No audio/playback (imported music)

[teekay]

I've imported an mp3 file but when i click play, nothing happens. There's no sound and the 'cursor/line' thing doesn't move. I've checked my preferences and made sure the devices/sound cards are the same ones displayed in my control panel (SB Live! Wave Device). Help?
Cheers.

[kozikowski]

<<<I've imported an mp3 file >>>

Probably not. Since Audacity knows what MP3 files are, you probably have Something Else. You can Inspect your file by right-click > Properties > Additional Info or Sound Format.

Windows also "helps you" by hiding the filename extension. You see "Music" and assume it's really "Music.mp3," and it turns out to really be "Music.m4a" or "Music AAC" completely different digital music types.

You can change Windows to allow you to see those extra letters.

Koz

[teekay]

I thought it might've been the wrong format as well but i checked and it's definitely an mp3 file.

[steve]

Does Audacity work with other MP3 files?

[teekay]

It didn't work before [with other mp3s]. But then i just tried playing the file again and it works fine. I minimised it to do some other things, then i open it again and once again, there's no music! It's very odd...

[steve]

I minimised it to do some other things,

You should not really be doing "other things" on the computer while running audio processing (or video editing) applications. Working with audio / video can be very demanding on computer resources so, to avoid strange problems, it is best to close all other applications while working with sound or video.

OK, so sometimes you can run other programs at the same time, but performance is likely to be reduced, and if you have problems there is no way of knowing what is causing the problem.