reverse out of control

[Xerlome]

Audacity 2,1,1
Windows 7
Firefox 51.0.1

I am not aware of anything I did, and I didn't touch the reverse option. While I was working on a project, open files in Audacity started to reverse upon clicking the graphic. Everywhere i clicked, would start play at that point, and often loop back for segments. If I tried to reverse a file from reverse, it might play correctly, but from right to left. The more I messed with it, the more confused it got. I had not saved projects, but I could not correct them to save. I also noticed that sometimes the play arrow had a gap. I was sure it was a virus, but a long scan showed "no threats". I eventually had to exit and shut down. When I rebooted, functions were back to normal. What should I do if this happens again?

[Trebor]

Everywhere i clicked, would start play at that point ...

That's "Quick-play" feature rather than a bug : if you click on the time-line the track immediately plays from that point ...

Demo of 'Quick-play' feature.gif (1.01 MiB) Viewed 384 times

... I also noticed that sometimes the play arrow had a gap ...

That's another feature, activated by pressing the "Ctrl" key ...

Pressing ''Ctrl' key causes play triangle to split.gif (93.44 KiB) Viewed 382 times

The gap in the arrow represents skipping a selected part of the track on playback.

[Xerlome]

Thanks. But how do I stop that? And why did it reverse, and how do I correct that when it happens? It wouldn't undo, and reversing again only made it play forward from the right.

[Trebor]

why did it reverse...

You must have pressed the "Ctrl" key whilst playing, that can make it play in reverse, depending on where the cursor is ...

Pressing ''Ctrl' causes playback to follow cursor, (inc backwards).gif (315.73 KiB) Viewed 372 times

how do I correct that when it happens? It wouldn't undo ...

Just press the on-screen stop button, (the orange square).

[Xerlome]

how do I correct that when it happens? It wouldn't undo ...

Just press the on-screen stop button, (the orange square).

That didn't work. I didn't mean stop a single play of the reverse, i meant stop it from continuing to happen whenever I play, once I've already goofed up and hit the ctrl.

[Xerlome]

[Previous post one: I am not aware of anything I did, and I didn't touch the reverse option. While I was working on a project, open files in Audacity started to reverse upon clicking the graphic. Everywhere i clicked, would start play at that point, and often loop back for segments. If I tried to reverse a file from reverse, it might play correctly, but from right to left. The more I messed with it, the more confused it got. I had not saved projects, but I could not correct them to save. I also noticed that sometimes the play arrow had a gap. I was sure it was a virus, but a long scan showed "no threats". I eventually had to exit and shut down. When I rebooted, functions were back to normal. What should I do if this happens again?]

[...Dialog omitted...]

Oh, I ought to mention that it wasn't only one Audacity window. I had maybe seven up, all only seconds or a few minutes, and they all behaved the same. I would go to another window and click the graphic, and the loopy reverse kicks in. Most other buttons didn't work or misfunctiond as well. but I could x out or delete. Kind of an interesting bias there, any other action took me deeper into the mire. In any case, I was forced to comply, seemed my best or only option, considering I was also no longer able to sign in to this forum, nor even activate login, until after I dumped everything and shut down, and rebooted. Since then, everything has seemed fine, but I'm still suspicious. Sorry, I probably should have explained it all at the beginning, I thought it might be something simple.

[steve]

Are you using a wireless keyboard?

[Xerlome]

I use no wireless at all. I-m up on the scientific studies that show wi-fi is extremely harmful to health.

A specific question for me is how a project that is playing forward right to left
can be changed to forward left to right.

[steve]

I think you must have inadvertently enabled "scrub play".
See: http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/scru ... eking.html

[Trebor]

... I-m up on the scientific studies that show wi-fi is extremely harmful to health.

World Health Organization wrote:
" Scientific evidence on the distribution of cancer in the population can be obtained through carefully planned and executed epidemiological studies. Over the past 15 years, studies examining a potential relationship between RF transmitters and cancer have been published. These studies have not provided evidence that RF exposure from the transmitters increases the risk of cancer. Likewise, long-term animal studies have not established an increased risk of cancer from exposure to RF fields, even at levels that are much higher than produced by base stations and wireless networks."

http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs304/en/