FFmpeg allows you import/export additional audio file formats into/from Audacity
Due to patent restrictions, FFmpeg cannot be distributed with Audacity itself. However, FFmpeg is required to import and export a variety of audio formats, including M4A and WMA.
You can download and install FFmpeg as follows:
Download the FFmpeg installer from For most computers, the 64-bit Windows version is correct. For native Windows ARM build go to .
Run the installer. You can ignore the "unknown publisher" warning.
Read and accept the license
Select the location to install FFmpeg. By default FFmpeg will be installed into
Audacity should now automatically detect FFmpeg and allow you to use it.
FFmpeg for Audacity is also available on WinGet:
If you prefer a manual installation of FFmpeg you can download a ZIP file from a different source:
Windows ARM64:
Or by compiling it from source as described here:
If you have installed FFmpeg from a different source, or installed it in a different location, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:
Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button.
If the following message appears, Audacity has automatically identified FFmpeg:
On Linux, you generally can install FFmpeg as well as LAME through the package manager. You can use the following command in your Terminal/Console to install it:
Once you have installed FFMPEG and LAME, restart Audacity. It will automatically try to detect them.
Finish the installation
Restart Audacity
Audacity 3.1 and later supports avformat-55.dll, avformat-57.dll and avformat-58.dll.
Audacity 3.2 and later also supports avformat-59.dll.
Audacity 3.3 and later also supports avformat-60.dll.
Audacity 3.5 and later also supports avformat-61.dll.
You can check which dll is in which FFmpeg release here.
Make sure you download full FFmpeg copies, not just the avformat-*.dll's individually. Further, make sure to download or build the shared versions as only those contain .dll's.
Different versions of FFmpeg may have different codecs enabled in them. In particular, AMR (narrowband) is not featured in the recommended installer.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In this dialog window, click Browse... to locate the avformat-*.dll from the FFmpeg folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK, then OK again to close the preferences.
Click through the steps in the installer.
On some Macs the process may look as though it has stalled on "Validating packages" - just be patient and wait for it to complete.
Restart Audacity if it was running when you installed FFmpeg then Audacity should detect FFmpeg automatically.
If you have problems with Audacity detecting FFmpeg, follow the steps below to manually locate FFmpeg.
One way to install an FFmpeg version that matches your system architecture is using homebrew. You can install it through the Terminal.app by typing in:
And once you have Homebrew, the following command installs FFmpeg:
Audacity should now automatically detect the installation after a restart. If not, follow the steps of a manual installation.
You can download or compile FFmpeg yourself as described here: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/macOS
If you have installed FFmpeg from a different source, or installed it in a different location, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:
Go to Audacity > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button.
If a "Success" message appears, Audacity has successfully found FFmpeg. You can click No as Audacity already knows where to find FFmpeg.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In the "Locate FFMPEG" dialog, click Browse... to locate the avformat-*.dylib from the FFmpeg folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere.
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK and OK again to close the preferences.
If you're using an Apple Silicon ("M1", "M2") system, make sure that your FFmpeg and Audacity architectures match:
arm64 (Apple Silicon) Audacity needs arm64 FFmpeg,
x86_64 (intel, also known as x64 and amd64) Audacity needs x86_64 FFmpeg.
Additionally, make sure you're using the latest version of Audacity.
If you're using homebrew, it may be that a freshly released version is incompatible with Audacity for a while. You can run run brew install ffmpeg@6 to install an older version of FFmpeg (in this case version 6, which corresponds to avformat 60).
If your FFmpeg or LAME installation didn't get detected, you'll need to tell Audacity where to find it. To do this:
Go to Edit > Preferences > Libraries
Click on the Locate... button of the relevant library.
If a "Success" message appears, Audacity has successfully found the library. You can click No as Audacity already knows where to find the library.
If this message does not appear, proceed with the next steps.
In case of FFMPEG: In the "Locate FFmpeg" dialog, click Browse... to locate the libavformat.so.* from the FFMPEG folder you downloaded/installed elsewhere. &#xNAN;In case of LAME: In the "Locate LAME" dialog, click Browse... to locate the libmp3lame.so that you downloaded/installed elsewhere.
Once you've found it, click Open, then OK and OK again to close the preferences.
Debian, Ubuntu, Pop_OS!, Mint
sudo apt install ffmpeg lame
Fedora, Redhat, CentOS
First install the RPM Fusion repository and check for updates, then
sudo dnf install ffmpeg lame
Arch, Manjaro
sudo pacman -Syu ffmpeg lame
winget install --id=Buanzo.FFmpegforAudacity -e/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"brew install ffmpeg
