This page collects together tips on particular aspects of working with Audacity and your hardware. Following these will greatly enhance your day-to-day experience of using Audacity. Related pages: Our collection of Tutorials giving step-by-step guidance on performing common tasks using Audacity.

If Audacity is not able to shut down properly (for example because the program crashes, or the computer loses power suddenly), unsaved data may be left in Audacity's temporary folder. The instructions below will help you recover that unsaved data in Audacity 1.2.x versions. Audacity Beta 1.3.2 and later already has automated data recovery built in, which should offer to recover unsaved data when you restart after a crash. For these versions, you only need to use these instructions if automated recovery does not work, ensuring you leave Audacity open until recovery is complete.