I’m running Audacity 1.3.9 (Unicode) under Windows XP SP3 on a hand-me-down laptop.
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I’m trying to use Audacity to export to an MP3 file but keep getting this message:
“Could not open MP3 encoding library!”
I’ve tried downloading various versions of the lame_enc.dll file and then manually selecting them in Audacity when I attempt the export operation, but to no avail.
I’ve read numerous messages in the Audacity forums from others who over the years who have run into the same problem, but I’m having trouble understanding much of what has been posted. I’m disabled by chronic health problems that have impaired my cognitive skills and I also suffer from intermittent seizures that impair my memory.
I’d be grateful for some help in troubleshooting this problem.
t0nee1 February 15, 2017, 12:45pm #2
Here is the way to install and set up Audacity to use Lame…From the download page you need to install, “Lame v3.98.3 for Audacity on Windows.exe”

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Audacity
Download Audacity for free. A free multi-track audio editor and recorder. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. The interface is translated into many…
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In Audacity-> Edit-> Preferences-> MP3 Library and locate/navigate to, lame_enc.dll …
cholla February 15, 2017, 12:45pm #3
First you need this:http://lame.buanzo.com.ar/Lame_v3.98.3_for_Audacity_on_Windows.exeInstall it.Then try to export a .mp3 from Audacity.It should ask for the location . Which should be C:Program FilesLamefor Audacity.If that fails manually locate it this way:EditPreferencesLibraries then select to Locate MP3 library
Clueless_in_Seattle February 15, 2017, 12:45pm #4
Hi cholla!
Thanks for jumping in to try and help me out.
Before posting my query I had already followed, over and over, essentially the same steps that you outlined in your post. But I always ended up with that same error message.
Here’s what I did. Maybe I’m missing an important step. Could you review my steps to see if you can see where I’ve gone wrong?
I download four (count them! four!) copies of Lame_v3.98.3_for_Audacity_on_Windows(4).exe) and dutifully installed each one of them, one after the other, in Program Files/Lame For Audacity.
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Each time, with a fresh copy of lame_enc.dll, I would retry exporting my project as an MP3. And each time I got the same little “Locate Lame” dialogue box. Inside the little white field labeled “Location of lame_enc.dll:” this is what appeared:
C:Program FilesLame For Audacitylame_enc.dll
But, when I clicked “OK” I got this message:
“Could not open MP3 encoding library!”
I’d be grateful if you (or anyone for that matter) could review the steps I took and point out to me where I made my misstep. This is so danged frustrating to be spending so much time on something that should be so easy to do.