Audacity Forum

Version 2.3.1 and Mac OS 10.14.6.

I have not been able to start Audacity recently because it tells me I have another copy running. I don't, at least according to Activity Monitor, and now I have done a shutdown and safe reboot. Audacity says "the system has detected that another copy of Audacity running." What system?

Updating to Audacity 2.4.2 should fix the problem: https://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac/

Does this require MacOS 10.15?

arlie wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 29, 2020 1:41 pm

Does this require MacOS 10.15?

(https://www.audacityteam.org/download/mac/#sysreq)
Audacity 2.4.2 is for Intel Macs running macOS 10.15 Catalina, 10.14 Mojave and 10.13 High Sierra.

Thanks. I have installed 2.4.2 and things seem to be working properly. (I have had MacOS settings problems related to a recent thunderstorm, so it's been a busy couple of days. )

I'm still curious as to what caused the message that I had another copy of Audacity running, when I tried to start Audacity with 2.3.1.

arlie wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 29, 2020 10:43 pm

I'm still curious as to what caused the message that I had another copy of Audacity running, when I tried to start Audacity with 2.3.1.

Previous versions of Audacity used a "lock file" to ensure that only one instance of Audacity would run at a time. (If there are multiple instances, it can cause problems due to the possibility of both versions attempting to access the same resource at the same time).
If the old version was not shut down properly (which can happen very easily on macOS), then the lock file is left behind and prevent Audacity from launching.

Audacity now uses a different method to detect if Audacity is already running. The new method is more reliable and does not depend on a lock file.

That sounds like a permanent cure for lock file problems! But as for how I got in that situation in the first place, I had already survived many shutdowns on the Mac without encountering this message. But it has dawned on me that I did something different just recently, which was to request recovery of Audacity files when prompted. I have always answered "no" to this prompt, but was curious if recovery would work. So . . . could be a glitch in the recovery process -- or, could be useless information.

arlie wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 30, 2020 2:11 pm

I did something different just recently, which was to request recovery of Audacity files when prompted.

I doubt that is related. I use project recovery very frequently while testing, and I've not observed any connection. Either way, there is no longer a lock file to be left behind.