Audio issues when exporting to YouTube

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Audio issues when exporting to YouTube

Since an iMovie update in October 2020, I have been noticing audio 'pops' in videos exported to directly to YouTube. These pops do not appear in iMovie while I'm editing, meaning that they only appear after the file is exported and processed on YouTube. I have tried exporting the video multiple times, however these glitches still appear. Interestingly, they appear in the same place for multiple exports of the same video. In the YouTube video linked, you can hear them at 1:06, 1:16, 1:35, 2:54, 3:48, and 4:18. https://youtu.be/ekZhkCMFYv8

I've tried uninstalling and re-installing iMovie, however I am still seeing these problems. Any assistance would be appreciated.

iMovie version 10.2.1

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Nov 24, 2020 8:45 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

VanishingUnderground Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 27, 2020 7:29 AM in response to Rich839

I finally found a solution! It seems that the issue was with some video clips where the audio was muted. For some reason, the mute function wasn’t fully working and a small piece of audio would be left in near the end. While this extra sound wouldn’t appear in iMovie playback, it did show up in the exported file. As a workaround, I detached the audio track and then deleted it, rather than using the mute function. This seems to fully solve the problem of the audio popping and clicking. Thanks so much for your assistance Rich!

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Answer 2

Rich839

Level 8

47,712 points

Nov 24, 2020 11:59 AM in response to VanishingUnderground

Hi, VanishingUnderground,

The first thing I would try is, instead of uploading directly to You Tube, drag the movie from your desktop into You Tube's upload window. Now see if it plays in You Tube without the pops.

If no luck, try converting a duplicate of your movie to H.264, Mp4/AAC with the free download, Handbrake. Do that even if the codec already is indicated to be Mp4/AAC. Re-rendering often cures audio issues.

You can get Handbrake here:

https://handbrake.fr/

A simple way to do it without fiddling with settings is to open Handbrake and do a File/Open Source. Navigate to your video and choose it as the source from the resulting screen. Then do File/Start Encoding. Wait a couple of minutes for the conversion to complete. Then save and upload the converted clip into You Tube.

-- Rich

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Answer 3

Dec 2, 2020 8:39 AM in response to Rich839

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the assistance. I tried exporting the file to my Mac rather than directly to Youtube, and found that the audio glitches mentioned in my original version appeared in the mp4 file on my Mac as well. I also tried running that exported file through Handbrake with the method you suggested, however the audio glitches also appeared in the exported file. The issue seems to be in the exporting process itself by that logic. I did a factory reset on my Mac as well (wiping everything and restoring files from iCloud), and upon reinstalling iMovie found that the glitches remain.

Do you have any other suggestions for methods I could try within iMovie itself or is it most likely a software glitch that would need to be addressed by Apple?

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Answer 4

Rich839

Level 8

47,712 points

Dec 2, 2020 9:01 AM in response to VanishingUnderground

Try exporting using Best Quality (pro res). That will give you a .mov file rather than an Mp4, and a different audio codec. See if that one works on your desktop. You would get a 4x larger file size because of the higher bitrate of pro res, but You Tube should accept that. In any event, we want to see if the audio codec is the problem.

-- Rich

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Answer 5

Dec 2, 2020 11:07 AM in response to Rich839

I'm still experiencing the audio issue with the Best Quality export. The audio pops seem to be in the same place no matter which export method I use, however they are in different places for other videos. I ran the Best Quality export through Handbrake as well however that didn't seem to solve any problems.

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Answer 6

Rich839

Level 8

47,712 points

Dec 2, 2020 3:04 PM in response to VanishingUnderground

I can't tell why the click is occurring. I made a screen recording of a portion of the You Tube clip and imported it into iMovie. I can see the the wave form spike where the click occurs. I did a Modify/Detach Audio. At the 1:16 point I split the audio clip and trimmed out the spike. It just required removing 1 frame. I snugged the two segments together and when I played the clip the click was gone. I did hear a very tiny stutter at the trim point, because I was listening for it. Might be my imprecise editing. I patched into the lower well (at the timeline place where the click used to be) a piece of ambient noise taken from the region before the click, and that seemed to eliminate the stutter. So, not an optimum solution, but it might work. The good thing is that it happens in only 6 identifiable places.

-- Rich

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Answer 7

Rich839

Level 8

47,712 points

Dec 27, 2020 9:21 AM in response to VanishingUnderground

Great! Glad that you got it working.

-- Rich

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Audio issues when exporting to YouTube

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