Arch Linux

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Audacity stopped seeing ffmpeg library. Even when I select libavformat.so through preferences it still says FFmpeg library not found

arojas

Developer

From: Spain

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 2,300

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Post actual, literal errors, do not paraphrase.

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Okay? When I import video file to convert to audio it says:
"Could not oppen file x: Incorrect filetype" I then get another error:
"x is an Advanced Audio Coding file. Without the optional FFmpeg library, Audacity cannot open this type of file. Otherwise, you need to convert it to supported audio format such as WAV or AIFF". Audacity, lame and ffmpeg are present and updated to their latest version. I reinstalled them just in case with pacman -Syu

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,340

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

After getting that error message, please run (as root/with root rights))

# journalctl -b  | curl -s -H "x-random;" --upload-file - 'https://paste.c-net.org/'

It will upload the journal for your current boot to a public pastebin and output a link, post that link.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

After getting that error message, please run (as root/with root rights))

# journalctl -b  | curl -s -H "x-random;" --upload-file - 'https://paste.c-net.org/'

It will upload the journal for your current boot to a public pastebin and output a link, post that link.

https://paste.c-net.org/xbgb67cuvnoy

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,468

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

audacity was rebuilt after the ffmpeg 9 update but maybe you updated into the gap?

pacman -Qs 'audaci|ffmpeg'

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

audacity was rebuilt after the ffmpeg 9 update but maybe you updated into the gap?

pacman -Qs 'audaci|ffmpeg'

local/audacity 1:3.7.8-4 (pro-audio)
    A program that lets you manipulate digital audio waveforms
local/ffmpeg 2:9.0.1-1
    Complete solution to record, convert and stream audio and video
local/ffmpegthumbnailer 2.3.0-2
    Lightweight video thumbnailer that can be used by file managers
local/qt6-multimedia-ffmpeg 6.11.2-1
    FFMpeg backend for qt6-multimedia

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,468

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

"no"

LD_DEBUG=libs audacity

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

"no"

LD_DEBUG=libs audacity

https://paste.c-net.org/AlexiIgnore

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,639

Website

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Pixol is not the only one with this issue. Audacity seem to not be able to use ffmpeg. Similar errors for other filetypes that would require ffmpeg to extract audio. I also encountered one that mentions libavformat.so directly, but despite my attempts since OP started the thread, I can’t recall how I initially produced it.

Setting path to the library directly in the preferences changes nothing: Audacity still can’t find it.

Versions: audacity 1:3.7.8-4, ffmpeg 2:9.0.1-1.

---

Paperclips in avatars?

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,468

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

libav doesn't show up in the LD_DEBUG, you might have to trigger the plugin by trying to open a relevant file.
Maybe also "LD_DEBUG=libs,files audacity" …

wrt mpan's comment most likely incompatible API?

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

you might have to trigger the plugin by trying to open a relevant file.

The log stops at line

transferring control: audacity

Last edited by Pixol (Today 09:14:49)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 77,468

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Err… we'll have to see the entire ld debug log to make any sense out of what's going on
Assuming the issue is the volume:

LD_DEBUG=libs,files audacity > /tmp/ld.debug 2>&1
cat /tmp/ld.debug | nc termbin.com 9999

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Pixol

Member

Registered: 2026-08-14

Posts: 7

Re: Audacity not seeing ffmpeg

Err… we'll have to see the entire ld debug log to make any sense out of what's going on
Assuming the issue is the volume:

LD_DEBUG=libs,files audacity > /tmp/ld.debug 2>&1
cat /tmp/ld.debug | nc termbin.com 9999

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I'm pretty sure that volume is not the issue here. It's just that after audacity completely boots the log stops. Regardless I ran those two commands. In parallel in two separate terminals(I assume that's what I was supposed to do)
https://termbin.com/l38a

Last edited by Pixol (Today 13:22:39)