Audacity is a popular open-source audio recording application that works in all the well-known platforms such as Windows, Linux and macOS. Using this small and easy-to-use program, we can record audio stream coming from a microphone, a mixer application, or line-in. It is a great program for digitizing your old audio tapes and vinyls. You can also edit an existing audio file and add effects to it using Audacity. It provides import and export functions for all the common audio file formats such as MP3, WAV, OGG and even MIDI.
Why we need to reset Audacity configuration?
Sometimes when we are working with Audacity, we make some changes to suit an audio recording session. But later on we do not require those settings anymore and want to use Audacity as usual. Earlier Audacity users did not have many official options for resetting the program configuration. We has two choices – either manually remove all the changes or delete all the configuration files. But starting with version 2.4.2 of Audacity, we now have a reset function built inside the program.
How to reset Audacity configuration?
In order to reset Audacity back to factory settings, you can simply launch Audacity and then select Tools from the menubar and then Reset Configuration. This will instantly reset Audacity and reload the factory defaults. You do not have to relaunch Audacity. It places a file resetPrefs.txt in the Audacity folder that has no purpose but to indicate that Audacity configuration has been reset to default factory values. It does not save any backup of your configuration and there is no going back after you have reset the configuration.
What is not reset through this feature?
Even though the above method pretty much restores everything back to the factory defaults, care is taken not to mess with the user presets for any Effect, Generator and Analyzer. Similarly, it does not remove any created macros and any added plugins. The recently opened files list available from the File menu is also left untouched.