audacity finds no audio devices

Question

I was recording in audacity with a headset and when I playback the recording, I can’t hear anything

I went to this website

Ubuntu 23.04: No audio after starting Audacity

and followed these 4 steps

1. Create a new ALSA configuration file. Open Terminal and type:

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

2. Paste the following into the file:

defaults.pcm.!card HDMI

defaults.ctl.!card HDMI

defaults.pcm.!device 0

defaults.ctl.!device 0

This configuration will force ALSA to use your headphones by default.

3. Save the file and exit (Ctrl+O to write out, and Ctrl+X to exit in nano).

4. Restart your system.

I then opened audacity and had the same issue.

So I thought I needed to remove the defaults I put in this file /etc/asound.conf

I followed the same steps above and blank out the defaults on each line and then did the write out and exit and restarted.

I opened Audacity and immediately get this error message

Error Initializing Audio Could not find any audio devices. You will not be able to play or record audio. Error: Unanticipated host error

How can I reversed what I did or restore back to the original ALSA configuration file?

Delete /etc/asound.conf?

Any thoughts?

Thank you for taking your time to read this! Michael 1/23/2024

Answer 1

I realized the instruction #1 said to Create a new ALSA configuration file. Since it is a new file, I deleted /etc/asound.conf and Audacity no longer gave the Error Could not find any audio devices.