Effects/macro not working

In my month-long saga of “what is wrong with my Audacity?”, I wiped my Audacity files and reinstalled (for possibly the sixth time, and yes, I wiped AppData). The 36-Audiobook macro still didn’t run (and yes, it uses the 3.6 effects), so I ran the effects separately. EQ filter, Loud Norm, Limiter. Had to follow up with Noise Reduction 3 times instead of once, but ok. Thought yay, it’s finally fixed. Realized I’d used the wrong EQ filter. Closed the file without saving, reopened Audacity, reopened the file, ran the correct EQ followed by everything else. Didn’t work. I thought okay, maybe it’s some weird EQ/Loud Norm interaction, though it shouldn’t be. Came here to post about it, then decided to double-check. Closed everything without saving, opened it again, and ran Loud Norm separately. Nope, it doesn’t work again. On Monday, I had a similar experience in that the effects worked ONCE and then not again. Yes, that’s weird. No, that should not be happening. Windows, latest version, all updated, 32G RAM. Audacity 3.6.4.

Any ideas what is going on?