Debug report

[BrianGygi]

Hi Steve,
Yes I can.
Thanks,
Brian

[steve]

The problem is that "something" is preventing Audacity from writing to that location - that's not normal. Applications should have read / write access there.

Do you log in with a normal user account?
Have you had any problems in the past with "access denied" type errors (with any apps)?
Is it your personal computer, or a school / work computer?
What security products do you have installed?

[Fumio]

Brian:
Since a recent Windows update all my programs/ apps refused to write to a file. If you look at notifications (a little squarish icon, lower right side)click on it and it may show that that windows security has stopped an unauthorized file access. Click on the notification and you will be taken to the security window. Click on the notice there and the option to allow on machine will be offered click on that and the issue should be resolved.
Fumio

[jademan]

Brian, just in case Fumio's suggestion doesn't work for you:

I am having the same problem. I downloaded Audacity 2.42 for Windows 10, and when I run it the startup screen comes on, but if I try to do ANYTHING, the debug report screen appears. I went to the log file, and here are the problems. HELP!

15:38:36: Audacity 2.1.3

I am not sure why you say you are running Audacity 2.4.2, yet on startup it says 2.1.3 ?????

Perhaps you need to uninstall all of your Audacity programs and then start with a fresh download of 2.4.2. To Uninstall, Windows Key > Settings > Apps, wait for program list to be populated then search for Audacity in alphabetical list. Click on it, then Uninstall...

To really clean things up, after you do the uninstall, delete the two Audacity directories:

C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Audacity AND C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Roaming\Audacity

Then download and install the new 2.4.2 version.

I hope this helps.

[BrianGygi]

Hi Jademan and Fumio:
Well, I'm back. And I followed Jademan's suggestion, I uninstalled Audacity, deleted the folders he suggested, downloaded and installed 2.42 anew, started it up, tried to open a project, and got the same error message. Below is the error file. It looks like it's trying to find the FFmpeg libraries, but it can't even though it says the FFmpeg directory is in the PATH. Suggestions? Thanks

08:43:45: Audacity 2.4.2
08:43:45: Error: File 'C:\Users\Public\Documents\Wondershare\CreatorTemp\nnD515.tmp' couldn't be removed (error 32: The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.)
08:43:48: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
08:43:48: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is 'avformat-55.dll'.
08:43:48: Looking up PATH environment variable...
08:43:48: PATH = 'C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Windows\System32\OpenSSH\;C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps;'
08:43:48: Checking that '' is in PATH...
08:43:48: FFmpeg directory is in PATH.
08:43:48: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
08:43:48: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
08:43:48: Loading avutil from ''.
08:43:48: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
08:43:48: Loading avcodec from ''.
08:43:48: Error: Failed to load shared library '.dll' (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
08:43:48: Loading avformat from 'avformat-55.dll'.
08:43:48: Error: Failed to load shared library 'avformat-55.dll' (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
08:43:48: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
08:43:48: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

[steve]

even though it says the FFmpeg directory is in the PATH

FFmpeg may be in PATH if "any" version of FFmpeg is installed.

For Audacity to be able to use FFmpeg, it requires a "compatible" version of FFmpeg to be installed.
Note that FFmpeg is an optional component and is only required if you need to use audio formats that are not natively supported by Audacity.
Instructions for installing a compatible version of FFmpeg are in the manual here: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq ... tml#ffdown

[BrianGygi]

I installed a compatible FFmpeg library in the 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\FFmpeg for Audacity' directory. But this doesn't appear in the PATH. I also went to edit Preferences in Audacity. I tried to change the directory for the FFmpeg library to 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\FFmpeg for Audacity' but it wouldn't take and kept going back to just reading 'av-format-55.dll'.

And yes, I know the FFmpeg library is only for reading non-native formats. So why does that error keep coming up when I tried to open any file or browse a directory?

[steve]

When did you install FFmpeg for Audacity? If you installed it for an old version of Audacity you probably need to download the updated version of FFmpeg for Audacity and install it.

[BrianGygi]

Hi, I reinstalled the versions of FFmpeg for Audacity 2.4.2, so that is not the problem.

[steve]

Normally Audacity will automatically detect FFmpeg when a compatible version is installed.

You could try manually deleting Audacity's configuration files to reset Audacity back to default settings (again, since you have upgraded).
Details here: viewtopic.php?p=415094#p415094

If that doesn't work, my only other suggestion is to completely remove all versions of Audacity (including the entire folder with the config files) and FFmpeg, re-download fresh copies of Audacity 2.4.2 and FFmpeg and do a fresh install of both.