*NO* version of Audacity works for me in Windows 10

Hi, I have posted to this forum several times about this, but have not been able to resolve the problem and I really want to get Audacity working again! In January, Audacity (then 2.6) suddenly stopped working for me on my laptop running Windows 10. Whenever I would try to save a project, or export a file, or anything that required interacting with Windows, I would get the following error screen (attached).

I tried uninstalling/deleting everything having to do with Audacity, reinstalling (now up to 3.0) and I still get the same error. When I look at the generated log files, it reads below, which makes no sense to me. PLEASE can someone offer some suggestions? I am going nuts, and have tried other programs, (e.g. Cakewalk, GarageBand) and find that none of them are as straightforward or easy to use.

HELLP

11:50:52: Audacity 3.0.0
11:50:52: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
11:50:52: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:50:52: Looking up PATH environment variable…
11:50:52: 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;;C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2020.3.5\bin;’
11:50:52: Temporarily prepending ‘;’ to PATH…
11:50:52: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:50:52: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:50:52: Loading avutil from ‘’.
11:50:52: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:50:52: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
11:50:52: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:50:52: Loading avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:50:52: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:50:52: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
11:50:52: Returning PATH to previous setting: 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;;C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2020.3.5\bin;
11:50:52: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.
Error screen.png

I’m not an expert on this, but you may have to delete some faulty plug-ins.
It looks suspicious, as stated in the debug report screenshot, that the debug report will be stored in a Wondershare software folder.

That screenshot is very interesting.
The debug report should be in:
C:\Users**\AppData\Local\Temp**
not:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\Wondershare\CreatorTemp\

Try rebooting the computer, then run the Audacity installer again and watch out for the option to “Reset Preferences” during the setup. Enable that option.
On first run you will be prompted to confirm that you wish to reset preferences - confirm.

Hi, thanks for the suggestion, and yes I did think it was strange the debug report would be saved to that folder. However, I followed your suggestion, uninstalled Audacity, rebooted, reinstalled, and checked the box for “Reset Preferences”, and it said it was resetting them. However, when I fired Audacity up again, and tried to open a project, I got the SAME GDDAMN error screen, and the report was still being saved to the SAME GDDAMN Wondershare folder.

I am really at my wits end. Suggestions?
Thanks

Hey, I just tried searching for avformat-55.dll, and it doesn’t seem to be on my computer (I’m certain it was there before). Should I try downloading it, and if so, where should I install it? Thanks!

Don’t worry about that for now. It is an optional component. Let’s focus on the main problem first.

Question 1.
In Audacity “Edit menu > Preferences > Directories”, where does it say that “Temporary files directory” is located?


Question 2.

  1. Click Start, in the search box, type CMD.
  2. Right click on CMD and choose run as Administrator.
  3. In the command prompt type: ECHO %Temp%

What is the output?

OK, I did as you suggested. The Temporary Files directory is C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Audacity\SessionData

Clicking on Start too me right to the command box, without asking me to run as an Administrator
ECHO %Temp% gives
C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Temp

I hope this helps, but I frankly don’t see anything unusual here

Thanks so much,
Brian

Could you post the debug report ZIP file. That may have a clue as to what is going on.

Hi, attached is the ZIP file, thanks. There are four files in there: audacity.cfg, pluginsettings.cfg, pluginregistry.cfg, and log.txt, which I posted above. But if you can figure out anything from these, that would be great!
Audacity_dbgrpt-6692-20210417T141151.zip (6.41 KB)

Nothing obvious so far.

Could you also look in
C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Audacity\SessionData

There should be a file in there called “audacity.cfg”. Please post it here.

Here is the audacity.cfg from C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Local\Audacity\SessionData. I have also posted the plugin*.cfg files from there. I hope they tell you something!
Thanks again
pluginsettings.cfg (27 Bytes)
pluginregistry.cfg (38.9 KB)
audacity.cfg (6.11 KB)

That looks OK.
I’m wondering if we’ve been looking in the wrong place.

Whenever I would try to save a project, or export a file, or anything that required interacting with Windows, I would get the following error screen (attached).

OK, so Audacity crashes on “save” or “export”. What do you mean by “or anything that required interacting with Windows”?

Can you import this short WAV file without Audacity crashing:

Hi Steve, when I try to Import that wav file (or anything else) I get that error screen I posted earlier and it generates the same zip file, with the same log.txt describing trying to load the FFmpeg libraries (below).
Sorry I’m really stumped here.
Thanks again for your help.

11:35:33: Audacity 3.0.0
11:35:33: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries…
11:35:33: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from system paths. File name is ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:35:33: Looking up PATH environment variable…
11:35:33: 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;;C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2020.3.5\bin;’
11:35:33: Temporarily prepending ‘;’ to PATH…
11:35:33: Checking for monolithic avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:35:33: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:35:33: Loading avutil from ‘’.
11:35:33: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:35:33: Loading avcodec from ‘’.
11:35:33: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:35:33: Loading avformat from ‘avformat-55.dll’.
11:35:33: Error: Failed to load shared library ‘avformat-55.dll’ (error 126: The specified module could not be found.)
11:35:33: Error: Failed to load FFmpeg libraries.
11:35:33: Returning PATH to previous setting: 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;;C:\Program Files\JetBrains\PyCharm 2020.3.5\bin;
11:35:33: Error: Failed to find compatible FFmpeg libraries.

Are you able to generate a tone? (Generate menu > Tone)
If so, can you play it?

I think Ivalogic may be on to something here… Have you tried parking all of your plugins by renaming your AppData > Roaming > audacity directory?

Hi, I’m not sure what you mean by “parking” my plug-ins. So what should I rename my AppData->Roaming->audacity directory? And will I need to create a new, blank one?
Thanks

Also, the PlugIns directory on C:\Users\Brian\AppData\Roaming\audacity is empty. Shouldn’t there be something there?

On 64-bit Windows, the plug-ins shipped with Audacity should be in:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Audacity\Plug-Ins\

On 32-bit Windows:
C:\Program Files\Audacity\Plug-Ins\

Optional / 3rd party plug-ins are often installed to:
C:\Users<username>\AppData\Roaming\audacity\Plug-Ins
but in a fresh installation of Audacity that folder is not used (only if you add extra plug-ins).

No, as Steve indicated, they may be located elsewhere. It makes no difference where they are located.

So what I do is

  1. Exit audacity.
  2. Rename …AppData\Roaming\audacity to …AppData\Roaming\audacityx
  3. Restart audacity and observe possibly different behavior.

To return to prior state:

  1. Exit audacity.
  2. Delete …AppData\Roaming\audacity
  3. Rename …AppData\Roaming\audacityx back to …AppData\Roaming\audacity

No muss, no fuss.

Hi, I did as you suggested:

Renamed …AppData\Roaming\audacity to …AppData\Roaming\audacitybackup
Went back into Audacity and observed exactly the same behavior…

Aiyy - any other approaches to try?