Audacity

I had no idea that microphone recording was an issue in Audacity 2.3.3 running under Catalina. My workflows never involve using Audacity to record audio, but rather to edit audio exported from Logic. Those features work very in Catalina and do not require any unusual steps to launch the app.

Now I have just checked the workaround for Catalina that is posted on the Audacity website and can confirm that yes, launching Audacity via the Terminal app does re-enable the microphone recording. It's an odd workaround, but if you do it once, the command is stored in the Terminal history and recall is just a couple keystrokes away–unless you use Terminal a lot.

So, back to your original question – Audacity 2.3.3 does work under Catalina. The download for it can be found at AudacityTeam. Recording from within Audacity using the microphone or external USB device does require the app be launched via Terminal – a workaround described by the publisher on their website – but they appear to be working to remedy that in a future update.

Follow up:

@ReluctantToChange has just posted this workaround here in the Community.

It describes an AppleScript to launch Audacity and grant persistent microphone permissions.

It's very nice!

Q: Merely a comment - Apple Community

😎👍🏽

Hello, WKR13.

I use Audacity on Catalina. Version 2.3.3 works fine.

MacOS 10.15 (Catalina) does not support Audacity 2.3.2

If that workaround does not work for you, then consider participating in the Audacity Help Forum.

One potential solution from it: How to put Audacity in your dock and use microphone in 10.15 Catalina

"...the next Audacity release will be officially supported by Catalina."

Try here:

Audacity Team https://www.audacityteam.org/

That is also what is shown by Roaring Apps - App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps. However, I have had no problems loading Audacity 2.3.3 on my Catalina system. I don't know much beyond that because I have nothing to load and edit.

Vegan Advocate wrote:

I have not been able to get audacity working on my macbook with Catalina so I have to use it on a PC

Hopefully somebody can fix the problem so that Apple users have more choices

That's interesting to me because I have Audacity 2.3.3 installed on two Catalina machines, a 27" 2013 iMac and a 2012 15" MacBook Pro and it works equally well on both. As I did mention above I usually work with exported/imported audio files so was unaware there was a problem with the recording features, and I was able to use those functions after starting the app with the Terminal workaround provided on the Audacity website. I suppose that's just like many of the issues folks come here to address – things work for some, but break for others.

Good luck to all. 🙂

This is a question you should ask the developers of Audacity. The app was last updated 11/2019. Therefore, it should be compatible with Catalina. See App Compatibility Table - RoaringApps.

WKR13 wrote:

I used to use it to normalize GarageBand files and wanted to again not a huge deal I am sure an update or time🤣 will work it out. Thank you for your reply.

I use GarageBand as well, which is why I was frustrated that Audacity does not work

John, the current version of Audacity is now 2.3.3. It was last updated 11/2019 as I posted earlier.

I have not been able to get audacity working on my macbook with Catalina so I have to use it on a PC

Hopefully somebody can fix the problem so that Apple users have more choices