Audacity won't export audio, claims avformat-60.dll is missing

[pfurrie]

Program build date: Nov 16 2023
Commit Id: 9dd60f of Thu Nov 16 14:58:21 2023 +0300
Build type: CMake Release build (debug level 1), 64 bits

FFMPEG: Installed from FFmpeg_5.0.0_for_Audacity_on_Windows_x86_64.exe

Have recorded multiple projects. Audacity project files save fine and can be reloaded fine. Can hear audio within those projects. When I go to export the files, I do it with these settings:

Should be a cake-walk. When the file is exported, a quick progress dialogue is displayed:

This is on-screen for about two seconds. A file is created using the name I gave it:

Open the file in VLC, the file is the correct amount of time (46:57) but no sound. Open the WAV file in Audacity, it has none of the project sound, just some light buzzing… none of the people talking.

Checked the log file:

20:13:58: Audacity 3.4.2
20:13:58: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-60.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
20:13:58: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully from: C:\Program Files\FFmpeg For Audacity\avformat-59.dll
20:14:01: sqlite3 message: (1) no such table: project in “SELECT 1 FROM project LIMIT 1;”
20:14:01: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-60.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
20:14:01: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully from: C:\Program Files\FFmpeg For Audacity\avformat-59.dll
20:14:09: Loaded 70 string 1.406250 Kb in size
20:14:09: Project loaded in 21 ms
20:14:36: Operation ‘Export’ took 1.400000 seconds. Poll was called 23 times and took 0.044959 seconds. Yield was called 15 times and took 0.028434 seconds.

Here’s the FFMPEG directory:

To recap:

• Have the latest version of Audacity (3.4.2, 64 bit) and of FFMPEG for Audacity 64-bit.
• Saving a simple WAV file
• Audacity is asking for “avformat-60.dll” but it doesn’t exist.

Tried with MP3 output, which took 17 seconds to export but just had a bit louder buzzing sound with none of the actual project audio.

I’ve used Audacity elsewhere for years, never had this problem.
What could be wrong? What is “avformat-60.dll” and why is it missing?