# When installing old version of audacity it can't find my audio output device

**URL:** https://discourse.nixos.org/t/when-installing-old-version-of-audacity-it-cant-find-my-audio-output-device/80017
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [September 9, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/when-installing-old-version-of-audacity-it-cant-find-my-audio-output-device/80017 "2026-09-09T17:51:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![rssaromeo](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/rssaromeo/32/35909_2.png) [@rssaromeo](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/rssaromeo)
#### Post date: [September 9, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/when-installing-old-version-of-audacity-it-cant-find-my-audio-output-device/80017/1 "2026-09-09T17:51:53Z")

</div>

audacity got updated to 4.0.0 in the newest nixpkgs unstable release, so i have tried installing an older version  
with

```auto
audacity = {
      url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/4684fd6b0c01e4b7d99027a34c93c2e09ecafee2";
};

```

in flake inputs and

`(inputs.audacity.legacyPackages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.audacity)` in users.users.uname.packages

to get 3.7.4 as that showed as the newest version here [Nix Package Versions](https://lazamar.co.uk/nix-versions/?channel=nixpkgs-unstable&package=audacity)

and when opening audacity it can’t find my audio device any more

```auto
pactl list sinks short                          
74 VirtualSink PipeWire float32le 1ch 48000Hz IDLE

```

old generations before updating nixpkgs input audacity, on versions \<4, and when on verson 4 audacity can still find the audio device, only when i install the old version of audacity on the new generations does it fail to find it

how do i fix this without using audacity v4?

full config here

> **[GitHub - rsa17826/nixconf](https://github.com/rsa17826/nixconf)**
>
> Contribute to rsa17826/nixconf development by creating an account on GitHub.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![susd](https://discourse.nixos.org/user_avatar/discourse.nixos.org/susd/32/37122_2.png) [@susd](https://discourse.nixos.org/u/susd)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2026, 9:37am UTC](https://discourse.nixos.org/t/when-installing-old-version-of-audacity-it-cant-find-my-audio-output-device/80017/2 "2026-09-10T09:37:58Z")

</div>

Can you try `audacity_3` instead of `audacity`?
