# Preferences

From Audacity Development Manual
Preferences let you change most of the default behaviors of Audacity. The Preferences dialog can be accessed using the Edit Menu (or by using the shortcut Ctrl + P). On a Mac, Preferences is under the Audacity Menu ⌘ + ,.

## Contents

- The Preferences dialog
- Where the Preferences are stored
- Upgrading from previous versions or re-installing
- Resetting Preferences
- Portable Settings

## The Preferences dialog

The Preferences dialog is split into sections and sub-sections. The description page for each section (accessed by the links below) shows an image of the default preferences settings for that section.

  Section | What it controls
  --- | ---
  Audio Settings | Choose audio host, playback and recording devices and recording channels. Choose sample rate, sample format also latency.
  Playback | Length of previews for cuts and effects; playback seek times.
  Recording | Settings for playthrough, Sound Activated Recording and naming newly recorded tracks.
  MIDI Devices | Settings for MIDI playback on your system.
  Quality | Options for converting sample rates or formats for playback and export format conversion.
  Interface | Interface behaviors, dB display range, choose language and location of Manual, show initial "Help" dialog.
  Tracks | Tracks display management.
  ⌊ Tracks Behaviors | Settings to control the behaviors of Tracks.
  ⌊ Spectrograms | Settings for presentation of spectrograms in the audio track.
  Import / Export | Importing: if uncompressed audio is copied into projects or read directly, if tracks are normalized. Exporting: how audio is mixed, if Metadata Editor appears, content of Allegro exports.
  ⌊ Extended Import | Specify different importers to open specific audio file extensions.
  Libraries | Download and locate the optional FFmpeg library.
  Directories | Sets the location of the temporary files directory and displays how much space is available on that drive.
  Effects | Enable or disable effects by type: LADSPA, LV2, Nyquist, VAMP, VST, Audio Units. Sort or group effects. Check for updated plugins or rescan all plugins.
  Shortcuts | List, search for and set keyboard shortcuts for commands.
  Modules | Loadable Modules for Audacity.
  Application | Controls settings for the application.
  Cloud | Controls settings for cloud based projects.

Note: Choice of export format (WAV, MP3 and others) is made at time of export in the Export Audio dialog by selecting the required export format then clicking the Options button.

## Where the Preferences are stored

Audacity Preferences are stored in a configuration file called audacity.cfg. It is a text file which saves all your settings when you exit Audacity normally. The audacity.cfg file can be edited with any text editor and changes to it can be saved if Audacity is already closed. You can find audacity.cfg inside Audacity's folder for application data as follows:

- Windows: Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\audacity\
- Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/
- Linux: ~/.audacity-data/

| In order to see audacity.cfg on Windows, macOS or GNU/Linux, you must show hidden files and folders or type the folder location into your file manager's address bar. Windows: In the tree on the left of Explorer, double-click "Users" then double-click your username, then on the right, double-click the AppData or Application Data folder and navigate through that. If necessary, show hidden files and folders on Windows or type %appdata%\audacity or shell:appdata\audacity into the Explorer address bar then press Enter on your keyboard. macOS: Open Finder, use the Go menu, choose Go to Folder and type ~/Library/Application Support/audacity/, or set Finder to show your User Library folder.

## Upgrading from previous versions or re-installing

By default, Audacity settings are not changed when you upgrade from a previous release of Audacity or explicitly uninstall or reinstall Audacity. This allows you to upgrade from a previous Audacity version (legacy 1.3.2 and later) and retain your previous preferences wherever current Audacity still has an equivalent setting.

## Resetting Preferences

Resetting Preferences can sometimes fix freezes, crashes or unexplained Audacity behavior.

You can reset Preferences to factory defaults by using Tools > Reset Configuration.

## Portable Settings

You can create a folder called Portable Settings in a special location relative to the directory you installed or extracted Audacity to, so that audacity.cfg and Audacity's other settings will be stored in that "Portable Settings" folder instead. The permitted locations are:

- Windows: in the folder Audacity is launched from (for example, in Program Files\Audacity on Windows 64-bit)
- macOS: in the "Contents" folder inside Audacity.app (for example in /Applications/Audacity.app/Contents/ (to access the "Contents" folder, right-click or Ctrl-click over Audacity.app and choose "Show Package Contents")
- GNU/Linux: in the folder where the "audacity" binary is (for example, for Audacity installed by the package manager for your distribution, in usr/bin/).

The "Portable Settings" folder becomes active after restarting Audacity.

- You can then use the "Portable Settings" folder to store a different group of settings for a specific purpose, then delete or rename the folder and restart Audacity when you want to use the previous settings as stored in Audacity's folder for application data.
- If you copy the "Portable Settings" folder to a USB stick or CD this lets you take your current Audacity settings with you if you use Audacity on another computer.

| The Portable Settings folder must be given full permissions for everyone who wants to use it. On Windows, sufficient permission is normally granted if the administrator creates the folder. On Mac or GNU/Linux, use the chmod command if necessary to give the folder 777 (rwxrwxrwx) permissions. On Mac you can also right-click or Ctrl-click over Portable Settings, choose "Get Info", give the administrator name and password, then change all the "Names" required to "Read&Write".

## Links

|< Audacity Setup and Configuration