Audacity 3.2 for Mac Silicon does not find homebrew-installed ffmpeg

[M-D-M]

Bug description

Summary:

Wanted to use the new version of Audacity for Mac Silicon (thanks for making it!), but unfortunately it does not find the version of ffmpeg I have installed through homebrew.

Further Description:

Installed Mac Silicon version of Audacity via .dmg file. Selected "do not replace previous version" when prompted via MacOS, because I wanted to keep the previous x86 version handy.

When loading Audacity, it says that ffmpeg libraries aren't loaded, and when trying to direct it to the folder with ffmpeg libraries installed via Homebrew (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/*/lib), it does not find the right library.

Steps to reproduce

Download Mac Silicon version of Audacity.

Install using dmg file, and select "do not replace previous version" when prompted via MacOS.

Open Audacity, and get the popup about ffmpeg libraries not found.

Expected behavior

Audacity finds the ffmpeg libraries.

Actual behavior

Audacity is saying that "ffmpeg library not found."

Audacity Version

current master / alpha / nightly build

Operating system

macOS

Additional context

I have ffmpeg installed and in my path via Homebrew -- confirmed with "ffmpeg -version" from a cli.

It looks like audacity is wanting a file named "ffmpeg.64bit.dylib", but the files in the ffmpeg folder have names like the following:

libavcodec.59.37.100.dylib
libavdevice.59.7.100.dylib
libavfilter.8.44.100.dylib
libavformat.59.27.100.dylib

[dozzzzer]

@M-D-M we will look into it, but for now please download and install the FFmpeg package for OS X from Buanzo's website. Once it's installed, Audacity should recognize it automatically.

[dozzzzer]

Verified. I don't see the original issue anymore. Now Audacity recognizes FFmpeg installed by Homebrew.

[M-D-M]

Thank you for looking into this so quickly!

Following up on the ffmpeg package from Buanzo's website -- I already had the x86 libs installed, but could not find any arm libs.

[M-D-M]

Was this the key line that solves the issue?

paths.emplace_back(wxT("/opt/homebrew/lib"));

FYI: I tried opening up Audacity for Mac Silicon again, and manually entered this location ("/opt/homebrew/lib") into the preferences, and now the ffmpeg libs are correctly found:

[dozzzzer]

I already had the x86 libs installed, but could not find any arm libs.

AFAIK, there's one .dmg package for both architectures.

[LWinterberg]

(I think the buanzo website was updated after this issue was made)

[crsib]

The pull request for this issue is not merged. Why is it closed?

[BlkPingu]

I have this issue too with 3.3.3

[savagekevin]

same for me as original post a year ago, installed Audacity 3.3.3 then installed Homebrew, then home-brew installed ffmpeg, after restarts, Audacity doesn't find it, using the preferences to direct it, Audacity asks for "libavformat.dylib" but any such files that one points to in the home-brew installation don't seem to please Audacity

[martingeorgiu]

I also had the same issue, but I then found out that my local installation of FFmpeg was behaving weirdly. I've reinstalled the FFmpeg from brew like described here https://stackoverflow.com/a/77115222/5647161 and then Audacity immediately found it.

[puppycodes]

This was also the case for me that some update created an issue with libsodium leading to my ffmpeg woes, fix was simply to brew upgrade and then it found the lib. It might be helpful to include a verbose error instead of just not finding the library in audacity if thats possible ;)

[lgarron]

Anyone else still having issues? I installed both audacity (3.5.1) and ffmpeg (7.0.1) through Homebrew (4.2.21-43-g020d994) on macOS (14.4.1) but Audacity doesn't find ffmpeg.

Here is what I have installed:

> find /opt -iname "*ffmpeg*"
/opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages/yt_dlp/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.11/site-packages/yt_dlp/postprocessor/__pycache__/ffmpeg.cpython-311.pyc
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/yt_dlp/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/yt_dlp/postprocessor/__pycache__/ffmpeg.cpython-312.pyc
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/utils/__pycache__/ffmpeg_utils.cpython-312.pyc
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/utils/ffmpeg_utils.py
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/libtorio_ffmpeg5.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/_torio_ffmpeg4.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/_torio_ffmpeg5.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/libtorio_ffmpeg4.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/_torio_ffmpeg6.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torio/lib/libtorio_ffmpeg6.so
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torchaudio/utils/__pycache__/ffmpeg_utils.cpython-312.pyc
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torchaudio/utils/ffmpeg_utils.py
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torchaudio/_backend/ffmpeg.py
/opt/homebrew/lib/python3.12/site-packages/torchaudio/_backend/__pycache__/ffmpeg.cpython-312.pyc
/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@7
/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@6
/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@5
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/bin/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/.brew/ffmpeg.rb
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-codecs.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-utils.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-resampler.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-protocols.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-scaler.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-devices.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-formats.1
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/yt-dlp/2024.4.9_1/libexec/lib/python3.12/site-packages/yt_dlp/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/fish/3.7.1/share/fish/completions/ffmpeg.fish
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/xdg-ninja/0.2.0.2/share/xdg-ninja/programs/ffmpeg.json
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-all.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-filters.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-codecs.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-utils.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-resampler.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-protocols.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-scaler.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-devices.1
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man1/ffmpeg-formats.1
/opt/homebrew/share/ffmpeg
/opt/homebrew/share/fish/completions/ffmpeg.fish

/opt/homebrew/include/libavformat
/opt/homebrew/lib/pkgconfig/libavformat.pc
/opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.61.1.100.dylib
/opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.61.dylib
/opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.dylib
/opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.a
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/include/libavformat
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/pkgconfig/libavformat.pc
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/libavformat.61.1.100.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/libavformat.61.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/libavformat.dylib
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/libavformat.a
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/share/man/man3/libavformat.3
/opt/homebrew/share/man/man3/libavformat.3

I've tried all of the following paths, and none of them worked:

• /opt/homebrew/lib
• /opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.dylib
• /opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.61.dylib
• /opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat.61.1.100.dylib
• /opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/ (the folder that the previous /opt/homebrew/lib/libavformat*.dylib files are symlinked from)
• /opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/ffmpeg/lib (a folder symlink to /opt/homebrew/Cellar/ffmpeg/7.0_1/lib/)
• /opt/homebrew/include/libavformat

Examples of me trying to tell Audacity to use either the folder or file path where libavformat.dylib 100% exists:

The result remains "FFmpeg library not found" every single time:

… am I missing something?

[lgarron]

Okay, I tried the following:

1. Download the recommended installer, which installs files to /Library/Application Support/audacity and does nothing else, according to Suspicious Package:

2. Restart Audacity and verify that it can find the ffmpeg files:

3. Run:

sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
sudo ln -s "/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/ffmpeg/lib" "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"

4. Restart ffmpeg and observe:

Given that the ffmpeg libraries in /opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/ffmpeg/lib are a superset of those placed by the installer (except for version number differences), there seems to be some compatibility issue that does not allow Audacity 3.5.1 to detect the libraries from ffmpeg 7.0.1 as valid on my system.

So I'm back at the start, but this indicates that it's not a path search problem, but a binary compatiblity problem or something similar.

[lgarron]

Okay, I think I figured it out:

ffmpeg versions 5 and 6 work.

brew install ffmpeg@5
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
sudo ln -s "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@5/lib" "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"

brew install ffmpeg@6
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
sudo ln -s "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@6/lib" "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"

But version 7 doesn't work:

brew install ffmpeg # version 7 as of 2024-04-05: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/pull/168136
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
sudo ln -s "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg/lib" "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"

Homebrew updated to version 7 of ffmpeg about a month ago, and I must have picked up that version in an upgrade: Homebrew/homebrew-core#168136

This is covered by #6389 , which is fixed in #6241

[lgarron]

Just to summarize the best workaround for now:

brew install ffmpeg@6
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
sudo ln -s "/opt/homebrew/opt/ffmpeg@6/lib" "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"

And once the next version of Audacity is released, you can clean up with:

sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/audacity/libs"
brew uninstall ffmpeg@6

Since ffmpeg@6 is tagged with a version, it is not linked into the default system paths and will not interfere with ffmpeg 7 as the system default for other purposes.