Resetting Audacity

Audacity 3 Help Forum macOS
1

These instructions assume there is a standard installation of Audacity on macOS.

This is covered in the manual, but a lot of people seem to have trouble, thanks to macOS hiding folders, so here are detailed step by step instructions to:
Reset Audacity to factory defaults

  1. Ensure that Audacity is completely shut down (reboot the computer if necessary, but ensure that Audacity is totally closed)
  2. Select and copy this next line to your clipboard (Command + C):
    ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
  3. Open “Finder”
  4. Click on the “Go” menu, and choose “Go to Folder”
  5. Right click and “Paste” (or Command + V)
  6. Delete these three files:
  • audacity.cfg
    • pluginregistry.cfg
    • pluginsettings.cfg
  1. Launch Audacity

You should then see the “Welcome” screen when Audacity opens.

2

In Audacity 2.4.2 there is now a new command to reset your Audacity settings

Tools > Reset Configuration

See this page in the Manual for details: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/reset_configuration.html

4

Those files don’t seem to be there. Thank You for your help

Screenshot 2025-02-28 at 10.13.13 AM
Screenshot 2025-02-28 at 10.13.13 AM339×198 11 KB

5

Since your image is cut off at both sides, we do not see any reasonable information therein. Also, please explain which files are missing.

But since the last contribution to this discussion is about 5 years old, I don’t think it is at all relevant. Please open a new discussion, with complete incormation about your hard- and software, if you have a problem. We probably can solve it if we have enough information.