getting files into Audacity

There are a few ways to get audio files recorded elsewhere into an Audacity, but for your clearest understanding, I recommend:

make a new Audacity project
use File → Import → Audio and import the audio into the file

This is a good workflow because you will eventually want to put several pieces of audio together, and this is probably how you will do it.

If you are having trouble getting m4a files into Audacity, it might be because you need to install FFmpeg. Find out more about that here:

https://support.audacityteam.org/basics/installing-ffmpeg

You shouldn't have any trouble importing wav files recorded on the Zoom.

If you cannot get FFMpeg installed, try other tools for converting m4a into wav before importing. There are many apps for this, as well as websites that will convert them for you.

Windows apps for converting:

freac: https://www.freac.org/

Mac apps for converting:

iTunes: https://support.apple.com/en-vn/guide/music/musfb0cea9fa/mac