I would like to save audio to MP3, but cannot. How do I update my Audacity for my Windows computer without having to accept saving information to the Cloud? I understand newer versions (mine is a little over a year old)? Fastest and easiest way to update.
You “export” to create a regular audio file (MP3, WAV, etc.).
File → Export Audio, and select MP3 as your format.
You “save” Audacity projects (which are optional).
The “cloud” is also optional.
You do not mention what version of Audacity you use.
.mp3 has nothing to do with any cloud services. In earlier versions (I don’t remember until when), you needed to install the “LAME”-extension separately because of patent issues. But the patents for .mp3 expired at some point. The recent versions of Audacity have the encoder for .mp3 built-in.
The LAME extension for those Audacity versions can be downloaded from https://lame.buanzo.org/
As an alternative, you can download a newer version of Audacity which already includes the encoder. Since the .mp3 patents expired before 2020, any version released on or after 2020 (probably 2.4.x and 3.x) should not need an extra installation.
Look at “Preferences”, and then “Libraries”, whether your version has the .mp3 encoder installed - it should show something like this:
If you download one of the most recent versions, be sure to download one which does not include “Muse Hub” (which is a cloud service for Audacity) .