How to remove the sound from a video on your Mac

To take the sound out of a video on a Mac, open it in QuickTime Player, choose Edit, Remove Audio, then save it with File, Export As. iMovie can mute a whole clip or just part of it. Koi does it in one drag: drop the video on Mute and a silent copy lands beside the original, the picture untouched.

We make Koi, so read the Koi part with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. Apple's steps come from its QuickTime and iMovie guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Edit, Remove Audio. The movie is now video only.
3. Choose File, Export As and pick a resolution to save a silent copy.

Apple's guide has the steps. Export As always makes a .mov, at the resolution you pick. Edit, Remove Video does the opposite and leaves only the sound.

iMovie is the built-in choice when only part of the video should go quiet, or when you want music instead.

1. Put the video in an iMovie project and select it in the timeline.
2. Click the Volume button above the viewer, then the Mute button. A second click unmutes it.
3. To mute only a part, split the clip there first with Modify, Split Clip, and mute that piece.
4. Choose File, Share, File to save it.

You can also separate the sound with Modify, Detach Audio (Option-Command-B). It becomes a green clip under the video that you can delete, trim or swap for music. Apple covers muting and detaching audio in its iMovie guide.

1. Start dragging the video in Finder or on your desktop.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. The video wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop the video on Mute. Koi says it's taking the sound out and shows its progress.
4. The silent copy lands beside the original and shows in Finder.

• There's no window and nothing to set. One drop, one copy. Several videos? Drop each one on Mute in turn.
• The picture is copied as it is, not encoded again, so it looks exactly the same and it's quick. A MOV stays a MOV.
• The original keeps its sound and is never touched.
• It runs on your Mac with Apple's AVFoundation. Nothing is uploaded.

1. Drag the video, hold Shift and drop it on Edit.
2. Move the playhead to where the quiet part starts and press C to split. Do the same where it ends.
3. Click that piece. Its panel shows its own Mute: turn it on.
4. Or mute the whole video with the Audio panel's Mute, or the speaker button under the video.
5. Click Export, pick MP4 or GIF and a quality, and click Export Video.

Koi can take sound out, but it can't add music or a voice-over. For that, iMovie's Detach Audio and its background music well are the free way.

Sometimes the sound should stay, just lower. In iMovie, select the clip and drag the volume line across its waveform down. The level shows as a percentage as you drag, and a waveform that turns yellow or red is too loud. Apple's volume guide has the details. Koi can't lower the volume: its sound is on or off, for the whole video or for each piece.

• A video that plays by itself on a website. Browsers usually only autoplay a video when it's muted, and a silent file saves sending sound nobody hears.
• A post with music you don't have the rights to. A silent copy, or a new soundtrack in iMovie, avoids the problem.
• A screen recording with a fan, a keyboard or a colleague in the background.
• A clip to loop in a talk or a slide deck, where the speaker does the talking.

• The whole video, free, right now: QuickTime's Remove Audio. Remember that Export As makes a .mov.
• Keep the file's format and every frame exactly as it was: Koi's Mute. One drop, no window.
• Quiet only one part, like a word or a call in the background: Koi's Edit Video or iMovie.
• Swap the sound for music or a voice-over: iMovie. Koi can't add sound.

• Turning the volume down in a player isn't the same as removing the sound. Anyone you send it to will hear it.
• Muting makes the file only a little smaller. The picture is most of the size. To shrink it, compress it as well.
• A GIF has no sound at all. If you're making a GIF anyway, there's no need to mute first.
• Want the sound and not the picture? That's the opposite job: extract the audio instead.
• Play the copy once, with the volume up, before you send it.

Related: extract the audio as M4A, compress the video, or turn it into a GIF. The rest of the wheel is on the Shift wheel page.

QuickTime and iMovie are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.