Mute a video
Muting a video for good - so it plays silently for everyone, not just on your speakers - means removing its sound track. Drop a video here and Wave is already set to do that: it writes a new MP4 with the picture copied exactly and no audio, in seconds, in your browser. It's the same operation as Remove audio from video, under the name most people search for.
What actually changes
There are two ways to make a video silent. Dropping the audio track removes the sound completely, so players show no volume control at all and the file gets a little smaller. Replacing the sound with silence keeps an audio track that contains nothing, which a few editing apps and upload tools expect. Wave drops the track; the ffmpeg command for a silent track is below.
When the video is H.264, HEVC or AV1, Wave copies the picture without re-encoding, so the muted MP4 looks exactly like the original. Other formats (WMV, older AVI codecs, MPEG-2) are re-encoded to H.264 while the sound is removed, because MP4 can't carry them as they are.
Muting is often the first step before adding music in an editor, or before posting somewhere that autoplays without sound anyway. You can trim, rotate or compress in the same pass from the Options panel, which saves a second round of processing.
On the command line, `ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c copy -an output.mp4` drops the track without re-encoding. To keep a silent track instead, use `ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -c:v copy -af volume=0 -c:a aac output.mp4`, which re-encodes only the audio.
Three steps.
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Step 1
Drop the video onto Wave above. On this page, Remove the audio track is already ticked.
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Step 2
Optional: open Options to trim, rotate or compress in the same pass.
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Step 3
Select Convert to MP4 and save the muted video.
Answers, specifically.
Is muting different from removing the audio?
For the file, no: both drop the sound track. The only alternative is keeping a track that contains silence, which some editing tools want; the ffmpeg command for that is in the notes above.
Will the picture change?
Not for H.264, HEVC or AV1 video, which Wave copies byte for byte. Other formats are re-encoded to H.264, which costs a little detail.
How do I mute a video on an iPhone?
In Photos, open the video, tap Edit, tap the speaker icon at the top left so it shows a line through it, then tap Done. Photos saves the muted version and can revert it later.
How do I mute a video on a Mac without extra apps?
Yes: open it in QuickTime Player, choose Edit > Remove Audio, then save. QuickTime saves a .mov file; if you need an MP4, Wave does the removal and the conversion in one step.
Will Instagram or TikTok accept a muted video?
Yes. Both upload silent videos normally, and both let you add music from their own libraries afterwards.
Is the video uploaded?
No. Wave processes the file on your device, in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.