Bugzilla – Bug 2626
Mac: Temporary files directory on exFAT makes Audacity fail at launch
Last modified: 2021-01-11 06:43:55 UTC
On Mac placing Temporary files directory on an exFAT formatted drive makes Audacity fail at launch. Audacity allows you to set the Temporary files directory on exFAT in Directories prefs - but when you close and relaunch Audacity to activate used of the related temp files Audacity fails on launch with the following error message: >Audacity Startup Failure >An unrecoverable error has occurred >during startup This occurs on 2.4.2 and remains on alpha 3.0.0 and was originally reported by Forun user Jarome: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=114990&p=413517
Note carefully that the error message does not tell the user what the actual problem them is, nor is there a "?" help button - so this may well leave them mystified as to how to solve it. Luckily user Jarome was smart enough to figure out what the problem was and suitably re-formatted the USB drive to MacOS Journaled - which worked.
The problem is the use of the Unix domain socket for preventing more than 1 Audacity running at a time. I (briefly) described a solution in http://bugzilla.audacityteam.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2052#c26. It’s the “second solution”, but also look at comment 27. This would get rid of the Unix domain socket altogether and we wouldn’t have any exFAT/FAT/FAT32/Network drive issues related to startup any longer. However, it will take me a few days to remember what I was planning back then and then implement it.
Fixed in: https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/c961d62 This is a "major" redo of the single instance checking at startup on macOS and Linux. Good news is that there is no longer any special files used, so storing the temporary directory on exFAT (or network drives) should no longer be an issue. To test, try starting Audacity and then try starting it again. Try doing "Open With" while already active or not. Try exiting all instances and try starting Audacity again. Basically, any combinations you can think of.
(In reply to Leland Lucius from comment #3) Testing on macOS 11.1 Big Sur with Audacity 3.0.0 60ebe79 This now works properly as intended. 1) I can reset the Temporary Files to be on my exFAT USB clip 2) On relaunch, Audacity Launches properly 3) Temporary files are created on the exFAT USB stick 4) I can record to the USB stick and it works fine (no dropouts) 5) applying effects is pretty snappy 6) Open with - while project is open - also creates a set of temp files on the USB stick 7) I can save the temp projects to the USB stick whereupon Audacity cleans up the temp files properly This is my most modern fastest USB stick - the response at Step 5 shows I was wrong previously to seek to have exFAT excluded for temp files and project use. This now works properly on Mac. -------------------------------------------------------------- But in the process of testing on W10 I stumbled on a Windows-only residual which I will log separately.
(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #4) >But in the process of testing on W10 I stumbled on a Windows-only residual >which I will log separately. Logged as P1 Bug #2627 Win: FAT/FAT32 used after exFAT for Temporary files wrongly work
