Resetting Audacity

These instructions assume there is a standard installation of Audacity on macOS.

This is covered in the manual, but a lot of people seem to have trouble, thanks to macOS hiding folders, so here are detailed step by step instructions to:
Reset Audacity to factory defaults

  1. Ensure that Audacity is completely shut down (reboot the computer if necessary, but ensure that Audacity is totally closed)
  2. Select and copy this next line to your clipboard (Command + C):
    ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
  3. Open “Finder”
  4. Click on the “Go” menu, and choose “Go to Folder”
  5. Right click and “Paste” (or Command + V)
  6. Delete these three files:
  • audacity.cfg
    • pluginregistry.cfg
    • pluginsettings.cfg
  1. Launch Audacity

You should then see the “Welcome” screen when Audacity opens.

In Audacity 2.4.2 there is now a new command to reset your Audacity settings

Tools > Reset Configuration

See this page in the Manual for details: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/reset_configuration.html