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Explain stuck coreaudiod instead of a generic "Recording failed to start" - #1020
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Beingpax merged 2 commits intoOct 18, 2026
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When coreaudiod gets wedged (usually after long uptime with many
sleep/wake cycles), AudioOutputUnitStart fails with
kAudioHardwareNotRunningError ('stop'). Recorder folded that into
couldNotStartRecording, so the user only saw "Recording failed to
start". Restarting VoiceInk doesn't help because the broken state lives
in coreaudiod, which only an admin can restart.
Detect that status and show a specific message with a "Restart Audio"
action that runs `killall coreaudiod` through the standard admin
password prompt.
Closes Beingpax#1018
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View guided diff | Re-trigger cubic
…failures The Restart Audio action now passes a localized prompt to the admin dialog, so the user sees that sound in all apps will cut out before confirming, instead of a generic osascript prompt. A failed launch or a non-zero osascript exit (including a cancelled prompt) is logged.
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#1018
When coreaudiod gets wedged, AudioOutputUnitStart (or an earlier AUHAL call on the retry) returns
kAudioHardwareNotRunningError('stop'). Recorder folded that intocouldNotStartRecording, so the user only saw "Recording failed to start", and restarting VoiceInk did nothing.Made three changes:
CoreAudioRecorderErrorgets astatusproperty so the OSStatus can be read from any case.Recorderthrows a newRecorderError.audioSystemNotRunningwhen that status is 'stop'.recordingAudioFailuremaps it the same way asnoUsableMicrophone: a specific message plus a "Restart Audio" button that runskillall coreaudiodthrough the admin password prompt.Added de/fr/zh-Hans strings to match the catalog.
Before:
After:
Built locally with Xcode 27. Checked in a debug build that the real toast shows and that the status match fires for 'stop' and not for other codes. I couldn't wedge coreaudiod on demand, so the full fail, restart, record loop wasn't run end to end. The restart command is the one that fixed it on my machine.
The admin prompt says up front that sound in all apps will cut out for a moment.
Not covered: the mid-recording device switch path can hit the same status. Left it out to keep this small.