As can be seen from the description, I am not the most tech savvy user here.
I downloaded the FFMPEG plugin for Audacity to export (and import?) ALAC and AAC files. Just because I want to be in control of what gets stored on my system, I want to know how to delete the plugin. I have no concrete reason for doing that, but I just want to uninstall the plugin from my hard drive before upgrading to the newest version of Audacity.
If someone can tell me where the plugin is stored, and how to get rid of it, that would make me very happy.
FFmpeg is a library not a plugin. FFmpeg is not required to import AAC or ALAC files but is required to export AAC and ALAC.
Please see the pink panel at the top of the page - we always need to know version of Audacity and OS X. You will get a more concise answer without multiple “if” clauses if you do that.
If you used the DMG installer for the old FFmpeg 0.6.2 then the FFmpeg files are in /usr/local/lib/audacity. If you used the DMG installer for FFmpeg 2.2.2 the FFmpeg files are in /Library/Application Support/audacity/libs. Note that is the system library not your user library.
If you are not sure how you installed FFmpeg then search (including in system and hidden locations) for any files with a name starting with “libav”. Those are the FFmpeg files.
If you are updating from Audacity 2.0.5 or earlier and are not sure what you are doing I recommend simply installing the new FFmpeg 2.2.2 for Audacity 2.1.0 and leave the existing FFmpeg libraries where they are. Audacity 2.1.0 cannot use the older FFmpeg, so old FFmpeg libraries will not cause an issue to Audacity.