I’ve found a way to launch Audacity from the dock, with proper microphone permissions and all. It will still run the Terminal in the background and is a bit hacky, but it should work.
Step 1: Go to Launchpad > Other and open Script Editor. Create a new document, and paste the following:
do shell script "open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity"
Click “Save”, and save as an Application. Call it Launch Audacity.app, and save it in your Applications folder.
Step 2: Go to Applications > Audacity.app, right click it and choose “Show Package Contents”. Go to Contents > Resources and find Audacity.icns.
Open a new Finder window and go to Applications > Launch Audacity.app. Right click and choose Get Info. Drag Audacity.icns onto the default app icon, and close the window. Drag Launch Audacity.app into your dock.
Thanks for the tip picpak. I’ve not tried it myself as I’ve not yet updated to Catalina, but it sounds like it could be a good workaround.
I’ve “pinned” this topic so that it stays at the top of the macOS forum board for now, so that others can find it easily and say if your workaround works for them.
I expect that is due to an unrelated issue. Please start a new topic so that this forum thread remains on the original subject of launching Audacity on Catalina.
I just updated my oS and installed Audacity last night. I have a blue yeti mic and checked inside the audio app on my mac that it produces sound/is connected properly. Audacity acknowledges it under the mic dropdown. I spent all day troubleshooting. Sure enough, under security>microphone there is no permission box to check. I nearly gave up and found this thread! There is hope. However, I tried this workaround and still get the thin blue line, indicating no sound is being picked up. I am new to my mac and audacity so the lingo and platform is very unfamiliar so please reply clearly and simply for a middle-aged non-techy mom who’s trying to help their kid with a school project. Here’s what I did:
I got as far as the script code, entered it, saved it as instructed. Then opened a new finder window, went to applications > launch audacity.app. I right clicked to get info.
This next part was where I was unsure: “drag audacity.icns onto the default app icon” (I took this to mean the audacity headphones app inside the applications folder. I then closed the window as instructed.
when I opened audacity, I got an error–some files couldn’t be opened (like a dumb-dumb I clicked away and the error disappeared. Not sure how to find out what it said.) I tried recording again and still get the blue line.
I would like to be able to record sound. Any and all help is appreciated.
I prefer the Automator version, just for simplicity. In case anybody else does, here are the steps:
Open Automator
Choose Application as document type
Drag Run Shell Script to grey space on right
Type
open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity
into Run Shell Script textfield
5. Drag Run Apple Script to grey space on right, below the Shell Script Code
6. Type
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "System Events"
try
set visible of application process "Terminal" to false
end try
end tell
return input
end run
into Run Apple Script textfield
7. Save and use just like an application
The Shell script starts audacity via Terminal app. The Apple script just minimizes the Terminal app.
I simply installed it on Catalinea 10.15.1 and it immediately opened (without any problem) … I think that this problem of opening it on Catalina has been officially resolved (to correct the website)
Hi, Im new to this forum, I updated to Catalina as I was unaware that Audacity would not work with it only to find out I couldn’t record. I am running the latest Audacity and everything is fully upto date on my Imac. I have tried to use the “workaround” - open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity but it doesn’t seem to work for me. Is there something Im doing wrong?
I get the following when I try inputting open /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity in the terminal even though my Audacity 2.3.2 is in the applications folder.
While the detected malware results may be false positives, as the administrator of this forum I cannot take the chance of putting our visitors at risk.
Need help ASAP, not tech savy what’s so ever but I have used the recommended scripts to put into Terminal and did all the workarounds on the forum. All it does for me is open up Audacity with no pop up window with permission to access microphone. I have MacOS 10.15 updated, and I have the newest version of Audacity. In my system preferences, Audacity already has permission to use microphone also. Everything is up to date. I can upload audio files I just can’t record with my microphone. I really need help.
For me, the pop-up appeared when I clicked the record button for the first time. After that, I still need to launch Audacity from a Terminal window, but there’s no more prompting for access to the microphone (the Terminal acquired access to the microphone the first time), and Audacity can record.
There are of course other reasons why Audacity might not be able to record. The “Terminal” workaround only solves the microphone permissions problem, not “all possible recording problems”.
