Issues Editing Label

I am using the latest Audacity update (3.2.1) on my mac (using the latest Ventura 13.0.1 update). When adding/editing a label, I have to click on the text box, which I didn’t have to do before. Not a big deal. However, what’s really annoying is that I can only get one letter in (sometimes none) before it beeps at me and I have to click the text box again, then wait a couple seconds before it will let me type in the rest of the label. Sometimes after typing one letter it prompts other functions to pop up that I’m not trying to use.

Best case scenario, it’s very annoying and certainly slows what used to be a very quick process of adding labels.

Worst case scenario just happened: I added a label, typed my first letter, and it made the entire recording from that point on disappear. There’s no option for me to undo any action in the Edit tab like there normally would be, so I don’t even know what happened. Extremely frustrating after spending about 2 hours of recording and editing up to that point. Not sure I want to start over and try again with the likelihood that something similar will happen.

Are these common problems, and are there solutions?

This is a known issue.

To avoid this when creating a new label, go to Audacity > Preferences > Tracks Behaviors and check “Use dialog for the name of a new label”.

When editing a label:

  • click in the label
  • type the first character
  • click in the label again
    You should now be able to edit the label normally.

Or you could right-click in the label and choose “Edit label”.

The problem is that the label (in fact, the entire project window) is losing keyboard focus, so when you type a character that is also a command (such as space-bar to play, “r” to record) the command is executed instead of the character being typed.

See also: https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/misbehaving-on-ventura/65879/1

– Bill

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