply continues as if I did nothing.
I have also experienced this when trying to select a specific portion of audio. Instead of allowing me to select and edit the section where I am working, the program will move me back to the beginning/previous position.
I am not simply referring to the playahead following playback. The problem is that the editing position I am actively working at is being lost.
I have since found that another Audacity 4 user has reported a very similar behavior: selecting audio while it is playing and then pressing Stop causes Audacity to jump back to the last saved position rather than simply stopping playback.
3. Audio sections are disappearing or shifting into other audio sections
I have also experienced sections of audio:
- disappearing,
- moving,
- shifting into other sections of the recording, or
- no longer appearing where I originally placed them.
- All editing being reverse or most of them.
This is particularly concerning in a voiceover project where individual sections of narration have already been edited and positioned.
I need to be able to trust that when I select, cut, move, or save an audio section, the audio will remain exactly where I put it.
4. The combination of these problems makes editing unsafe
The individual problems are frustrating, but the combination is much more serious.
If I:
- edit a specific section,
- play it back,
- try to stop,
- lose my position,
- attempt to select the section again,
- have the program move me somewhere else,
- and then save the project,
I cannot be certain that I am editing the section I intended to edit or that my previous work will remain intact.
This is especially problematic for long-form voice recording where accuracy is critical.
What I would like to know
Will someone from the Audacity development team please review these issues and let me know:
- Whether these are known Audacity 4 bugs.
- Whether there is a recommended workaround.
- Whether these issues have been reported for the current release.
- Whether I should revert to Audacity 3.7.x for professional editing until these problems are resolved.
- What diagnostic/log files you need from me to investigate the crashes and editing behavior.
I am happy to provide additional information about my Windows system, Audacity version/build, project type, or crash logs if that would help reproduce the problems.
Thank you for taking the time to look into this. I would appreciate a response from someone familiar with the Audacity 4 development/bug-reporting process so I can determine how to proceed without risking my recordings.
Ellie