Unuploaded

Converter · No upload · No re-encode

Remove audio from a video — mute an MP4, MOV or M4V without uploading it

Drop in your own MP4, M4V or MOV and get the same video back with the sound taken out. The picture is copied across untouched — same codec, same resolution, same quality, same kind of file — because nothing here decodes or re-encodes your video. It runs in this tab, and the network meter below proves it live.

Statusidle Files— File— Video track— Duration— Audio track— Audio bytes removed— File size— Network since file read—

How this tool works

An MP4, M4V or MOV file is two things stacked together: a big blob of compressed media data, and an index that says which tracks exist and where each track's chunks of that data begin. Removing the sound does not require touching the media at all — it requires editing the index. So when you choose a file, this page reads only the index, deletes the audio track's entry, works out which byte ranges belong to the tracks that survive, and writes a new file: the same top-level metadata, the rebuilt index, and the surviving chunks copied straight across. The result is a silent file, not a muted playback setting — the sound track is gone from the bytes. Your video's compressed picture data is never decoded and never recompressed, so the output carries the same codec, resolution and frame rate, and the same picture, byte for byte. The new file is assembled as a list of ranges of the original rather than a copy in memory, which is why a two-gigabyte video does not need two gigabytes of RAM, and the index is written ahead of the media so the result starts playing without reading the whole file first. This tool downloads no code of any kind to do the work — no decoder, no encoder, no worker — so the network meter arms on your first file and has nothing left to count.

Here is the trade we made on your behalf, stated before you spend time rather than after. There is a way to build this that accepts every format your browser can play: play the video with the sound off and re-record the picture as it goes. It is the approach most in-browser tools take, and it has three costs that are easy to hide. It re-encodes, so the picture is compressed a second time and visibly degrades. It runs in real time, so a three-minute clip takes three minutes. And it always writes WebM, so your MP4 comes back as a different kind of file that some phones, editors and messaging apps will not open. We decided that quietly handing you a worse copy of your own video was the wrong trade, so this tool does the lossless rewrite instead and accepts only the container family where that rewrite is honest. Everything else is refused by name, with the reason on the row — you are never left waiting on something that was going to disappoint you.

The honest limits. Every number in the readout is read from the file's own index and reported as the file declares it — codec, resolution, duration, channel count, sample rate — and because nothing is decoded, this page cannot verify that your video actually plays; it can only report what the container says about it. Files that are refused, always by name and never silently: containers that are not ISO base media (Matroska, WebM, AVI, Windows Media, Ogg, Flash Video), fragmented MP4 files whose index is spread through the file, DRM-protected files, files whose index is damaged or disagrees with their contents, files that already have no audio track, and the rare file using the compact sample-size table this rewrite does not handle. There is deliberately no cap on how long a video may be, because length is not what costs anything here — nothing is re-encoded. What does cost is size, so files over 2 GB, over 500,000 samples, or over 200,000 chunks are refused outright with the measured figure printed next to the limit. A file over a limit is never shortened to fit; handing back a truncated video would be the worst thing this page could do.

Frequently asked questions

Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. The browser reads the file from your disk and this page rewrites it in the tab you are looking at. This tool is unusual even for this site in that it downloads nothing at all to do its job — no decoder, no encoder, no worker script — so the network meter in the readout arms the moment your file is read and then has nothing left to count. The methodology page shows how to verify that independently, including the airplane-mode test, which a converter that secretly uploaded could never pass.
Does this re-encode the video or reduce its quality?
No. Your video's compressed picture data is copied from the old file into the new one without being decoded, so the output carries the same codec, the same resolution, the same frame rate and byte-identical picture. What changes is the index: the audio track's entry is deleted and the remaining track's chunk positions are renumbered to match the new layout. That is why the result comes back as the same kind of file you put in — an MP4 stays an MP4, a MOV stays a MOV — and why it finishes in seconds rather than taking as long as the video is.
Why only MP4, M4V and MOV, and not MKV, WebM or AVI?
Because those three share one container format whose index can be rewritten honestly, and the others do not. The usual way a browser tool handles every format is to play the video silently and re-record it, which does work everywhere — but it re-encodes the picture, so quality visibly drops; it takes as long as the video is long; and it hands back a WebM no matter what you started with. We decided that quietly degrading your file was worse than declining the job, so files we cannot rewrite losslessly are refused by name instead. A dedicated video tool on your computer is the right answer for those containers.
Is the audio really gone, or just hidden?
Really gone. A lazier rewrite would delete the audio track's entry from the index and leave its compressed bytes sitting in the file unreferenced — the video would play silently, but the sound would still be recoverable and the file would not shrink. This one copies only the bytes belonging to the tracks that survive, so the audio data is not carried over at all. The result row prints how many bytes of audio were dropped and the before and after file sizes, so you can check the arithmetic yourself.
Why did my file get refused?
Each refusal names its own reason on its own row, and one bad file never stops the rest of a batch. The usual causes: the file is a different container wearing an .mp4 name; it is a fragmented MP4, whose index is spread through the file rather than held in one place; it is DRM-protected, where deleting a track would produce something unplayable; it is damaged or was interrupted mid-recording, so its index disagrees with its contents; it already has no audio track, in which case no file is made because there is nothing to do; or it is over the 2 GB size limit, in which case it is refused outright rather than shortened.

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