iMovie: Improving audio and video synchronization

Learn steps to take if you export to QuickTime or iDVD from iMovie and the audio and video are out of sync. (The sound you hear does not match the video you see.)
If your audio and video do not play in sync when exported to QuickTime or iDVD, check the following:


  1. Make sure the DV camera you used to record or capture the footage was set to 16-bit at the time of recording (not 12-bit).

  2. Make sure your QuickTime software is up to date.

  3. If you are using iMovie 3, make sure you have updated to iMovie 3.0.3 or later.

  4. You may be able to resolve audio synchronization issues by extracting the audio from the video clips in the iMovie project to a separate audio track:

    1. Select all video clips in the timeline (from the Edit menu, choose Select All).
    2. Extract audio to a separate track (from the Advanced menu, choose Extract Audio).

Export this project to QuickTime and see if your audio remains in sync when the resulting file is viewed in QuickTime Player.

Related documents
61636: "iMovie: Use 16-bit audio for best results"
Published Date: Oct 11, 2016