Help please, all you experts! I updated my laptop to macOS Monterey a few days ago, and now all my Audacity tracks are suddenly corrupting as I am working on them, adding new white spikes top and bottom and garbling previously crystal clear voices. I’ve had to start over twice on the same one track today, but no luck. I can’t dis-install Monterey without risking a lot. So, please you all, any advice on what to do? Thanks!
What version of Audacity are you using?
What laptop?
Is the damage happening during recording, or during editing?
What interface are you using for recording?
You are so kind to respond. Thank you. This is happening when I am editing the recorded audio track. I will be going along just fine, but then suddenly the file becomes corrupted with white spikes top and bottom, as well as audio distortions that weren’t there 5 seconds before. I was using an older, free version of Audacity. I have now updated my Audacity software to 3.2.5 and will try once again today, using the backup track as my source track. This all started happening after I updated my macOS to Monterey 12.7.6 two days ago. The laptop itself is a 2016 MacBook Pro, which has been running excellently this whole time. Even with the Monterey update and all my audio tracks, I still have nearly 40 gb of space left. Again, thanks for any help
Audacity is, and always has been, free. If you paid for it you got scammed.
The latest version is 3.7.0 and is available here.
Scroll down and download the installer for your processor - probably Intel given the age of the laptop.
Yes, all the Audacity software I have used is free, including my last update to 3.2.5. I have never paid for Audacity. Yes, my laptop’s processor is Intel. Thank you for the link to 3.7.0.
For anyone who might benefit from my experience – My problem was that I was running Monterey with an updated version of Audacity, updated from 3.2.5 to 3.7. It turns out that my MacBook Pro didn’t like an old Audacity version with grafted new parts on it, so the tracks kept buffering endlessly, and I had to force quit every time, which I did not have to do before Monterey, when I was running 3.2.5 with an earlier MacOS.
Bottom line – I had to back up 200+ audio tracks, then dis-install Audacity, then install a complete new full Audacity 3.7. But now (fingers crossed) the software seems to be working. I am able to edit tracks again.
A word of wisdom to other non-computer-experts like myself – when Audacity itself prompts you to “update” to 3.7, and you do, you’re apparently only getting a grafted set of fixes on the version you already have, not a full new whole version. Download the full version, but back up your files first.
Yeah, well, I spoke too soon. 3.7 is now buffering endlessly, even when I close every other app, including safari. It worked okay the first day, but has been getting worse and worse, even when I save, close, and re-launch, and even when I shut down my laptop and reboot it. Nothing helps. Now I can’t make any new changes to a track at all. Help!
Where are your audio files stored? Audacity does not play well with cloud storage.
This has happened with storage only on my desktop, with storage on my SSD, and in the last 2 days, also storage on iCloud. Same issue.
It all happened the moment I upgraded my OS to Monterey
Here, Audacity (version 3.6.4) works fine with macOS Monterey.
Did the upgrade to Monterrey change the way iCloud works?
To summarize = Audacity 3.2.5 + Big Sur + in-laptop Audacity file storage = perfection
Then 3.2.5 + Monterey + in-laptop Audacity file storage = white spikes top and bottom on tracks + sound corruption
Then Monterey + Audacity 3.7 + in-laptop Audacity file storage = endless buffering, Audacity “not responding,” useless
Then Monterey + 3.7 + iCloud storage = same endless buffering, etc
Then Monterey + 3.2.5 + iCloud storage = same endless buffering, etc
Then Monterey + 3.2.5 + only in laptop Audacity file storage = endless buffering, etc
Bill, I never put the Audacity files onto iCloud until after I installed Monterey. Now, those files are no longer in iCloud, but they still buffer endlessly, etc.
Mac-Christian, man, I wish I were you!
To clarify, my Monterey OS was done as an upgrade to Big Sur, not as a clean install. Given Mac-christian’s success, I’m wondering whether my choices are now: 1) a clean install of Monterey; or 2) a clean install of Big Sur