Macros crash in background

Audacity 2.3.0 under macOS 10.14.3.
While running any macro (formerly called “chains”), Audacity crashes if it’s in the background while transitioning between tasks. 100% reproducible for me—start a macro, click on the desktop or any other window, crash as soon as a progress bar finishes.
Not sure what to do with the debug reports it generated.

Go to the hidden folder “~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Macros/” (where “~/” means your home directory), and copy the Macro file that is crashing (it’s a “.txt” file with the same name as the macro).
Upload the Macro file with your reply (see: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/how-to-attach-files-to-forum-posts/24026/1)

It’s not any particular macro, though. It’s every multi-step macro I have, between any two steps where Audacity is not the foreground app at that instant. (As long as I do nothing but stare at Audacity and make sure the screensaver doesn’t kick on, no macro ever crashes.) But I’ll do some experimenting later to confirm that it’s not macro-specific.

I can confirm this with Audacity 2.3.0 on macOS 10.13.4. I get a hang, not a crash, so I can’t get a useful crash report.
– Bill

Is this related to the problems that folks have had with Timer Record when the Audacity window goes off screen or the Mac goes to sleep?

Peter.

This happens with 2.3.0 in MacOS 10.13.6, but not with the latest 64bit Audacity 2.3.1 alpha build.

Where would one be able to download the alpha build? Or is it too unstable for normal use?

There should be a “release candidate” available very soon. It will be announced in the “Announcements” section at the top of this page: macOS - Audacity Forum and on our social media (links at the top of each forum page).