Will not record-probably a setting I've hit, but I can't get it back to default

[Trebor]

@Q102

When I try to record, the green triangle at the far left turns red and there is a similar red triangle at the start point of the timeline that indicates some kind of loop

Could be you are using WASAPI as the Audio host:
it will not start recording until it hears some sound

Audacity stops recording during silence [SOLVED]

This is a “feature” of Microsoft’s WASAPI host it only records when there is an active signal. when there is no active signal recording pauses and will restart once an active signal resumes. It is not an Audacity issue, it’s not something we can do anything about. This page in the Audacity Manual talks a bit about this (I will try to make it clerarer for the Manual for the next release) https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_recording_computer_playback_on_windows.html Peter.