Audacity Preferences

Accessing Preferences in the program

 * Windows and Linux:       Shortcut:
 * Mac OS X:       Shortcut:

Preferences persist by default after uninstall or reinstall
Although users normally change preferences in the program itself, the actual settings are stored outside the directory containing the Audacity program, in the locations described below. These settings remain by default, even after uninstalling or reinstalling Audacity. This allows users upgrading from a previous Audacity version to retain their old preferences in many cases.

First run
If you have ever run a 1.2.x or earlier version of Audacity on your machine, Audacity will use the settings for that previous version if there is an equivalent setting in current Audacity. This makes it possible for example not to have to relocate the LAME MP3 encoder that you used previously. If you change a setting in current Audacity that change will apply going forward, even if the setting was imported from a previous Audacity version.

Navigating Preferences
Use the up and down arrow on your keyboard to navigate the tabs on the left. Use TAB to move into the fields for the selected tab, then TAB again to move forwards through the fields or SHIFT + TAB to move backwards. When TAB or SHIFT + TAB reaches the last or first field respectively, a further press returns you to the Preferences tabs.



Where are Preferences stored?
In current, Audacity Preferences are stored in a configuration file called audacity.cfg in the Audacity settings folder. The configuration file can be edited with any text editor. The Audacity settings folder is located at:


 * Windows 98/ME:
 * Windows 2000/XP:
 * Windows Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8:
 * OS X:
 * Linux:

Portable Settings
If you create a directory called "Portable Settings" in the same directory as the Audacity executable, "audacity.cfg" will be stored there instead. This makes it easy transfer Audacity to another computer (for example on a USB stick) while retaining your personalised settings.

Resetting Preferences to defaults
Resetting preferences to factory defaults by editing audacity.cfg can sometimes fix freezes, crashes or unexplained behavior. The above three steps will reset Audacity Preferences in all cases. If you still use (or have ever used) Audacity 1.2, this will not affect your 1.2 Preferences.
 * 1) Exit Audacity.
 * 2) Open audacity.cfg in a text editor such as Notepad and remove all the content except the line NewPrefsInitialized=1.
 * 3) Save the changes to audacity.cfg and restart Audacity.

Reset Preferences using Windows installer
Windows users may alternatively run the .exe installer from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows which has an option to reset preferences.
 * To reset preferences, navigate to the "Select Additional Tasks" screen then put a check mark in the "Reset Preferences" box. After completing installation, launching Audacity will display a dialog where you can confirm if you want to reset preferences this once, or not.
 * If you run the installer but do not choose "Reset Preferences", the installation files will be replaced with correct copies just as when choosing to reset preferences, but the Audacity settings will remain as before. This is unlikely to correct most Audacity problems.

Deleting audacity.cfg
Merely exiting Audacity and deleting audacity.cfg will not completely reset Preferences in Audacity versions after 1.2 if you have ever previously used a 1.2 version. Any 1.2 Preferences which still apply to your current Audacity version will revert to their current 1.2 settings, which may not solve any problems you were trying to fix.

Another less recommended way to completely reset Preferences on a machine which has previously run 1.2 is to delete the old 1.2 settings file as well as audacity.cfg. The 1.2 settings are stored in:
 * Windows: Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Audacity\
 * Mac OS X: the file "Users/ /Library/Preferences/audacity Preferences"
 * GNU/Linux: the file ~/.audacity.