No audio input for voiceover in iMovie 10.1.13 (Catalina 10.15)

I have also had this problem. I am using Mac OS Catalina 10.15.1 with iMovie 10.1.13. No audio at all when trying to do a voice-over in iMovie, even though I had no trouble with the Voice Memos or Garage Band apps.

I finally fixed it by:

1. Open System Preferences
2. Open Security & Privacy
3. Click the Privacy button near the top of the window
4. On the left column, select Microphone
5. On the right column, check the box next to iMovie

This fixed the problem instantly for me.

Since you have tried several procedures without success you might need to wait for future updates to iMovie and Catalina to resolve this issue on your computer system. I seem to recall that there has been one other person who has reported voiceover issues on this forum, but otherwise it does not seem to be a widespread problem.

As a workaround, you can use the Voice Memos app in your Mac's Applications folder to create a voice memo that can be dragged to your desktop from the Voice Memos sidebar. From there you can drag it into iMovie and use it as a voiceover. Not as convenient as the iMovie Voice Over feature, but still pretty easy, and at least you can finish your project.

-- Rich

Check whether the voiceover clip is showing wave forms. If you have an ear phone jack plugged in that might be diconnecting the sound, unplug it. Are other non-voiceover clips playing O.K?

To trouble shoot:

Try recording your voiceover in a different project.

Try deleting preferences by opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. Now see if you can record a voiceover.

— Rich

HI,

No, I haven't tried creating a test user. That's certainly something that you could try. Click on System Preferences/Users and Groups and create the new user account from there.

If you open iMovie in a new user account, and the voiceover works properly, that would mean that there is some conflict in your main user account that is causing the problem.

You could also try opening iMovie in a new library. To do that, open iMovie while holding down just the Option key and selecting the create a new library in the box that appears. iMovie will open in that library. Create a project in it and try the voiceover. See if it works there.

Good luck with this.

-- Rich

Regrettably I have no additional information on this issue. I would have thought that a reinstall would cure it.

If it were a bug I would have expected to have heard more reports on this forum. But maybe the voiceover feature isn’t used that much.

We might have to let this play out for awhile until a solution is found.

— Rich

Thanks Rich / I'm 98% sure this is a software thing / VoiceOver is widely used by the YouTube community (myself included) and I anticipate there will more who have the issue / perhaps there is a hardware piece to this too. My setup...

Catalina 10.15.1

Imovie 10.1.13

Late 2015 Imac / 2.8ghz quad core i5

I also completely wiped the drive when I upgrade to Catalina (no Time Machine image / I restored file by file -and- 0 apps - only re-dowloaded). Going to fire up voice memo tonight :|

It is puzzling, to be sure. I don't know what is causing the voiceover feature to be dysfunctional.

You might try booting up in Safe Mode (see Finder help menu instructions) and, after everything loads, immediately reboot in normal mode. Then check to see whether the voiceover is working.

-- Rich

Fixed the problem for me - brilliant

its a shame this solution doesn’t pop up on the first query on the forum. Took me ages to drill down far enough to find this ( I know I’m a Luddite and should have known to view all replies but us non techies need to be led by the nose!)

Hi Rich,

Have you tried creating a test user and tried creating a clip from there?

Hi Rich - I have the exact same issue to a T (voice memos works fine). Reinstalled Imovie and no fix. Any update/find a fix?

Good work, iTurbo,

I hope that others who successfully use your solution will post back.

— Rich