What are the spells for completely ripping Audacity preferences and files out of Windows? I don’t mean Tools > Reset Preferences. That just removes or resets the audacity.cfg file. I mean really burn it off, hose it down, and start over.
I know how to do that now for my Mac ~/Library/Application Support/audacity
Turns out if you go back and forth between Audacity versions enough you get a scrambled hodge-podge of support files and they’re not useful.
Steve TF posted this list for all three OS’s a while back but I can’t find it.
See the “Preferences” page in the manual (there is a link in the Navigation panel on the left side of each page). That takes you HERE
Then click on [Where the Preferences are stored
That shows you the default location of the Preferences folder for each platform.
Ensure that Audacity is not running, and delete that folder (or all of its contents).
Note that this may also delete installed plug-ins (depending on where the plug-ins were installed).
Cool. That’s a lot handier than the way I was doing it.
I looked at the plugins and macros and wondered how many were going to come in fresh with the upgrade I was installing—based on the idea that it may be the first ever Audacity install.
I remember tracing one tool back and back through the versions and it turned out I installed it during the Eisenhower Administration.
What I do to make life easier (as I purge the settings folder a LOT in the course of testing and documenting) is to create a shortcut on my various desktops to the location of the Audacity settings folder.
Then a single click sends me there, select all (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) then Delete - and thus bingo, Audacity is reset to full-fat OOTB factory settings.