2.0.2 on Vista - Clicking black merge line crashes Audacity

[TheKMan]

If you record or import then generate silence at zero (as I assume the poster does) or at the end of the track, a split line is produced.

The poster says

Crashing after clicking to remove the black lines occurs mostly after a session has lasted at least one-half to one hour; sometimes longer.

So presumably any number of the effects that the poster listed have been run across that split line (or across the removed split line). Which is it? A crash immediately you remove that split line after generating silence? Or a crash an hour after removing the split line? If so, why do you attribute the crash to the removed split line?

Or are you removing that split line an hour later?


Gale

It's very very very simple: The crashes occur immediately after clicking to remove the black split line.

I can usually click the line to remove it safely for the first 30-45 minutes without a crash. After that, the chances of a crash increase rapidly after clicking black line to remove it. During the sessions, a lot of importing or recording, exporting, and a lot of effects might be used.

Sorry I was not clear in my initial description.

Also, I am very conservative: I don't update unless it's mandatory. If something is already working, why "fix" it?

[steve]

Also, I am very conservative: I don't update unless it's mandatory. If something is already working, why "fix" it?

Well we're unable to reproduce the issue on Audacity 2.0.5, so perhaps that could be a reason to update?
(though there is no guarantee that updating will fix the problem as this issue was never reported for 2.0.2 - and there were around 10 million users of 2.0.2).

[TheKMan]

Also, I am very conservative: I don't update unless it's mandatory. If something is already working, why "fix" it?

Well we're unable to reproduce the issue on Audacity 2.0.5, so perhaps that could be a reason to update?
(though there is no guarantee that updating will fix the problem as this issue was never reported for 2.0.2 - and there were around 10 million users of 2.0.2).

Like I said, I'm a first for a lot of things - something you wouldn't want to be. lol!

[Gale Andrews]

I would suggest you use CTRL + J to to remove the split lines from time to time. By default that will select all the project audio then perform the merge.


Gale

[TheKMan]

I would suggest you use CTRL + J to to remove the split lines from time to time. By default that will select all the project audio then perform the merge.


Gale

I just used it. It's safer, although once it produced a "fadeout" of the Audacity window and a twirling cursor(as though it was going to crash) but it recovered.

BTW I have plenty of memory and it is all visible to Windows.

[piau9000]

Sorry for the necroposting.
I'm having the same issue as the OP.
Sometimes, when you click the merge line after silencing, it crashes. It doesn't hang before crashing like normaly a program do. The crash window appear instantly.
Sometimes it happen, sometimes not. But given that we are having the same issue I think it's a audacity problem. I'm using the 2.0.5. Windows XP.
The reason why it's very hard to detect a bug is because audacity don't have a crash log (at least I don't know where it is), only a start log.

[steve]

Sometimes, when you click the merge line after silencing, it crashes.

Yes this is a known issue and is listed on the Audacity bug tracking system.
The workaround is to use CTRL + J to to remove the split lines. Select across the splits to be removed, then press Ctrl+J. Note that you can "join" multiple splits at the same time using this method.

[Gale Andrews]

Sometimes, when you click the merge line after silencing, it crashes. It doesn't hang before crashing like normaly a program do. The crash window appear instantly.
Sometimes it happen, sometimes not. But given that we are having the same issue I think it's a audacity problem. I'm using the 2.0.5. Windows XP.

The bug listed on our bug tracking scheme depends on joining two tracks above each other into a stereo pair (where one track already has a split line), using "Make Stereo Track".

If you start with an empty project, Generate > Tone and can make the problem happen at least some times using a set of steps, do please let us know what those steps are.

How are you silencing audio? CTRL + L doesn't normally create a split line.

The reason why it's very hard to detect a bug is because audacity don't have a crash log (at least I don't know where it is), only a start log.

Some read and write errors appear in the log, but the log doesn't persist across Audacity sessions. If Audacity crashes or is quit normally, the log is lost.

On Windows it isn't possible to get useful call stack traces unless you run a debug version of Audacity from within Visual Studio.

Please be careful on XP. Your computer is exposed to any hitherto unknown vulnerability that appears and can never be patched for it at the system level given Microsoft no longer officially supports XP.


Gale

[piau9000]

The steps are:
Open a song or start a new project. Go to the beginning of the track. Click some seconds in the track and drag till the beginning (a yellow marker line will a appear). Go to "generate / silence". It will leave a split line. Click the line and sometimes it crashes. It's very rare (it only happened 2 times with me).

It seems that Ctrl+L does indeed generate the silence without leaving the lines so I think I'm gonna use it for now on (I was using "generate / silence").

[Gale Andrews]

The steps are:
Open a song or start a new project. Go to the beginning of the track. Click some seconds in the track and drag till the beginning (a yellow marker line will a appear). Go to "generate / silence". It will leave a split line. Click the line and sometimes it crashes. It's very rare (it only happened 2 times with me).

Thanks, piau9000. If you do find steps to make it happen repeatably then we can look into it. It may be that any imported file will do it if you click at a particular spot (look at Selection Toolbar at the bottom).

Or it may be a particular project does it wherever you click because it already has other split lines or some other reason.


Gale