Audacity unable to open libmp3lame.dylib

[Esmond Ivers]

I am using Audacity 1.3 on Mac OS-X 10.6.8. When I try to import mp3 file in Audacity, an error message comes up saying ‘cannot access libmp3lame.dylib’. Due to this, I can’t work on any project which involves mp3 files. Can anyone help me solve this problem? I am currently converting all the mp3 files on which I need to work on into wav file and then importing it for processing.

[JyotiT]

Audacity is known to have issues when working on Mac OS-X. Many issues of inconsistency and malfunctioning have previously been reported. The default location of the file which is creating error in your system is found at Audacity/Preferences/Libraries/MP3 Export Library/Locate. If you can’t find it at this location then you need to search it in your system and place it at this location. If this is not possible, then I suggest that you should reinstall Audacity and see if it solves the problem.

[Bontu]

If you are not using your system as administrator, then it can give this problem. Try it in administrator mode. If still the problem persists then you may need to configure the rights of the system which are accessible only through administrator’s account. Go in the Utilities menu, in that menu find Disk Utilities. Select your system drive and verify disk. Once this is done, repair permissions. Now go in Audacity and go in export menu. There select the ‘Custom FFmpeg Export’ instead of ‘mp3 file’. Go in the options of ‘Custom FFmpeg Export’ and select ‘libmp3lame’. Now you get a list of codecs, select all and restart Audacity. Mp3 files will now be easily imported.

[Gania]

Maybe Audacity is having trouble with compatibility mp3 libraries. To find the version of mp3 libraries in your system, in preferences of Audacity, choose ‘Libraries’. Under that find mp3 library and select it, on its right side you will find its version. If the version number of mp3 library doesn’t match with version number of Audacity, then it is the reason of your problem. Download the mp3 library of appropriate version from internet and replace the one you have in your system with the new version.