Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

No Audio Output

Symptoms: FFT and waterfall render, but no sound from speakers.

Check the log (~/.config/AetherSDR/AetherSDR/aethersdr.log) for:

Log message	Cause	Fix
AudioEngine: output device does not support 24kHz	Sound card doesn't support 24kHz natively	Fixed in v0.4.10 — auto-fallback to 48kHz
No audio device detected	Qt multimedia backend missing	Install gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio or use the AppImage
failed to open audio sink	Audio device busy or misconfigured	Check system audio settings, try a different output

Ubuntu/Debian: Install GStreamer audio plugins:

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio gstreamer1.0-pipewire

AppImage users: Use v0.4.10+ which bundles all audio plugins.

Empty Audio Device Dropdowns

Symptoms: Settings → Radio Setup → Audio tab shows blank Input/Output dropdowns.

Cause: Qt6 multimedia backend plugin not loaded.

Fix:

• Use the v0.4.10+ AppImage (bundles Qt 6.7 with proper multimedia plugin)
• Or build from source with qt6-multimedia-dev installed

Radio Not Discovered

Symptoms: No radio appears in the Discovered Radios list.

Causes:

• Radio not on the same subnet (UDP broadcast doesn't cross routers)
• Firewall blocking UDP port 4992
• enforce_private_ip_connections=1 on the radio and you're on a different subnet

Fixes:

• Verify the radio's IP is reachable: ping <radio-ip>
• Check firewall: sudo ufw allow 4992/udp
• Use Manual Connection — enter the radio's IP in the Manual Connection section

Waterfall All Red / Wrong Colors

Symptoms: Waterfall displays but colors are wrong (all red, all blue, etc.)

Cause: Multi-Flex issue — AetherSDR is receiving another client's panadapter stream with different dBm scaling.

Fix: This was fixed in v0.2.2+. The app now filters VITA-49 packets by client_handle.

Application Crashes on Launch

Check the log for the crash location. Common causes:

Issue	Fix
SEGV in isConnected	Fixed in v0.3.90+ (recursive call bug)
libfftw3-3.dll not found (Windows)	Install FFTW3 or use v0.4.10+ which bundles it
MangoHud crash on exit	Not our bug — disable MangoHud: MANGOHUD=0 ./AetherSDR

No FFT After Profile Load

Symptoms: Loading a global profile shows the VFO but FFT/waterfall is blank.

Cause: Panadapter state flags not reset after slice recreation.

Fix: Fixed in v0.3.0+. The app now re-requests panadapter info after profile loads.

SmartLink: Radio Not Listed

Symptoms: Logged into SmartLink but no radio appears.

Causes:

• Radio not registered with SmartLink (register in SmartSDR → Settings → SmartLink Setup)
• Port forwarding not configured (TCP 4994, UDP 4993)
• You're on the same LAN as the radio (SmartLink only lists radios for remote access)

Log File Location

The log file is at:

• Linux: ~/.config/AetherSDR/AetherSDR/aethersdr.log
• macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/AetherSDR/AetherSDR/aethersdr.log
• Windows: %APPDATA%/AetherSDR/AetherSDR/aethersdr.log

The log is overwritten on each launch. Share it when reporting bugs.

Settings File Location

• Linux: ~/.config/AetherSDR/AetherSDR.settings (XML format)
• Delete this file to reset all settings to defaults.