"The application "Audacity" can't be opened" OS X 10.11.2

Audacity Help Forum macOS
1

Hello,

I am using OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 and just downloaded Audacity version 2.1.1 from this location: http://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html/audacity-macosx-ub-2.1.1.dmg

I followed the install instructions, ie don’t run from the DMG etc but when I launch the application, the error “The application “Audacity” can’t be opened” appears immediately.

The console output is as follows:

16/01/2016 4:40:22.254 PM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpc.launchd.oneshot.0x10000022.Audacity.sh[1885]) Could not find and/or execute program specified by service: 2: No such file or directory: /Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity.sh

16/01/2016 4:40:22.254 PM Dock[255]: spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=111 label=[0x0-0x8f08f].net.sourceforge.audacity path=/Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity.sh flags=1 : LaunchApplicationClient.cp #963 LaunchApplicationWithSpawnViaLaunchD() q=com.apple.root.user-initiated-qos

16/01/2016 4:40:22.254 PM Dock[255]: spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=111 label=[0x0-0x8f08f].net.sourceforge.audacity path=/Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity.sh flags=1

I did have a previous version installed prior to this one, 2.0.3 I think. Not sure it that has something to do with this?

Have tried removing and reinstalling a few times but cannot get it working at all. Any ideas?

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Have you tried opening Finder, use Go > Go to Folder and type:

~/Library/Application Support/audacity/

Then in that “audacity” folder, delete the “audacity.cfg” settings file.

If that does not help, try trashing the folder 2.1.1 is in, then install “2.1.2 RC3 (for testing)” from near the top of http://www.fosshub.com/Audacity.html/.


Gale

3

I’m running 10.11.2 here as well, and Audacity installed and runs fine… which I know is no help, so I looked in the directory your error log points to.
/Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS

and all that is in there is the binary file itself.
-rwxr-xr-x@ 1 robert admin 40067704 11 Jul 2015 Audacity
So it is
/Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app/Contents/MacOS/Audacity


Moreover,
~/Library/Application Support/audacity
on mine doesn’t contain an audacity.cfg file at all? In fact, on first install, there was no ‘audacity’ directory in the Library… directory
I actually had to create the audacity directory by hand so I could install the ffmpeg plugin.


I’d be surprised if Audacity started from a .sh file ? So something may well be left over from your last (old) install…

4

If Audacity could not launch and you had not used Audacity before, then audacity.cfg might not get created. But as rockford.j.fender said, he has used 2.0.3 before so he will have an audacity.cfg file.

And you (rachalmers) will have an audacity.cfg in ~/Library/Application Support/audacity - unless you have created a “Portable Settings” folder in the folder Audacity runs from.

The Audacity target used to be a shell script, to aid detection of LAME and FFmpeg: https://code.google.com/p/audacity/source/browse/audacity-src/trunk/mac/Audacity.sh?spec=svn10954&r=10954.

Audacity no longer uses that script, but probably because of an old entry in audacity.cfg, Audacity 2.1.1 is looking in vain for it.

Therefore the solution is to trash or edit audacity.cfg as per https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/fix-for-audacity-2-1-1-not-launching/39157/1 or use 2.1.2 which has a fix that makes trashing or editing audacity.cfg un-necessary.


Gale