Label track failure

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I cannot type anything into the Label track.
It is surrounded by the yellow border but nothing I type appears in it.
What I do type seems to be translated as a short cut on the main menu. For example if I type “P” it tries to pause the playback; if I type a capital T it tries to enter Timer recording mode.

I have not used Audacity for some time and I have never had this problem before. Even if I reload a file from that time, although I can select the label track I cannot modify or add to it in anyway.

DaveW20

2

Which version of Audacity? (look in “Help menu > About Audacity”)

3

Perhaps you first need to create a label (eg., with Ctrl-B or Ctrl-M). See here: Creating and selecting Labels

4

A strange thing!
When I started using Audacity again last week I made sure I downloaded the latest version (3.0.4).
I then copied some audio files which I had downloaded (legitimately) from the internet and did some processing to link some sections together.
Now, when I look at the version that this file has I see it is 2.3.3.
None of my existing files open with this version - they all open with 3.0.4.

5

Yes, the project format changed after Audacity 2.4.2.
The 3.x series of Audacity uses a single “AUP3” project file format, whereas the 2.x series had an “AUP” file plus a “_data” folder.

Also, the default version of Audacity 3.0.4 is a 64-bit app (a 32-bit version is available for anyone still using 32-bit Windows).

I’d recommend that you uninstall Audacity 2.3.3, then run the 3.0.4 installer again - during the reinstallation of Audacity 3.0.4, look out for the option to “Reset Preferences” and select it. Resetting preferences this way will give you a clean installation of Audacity 3.0.4.

6

Thanks Steve & jademan.
All is now well and I will unistall the old version as Steve suggests.
Thanks jademan - As soon as I read your answer I remembered Control B.
I fact the reason I was pressing various keys was because I thought I needed to do something!
I also looked at the manual but it does not mention this requirement - it simply says “When a label track has the yellow focus border you can create a label just by typing”.

7

That’s correct if (and only if) “Type to create a label” is enabled in Preferences (see: Tracks Behaviors Preferences - Audacity Manual)

(I’ve reported the error in the manual)

8

And I’ve just fixed that in the alpha Manual for the upcoming 3.1.0 release:
https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Tracks_Menu:_Add_New#label_track

And I also fixed this related page:
https://alphamanual.audacityteam.org/man/Label_Tracks#Creating_and_selecting_Labels

The default for “Type to create a label” used to be “on” - but a while back that was changed to off - and we (I that is) forgot to change the relevant parts of the Manual, sorry for the confusion. :blush:

Peter.