Audacity conflict with Firefox (?)

I am having periodic issues with Audacity (current version 3.1.3) in that suddenly any clicks on the menu or to minimise it/close it switches the screen to the browser (Firefox) and subsequently crashes it with no tab recovery options.

I must say, I don’t know whether this is potentially a Windows 10 issue.

I have had this issue for the past two years (since I got a new PC with Windows 10) with multiple applications getting a crosswire of the clicks commands, closing and opening other applications at random, with the only solution being to close all apps through the Task Manager or restart the PC.

I had an old version of MS Office (2010) so I thought that perhaps this was causing problems, but have recently updated it to 2019 so my excel and outlook are no longer involved in those boots of chaos - there used to be the Outlook, Excel, browser and Audacity that were mainly affected (but other apps were being open and shut as well).

It was as if the computer has completely lost its mind, opening and shutting the apps at random with any clicks within them.

Now, it’s just the browser and Audacity.

Has anyone come across this issues and is it Audacity related?

thanks
Anna

I can’t say that I’ve heard of this before. And I can’t think of how this could happen. Are you getting Audacity from Audacity ® | Downloads?

Also, if you are reinstalling, I would be sure to first remove/uninstall all existing installations of Audacity, as well as any related shortcuts you may have on your desktop or elsewhere.

If this were still happening, I would vote for a complete fresh install of your operating system; Do you think you could have a virus?

no, no virus,

But I still have Audacity 2.4.2 on my PC.

If I uninstall it - will I be able to open my previous files created on that version with the current version?

Reinstalling Windows 10 will be a nightmare which will take 2 weeks to sort out - so that is out of the question.

You never know for sure…

Yes, and they will be converted to (copied to) Audacity 3.0 projects. However, if you wish to extra safe, you can still find 2.4.2 here: Old Audacity versions download

Been there, done that. :wink:

Another thing to try is Shift-Shutdown.

no, no virus

Did you do the thorough virus scan that takes all night? Not just the tiny one that works in the background?

Disconnect the network and/or WiFi and Clean Shutdown the machine. Shift+Shutdown, not regular shutdown and not restart. Wait and Start. Does it still misbehave or does the machine act funny in some other way?

Audacity doesn’t much like External, Network, and Cloud Drives. That, over and above having network users on your machine in addition to you.

This is basic troubleshooting. Keep reducing the machine complexity until it starts working. Pay attention if the machine behavior changes but doesn’t get better. In particular pay attention if you change something unimportant and the machine collapses.

Koz

yes I did a complete virus scan which took several hours overnight, including my external backup drive.

i don’t use WIFI only the Ethernet.

I’m the only user of my computer. I’m not connected to any cloud drive or any external connection or storage. I never save anything in “the cloud”. My back up drive is locally connected to my computer.

I’m obsessed with my privacy and security (you could say), I don’t even sign in to my Microsoft account when using Windows or MC Office. I have a local Windows profile and have only desktop versions of MS Office which I can use fully without being signed in. I don’t sign in to any apps just because the developers want me to so that they can collect my usage data. I don’t allow remote access to my computer for troubleshooting to anyone whether they claim to be Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Logitech or Archangel Michael.

I was having those incidents quite regularly. In the past few weeks I replaced the mouse (to MX3), the keyboard (to MX Keys), and my very old MS Office 2010 to MS Home and Business 2019. The last change has excluded Excel and Outlook from that schizophrenic behavior, as the last time it affected only the browser and Audacity. So that’s some improvement.

Since I’ve never had this issue before Windows 10, this points to some strange conflict of Windows 10 with some apps. As I update the peripherals and apps this seems to minimise the impact.

I have just uninstalled the old Audacity 2 I still had on my PC. When is the next update coming out?

If all this fails, I will wait until I decide to install Windows 11, as re-installing Windows 10 is out of the question.

3.2.0 was originally scheduled for 2nd quarter, but that has obviously(?) been pushed back to 3rd quarter, and possibly beyond.

As koz has been saying, during a shutdown Windows does a “hybrid” hibernate. It is probable that a Windows Update does a full shutdown, but even so, it is worthwhile holding down the shift key when doing a Power-down shutdown at least occasionally.

I have just uninstalled the old Audacity 2 I still had on my PC. When is the next update coming out?

3.2.0 > was originally scheduled for 2nd quarter, but that has obviously(?) been pushed back to 3rd quarter, and possibly beyond.

I was talking about the main version 2 - meaning 2.4.1 or whatever it was.

I still had it on my PC.

but yes, thanks for the update re 3.2.0.

sorry I misread your reply,