Unwanted Audacity update from 2.4.2 to 3.7

For almost a month now I have been dealing with an issue where Audacity 2.4.2 automatically updates to the latest version without my knowledge. I have used Audacity for almost 3 years and have never had this issue. Before I made this post, I looked at solutions on this forum and on the web (e.g. two versions installed in different locations) but it doesn’t do anything and Audacity STILL updates. From what I know Audacity 2.4.2 doesn’t even have auto-update capability.

I would appreciate some help, this is delaying some creative projects I am working on :slight_smile:

Since there is really no auto-update function in Audacity, I think you or someone else with access to your computer has agreed to the installation of the new version.

If you don’t want to grant others the right to install software, you should not give administrative access to these users.

That is correct. Audacity 2.4.2 can’t access the Internet at all. The most it can do regarding the Internet is to display a link, such as this link: https://www.audacityteam.org/

I joined this forum just now looking for the same answer and am a bit skeptical of that notion.

I downloaded Audacity in like 2015 and have NEVER updated it. Never needed to, never wanted to. Everything I used it for worked just fine.

Restarted my computer the other day and when it came back on, the Audacity desktop icon had changed. Lo and behold, its the newest version that I absolutely did not want, nor ever went out of my way to download, look up, or even think about.

I’m the only user on this computer, and never got any popup or notification or anything. So I’m kind of at a loss as to how it just “happened” if Audacity can’t access the internet?

You may have installed some “security software” which makes sure you always have the latest version of an application? Or your operating system offers this? Or you are in an organization where an administrator is distributing version updates? Or you have granted access to a support person via TeamViewer (or a similar method) and (s)he downloaded/installed the new version while you did not watch waht (s)he was doing?

There may be even more possibilities - this is what I think are the most common ones.

I am not in a workplace, this is my personal home computer. I live by myself and nobody else has access, in-person or remotely, to this PC.

Perhaps something else on my PC forced the auto-update for Audacity, which if that’s the case means I’m barking up the wrong tree, but if that’s the case I’m not quite sure why it waited 9 years to decide to update it.

Could “musehub” be the explanation for why some users of old versions of Audacity are unexpectedly seeing Audacity updated? (I cannot access musehub as I’m on Linux, and musehub is only available for Windows and macOS).

See the points 1 and 2 in my answer - “security” software, or operating system issues.

@steve: I doubt that something which is not installed (musehub did not exist in version 2.4.2, I think) could force an update. But then: you never know…

I was wondering the same, but then:

  1. Musehub doesn’t auto-update (though it does offer one-click updates)
  2. If you’re on 2.4.2, why would you have musehub installed? Where would it have come from?

I’m grasping at straws here as I really have no idea why we are seeing multiple people reporting this issue. My conjecture was that maybe some people saw musehub advertised, and out of curiosity they installed it (I’m not even sure if musehub is something that can be installed), and that the current version of Audacity was installed along with musehub. Is that a possibility?