Group/lock audio clips together so they never get shifted out of place

You know how in some drawing programs, you can add 3 rectangles, 2 circles, and an arrow and arrange them on the canvas, and after you are satisfied with where they are placed, you can select all these objects by holding down the Shift key and select "Group", so that these selected objects are grouped together as one unit, and you can then move them around on the canvas as though they were a single object.


How can I do this in iMovie? I need to group/lock all my audio clips that I have spent so much time positioning precisely relative to the video clip(s) and relative to each other, so that they can't get accidentally shifted out of place when I remove or add video clips later? I am using iMovie 10.1.15 on Mac OS Catalina.

iMac 27″ 5K, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 15, 2020 1:57 PM

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Posted on Sep 15, 2020 3:12 PM

Hi, TimurGüven,


When you add an audio clip right under the video timeline, it will attach to the video clip above it with a little handle. When you move the video clip along the time line by adding or removing other video clips, the audio clip will move with the clip to which it is attached. You can change the attachment point of the handle by holding down the Option and Command keys as you click along on the audio clip. The attachment handle will move to wherever you click. Also, if you delete the video clip that will also delete the audio clip that is attached to it. You can uncouple the audio clip by putting your cursor on it and, while pressing down, drag the audio clip downward to a lower audio well until you see the handle pull off of the video clip. Then you can delete or move the video clip independently of the audio clip.



-- Rich



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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 15, 2020 3:12 PM in response to TimurGüven

Hi, TimurGüven,


When you add an audio clip right under the video timeline, it will attach to the video clip above it with a little handle. When you move the video clip along the time line by adding or removing other video clips, the audio clip will move with the clip to which it is attached. You can change the attachment point of the handle by holding down the Option and Command keys as you click along on the audio clip. The attachment handle will move to wherever you click. Also, if you delete the video clip that will also delete the audio clip that is attached to it. You can uncouple the audio clip by putting your cursor on it and, while pressing down, drag the audio clip downward to a lower audio well until you see the handle pull off of the video clip. Then you can delete or move the video clip independently of the audio clip.



-- Rich



Sep 16, 2020 10:04 AM in response to Rich839

Adding to my previous post, there is no feature in iMovie to lock audio clips together. After editing your audio clips, you can share out your project as an Audio-only file to your desktop (an option in the share-out box when you share to File), that will merge all of the audio clips. Then drag the audio file that you created into your original project as a sound track.


Another way would be to select all of the audio clips as a batch in the timeline, do an Edit/Copy and then edit paste them into a new project created for this purpose. Then share out the new project and drag it back into your original project as an audio track.


-- Rich



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Group/lock audio clips together so they never get shifted out of place

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