How to remove audio from a video on Mac

Remove audio with QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player is installed on every Mac and has a dedicated command for this. It works with most MOV and MP4 files, including iPhone recordings.

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player. If it opens in another app, Control-click the file and choose Open With > QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Edit > Remove Audio. The movie is now video only.
3. Choose File > Export As and pick a resolution. Options larger than your movie are dimmed, so choose the highest one available to keep the original size.
4. For 4K or 1080p, choose HEVC for a smaller file or H.264 for wider compatibility.
5. Give the file a new name, choose where to save it and click Save.

According to Apple, QuickTime Player exports QuickTime (.mov) files and doesn’t export MP4. If you need an MP4 back, use one of the other methods below.

If the video is in the Photos app on your Mac, drag it from the Photos window to the desktop or a Finder folder first. That gives you a file you can open in QuickTime Player, and the copy in your library stays as it was.

Mute or delete the audio in iMovie

iMovie is free from the App Store and is the better choice when you also want to trim, add music or keep part of the original sound.

1. Create a new movie project and drag your video into the timeline.
2. Select the clip in the timeline.
3. Click the Volume button above the viewer to show the volume controls, then click the Mute button. Click it again if you want the sound back.
4. Export the project with the Share button in the toolbar, choosing to export a file.

To remove the sound completely instead of muting it, select the clip and choose Modify > Detach Audio (Option-Command-B). The audio becomes a separate clip with a green bar below the video. Select that audio clip and press Delete.

Detaching is also how you replace the sound: delete the original audio clip and drag music or a voice-over into the timeline in its place.

QuickTime, iMovie or a stream copy

QuickTime Player and iMovie both create a new encoded file when they export, so the result can differ from the original in bitrate, file size and container. For everyday clips that is fine. It matters more when you are working with ProRes footage, very large files or a format a client asked for.

• Use QuickTime Player for a quick silent MOV copy of a single file.
• Use iMovie when you are editing anyway, or need to mute only some clips in a project.
• Use a stream copy (ffmpeg in Terminal, or a browser tool such as MuteVideo) when you want the same container and an untouched picture, or need to process many files.

With ffmpeg installed, the stream-copy command in Terminal is ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -an output.mp4. Our ffmpeg guide explains each part and shows how to mute a whole folder.

Check the result

Open the new file and play it with the volume up. In QuickTime Player you can also choose Window > Show Movie Inspector to see the tracks and format of the file. Keep the original until you are sure the silent copy is the one you want, because neither app can bring removed audio back into an exported file.