I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to the latest version of Audacity, losing the time shift function in the process.
While the use of the track upper band to move left and right is okay on a gross scale, there are two problems as compared to the prior version:
It is far more difficult to micro align tracks using this method and,
It is far too easy to mistakenly shift tracks when moving your cursor around. Frequently you are unaware that you have done this until you start a playback and notice that some tracks or sections are out of alignment. If you have saved your work in the meantime, you have no choice but to work through micro alignment track by track.
I presume there is a way to turn this feature on and off, but what a hassle compared to how easy it was before.
I don’t see that. Can you explain why you are finding it more difficult?
Moving the cursor around does not move tracks unless you click and drag.
I can see that it could be a problem if you use a touch pad rather than a mouse, but there’s lots of things in Audacity that are harder with a touchpad than a mouse. If this is the problem, I would highly recommend getting a mouse.
No. The time shift tool is probably gone forever. The person in charge of design sees the new way of moving clips as a “major quality of life improvement”.
Personally I preferred having a separate Timeshift tool (one tool for one task), though there have been numerous comments from users that prefer the combined “selection / time shift / clip resize” with one tool.
On the other hand, and as you note here, if you want the latest bug fixes, you have to update.
Personally I like to thoroughly test updated software before using it for anything important. If I’m in the middle of a big project, I’ll defer updating until I’ve finished the project.
Note that most old versions of Audacity are available on FossHub if you need to revert to an older version for any reason (Old Audacity versions download)