all of a sudden I’m unable to import any files. not wav, mp3, etc. I have redownloaded the ffmeg library and even uninstalled and reinstalled audacity and it still isn’t working. I can’t figure out why.
By “uninstalling / installing” you do not touch the settings which may cause the problem.
Move the whole settings folder out of its place - in Windows, I think it is somewhere in
%appdata%/Roaming
This page should tell you what you need to check
https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/installing-ffmpeg
If you are using an older version of Audacity please provide exact details and windows version too.