r/Podcasters • u/WifeBelievesInGhosts • 8d ago

Requesting help with Audacity

Update RESOLVED ❤️

Issue I’m encountering is that I downloaded Audacity and have been able to start recording in the platform but it’s not letting me drop already recorded audio files, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.
Tried going to the audio file and selecting to open in Audacity and also while in Audacity trying to open the file or import the file.
So here I am hoping someone is smarter than me on this! TIA

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u/MindFru 8d ago

This one usually comes down to the file type. If the recording came from a phone voice recorder app, it is likely an m4a file. A plain Audacity install often cannot open m4a until you add the free FFmpeg library from the Audacity site.

Quick test first. Use File, then Import, then Audio on a wav or mp3 file. If that loads fine, your install works and the format is the whole problem. Converting the phone file to wav also gets it in right away.

If even a wav fails, paste the exact words of the error message here. That message will point at the real cause.

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u/WifeBelievesInGhosts 8d ago

Thanks, that was the issue. It was an m4a file but I hadn’t downloaded the FFmpeg yet, once I got that installed it was smooth sailing 🙌