Need help. I’m using Windows 7 machine, Audacity version 2.1.2
I recorded a LP and exported it (did it as export multiple) as a wav. files into a folder in Window Music Library. Files and folder are there and they play fine. When I opened windows media player 12 it saw the new folder and files. They played fine. But when I closed Windows Media Player and the re-opened Media Player it doesn’t see the folder or files. If I go back to Windows Music Library everything is there and they play fine. I did a couple of LP’s a week earlier and everything work as it’s suppose to (media player see it). I didn’t get any error alert. But in the log data it shows a error. What I do? How can I fix it? Depending on the fix will I be able to use the affected recordings?
17:56:36: Audacity 2.1.2
17:56:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
17:56:36: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘avformat-55.dll’.
17:56:36: Looking up PATH environment variable…
17:56:36: PATH = 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;c:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\iCLS Client;c:\Program Files\Intel\iCLS Client;C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\DAL;C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Management Engine Components\IPT;;;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone'
17:56:36: Checking that ‘’ is in PATH…
17:56:36: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
17:56:36: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
17:56:36: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
17:56:36: Loading avutil from ‘’.
17:56:36: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
17:56:36: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
17:56:36: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
17:56:36: Loading avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
17:56:36: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: the specified module could not be found.)
17:56:36: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
17:56:36: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
I’m not a Windows elf, but if that were my machine, I would so be making protection copies of the music on a second drive or backup system.
I see Skype in your system. Skype is famous for “having its way” with your computer sound services and not asking. Do you leave it waiting for a call in the background—or worse yet, making a call while you’re capturing or managing music? Do you do anything else in the “spare time” while the albums are recording?
Koz
Yes I have Skype but have not used it in a least 8 years. It is off. I listen to the music as I’m recording it.
Those reported errors cannot be responsible for a folder/files not being visible to Windows media player.
[ “FFmpeg libraries” is software required to play/create certain file formats in Audacity, but has no relevance to WAV format audio files ]
As Trebor wrote, those “errors” are not errors. It’s just Audacity looking for the optional FFmpeg library, which is not currently installed on your computer.
Try using a different media player, such as Foobar2000 (it may look basic, but it is lightweight, a better audio player than WMP, can also be used as a batch encoder for converting file types, and is free. https://www.foobar2000.org/ ) or some other audio player.
How about if I download the optional FFmeg library program? Why would it work a week earlier and past years without this issue. I haven’t installed ant new programs, unless some program update affected it.
FFmpeg allows Audacity to import/export more file formats - it works as an encoder/decoder.
I agree with Trebor that FFmpeg is unrelated to disappearing files. More likely it is a problem with Windows Media Player library.
(I don’t use Windows Media Player, or iTunes, as they are, in my opinion, both bloated, buggy and made to serve their master; Microsoft and Apple respectively, rather than being good media players).
It might be a problem with the metadata which is not well-standardized or well-supported for WAV (that’s in-general, not just WMP).
You can try editing the metadata/database with WMP (I found some information [u]here[/u]) or you can try editing the files one at a time in Audacity with File → Edit Metadata Tags.
Most media player software keeps it’s own database which you can edit, but it initially gets the information from the metadata embedded in the file.
As a minimum, it should include the album, artist, title, and track number.
Or, you might want to try MP3 (or any other format that WMP can play). Metadata IS well standardized and well supported for all of the popular compressed formats (both lossy and lossless formats). WAV is the exception.
Found the problem. Corrupt data file in WMP. I disabled WMP, deleted the contents of the files. Restarted WMP, it built a new data base and it works great. Thanks for everyone input, learned a lot every time I have a issue.