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How can I strip the audio track out of a video file with FFmpeg?

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    Simple: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map v -c copy video.mp4 and ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -map a -c copy audio.mp4 (you can also use -an and -vn to remove audio/video) Commented Oct 21, 2024 at 20:28
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    @Puddle Your comment should have been another answer, and not a comment. Commented Feb 4 at 11:47
  • @DenilsonSáMaia Thank you. I would've but i need to earn 10 reputation here first :} Commented Feb 5 at 2:49

6 Answers 6

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You remove audio by using the -an flag:

input_file=example.mkv output_file=example-nosound.mkv ffmpeg -i $input_file -c copy -an $output_file

This ffmpeg flag is documented here.

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    I'm a bash and ffmpeg newbie but I put this answer together with some other pieces to create function ffsilent { ffmpeg -i $1 -c copy -an "$1-nosound.${1#*.}" } which you can use in your profile to quickly create a silent version of any video file. Commented Dec 16, 2019 at 15:18
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    @Aaron nice, but should be function ffsilent { ffmpeg -i "$1" -c copy -an "${1%.*}-nosound.${1#*.}" } or you'll end up with "file.mp4-nosound.mp4" when using it on "file.mp4". Commented Jul 7, 2020 at 8:52
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    This doesn't carry over GPS coordinates. Commented Dec 8, 2020 at 16:43
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    @rlittles Yes, -c copy always avoids re-encoding, If it can't it will fail with an error. Commented Jul 10, 2022 at 0:35
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    Be sure to put the -an flag before $output_file Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 14:11
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You probably don't want to reencode the video (a slow and lossy process), so try:

input_file=example.mkv output_file=example-nosound.mkv ffmpeg -i $input_file -vcodec copy -an $output_file

(n.b. some Linux distributions now come with the avconv fork of ffmpeg)

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    This didn't make any difference to me compared to the accepted solution. Commented Dec 29, 2017 at 0:49
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    vcodec is an alias for -c:v, so specifically it'd copy the video stream only. The only data you're preventing with this would be subtitles, metadata, etc from what I can see. Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 15:48
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    In other words, this solution can conceivably lose more information than the accepted solution. Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 15:12
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    We can call this "only video" solution :+1: Commented Nov 1, 2021 at 10:44
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    I agree: This here is the "copy video only" solution, whereas the accepted answer is the "copy everything but audio" solution. Commented Nov 9, 2022 at 19:03
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avconv -i [input_file] -vcodec copy -an [output_file]

If you cannot install ffmpeg because of existing of avconv try that .

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You can also use the -map option of ffmpeg to get better control on what exactly will be put into the final video container.

Lets say for example that your video file my_video.mp4 is composed this way:

Input #0 Stream #0:0 Video: h264 Stream #0:1 Audio: English Stream #0:2 Audio: German Stream #0:3 Audio: Japanese Stream #0:4 Audio: Spanish Stream #0:5 Audio: Italian

To remove all audio tracks (like the -an option does):

ffmpeg -i my_video.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:a -c copy my_video.noaudio.mp4`

-map 0 grabs the entire input (videos, audios, subtitles, metadata, chapters, etc.).
-map -0:a removes all audio tracks from input 0 (notice the - sign).
-c copy copies as it is without re-encoding.

To remove the Japanese and Spanish tracks:

ffmpeg -i my_video.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:3 -map -0:4 -c copy my_video.nojap.noesp.mp4`

-map -0:3 removes track nr. 3 from input 0, which is the Japanese audio.
-map -0:4 removes track nr. 4 from input 0, which is the Spanish audio.

The same can also be achieved by using the format 0:a:N:

ffmpeg -i my_video.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:a:2 -map -0:a:3 -c copy my_video.nojap.noesp.mp4`

-map -0:a:2 removes audio track nr. 2 from input 0, which is the Japanese audio.
-map -0:a:3 removes audio track nr. 3 from input 0, which is the Spanish audio.

To remove all audio tracks but Italian:

ffmpeg -i my_video.mp4 -map 0 -map -0:a -map 0:5 -c copy my_video.ita.mp4`

-map -0:a removes all audio tracks from input 0.
-map 0:5 inserts the 5th track from input 0, which is the Italian audio (notice NO - sign in this case).

This is also very useful also when dealing with more than one file.
For example when:

  • grabbing audio from one file
  • audio tracks from another one
  • subtitles and metadata from a third one
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    To show tracks map of media file you could use ffprobe utility bundled with ffmpeg: [ffprobe my_video.mp4] Commented Dec 20, 2024 at 23:47
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I put together a short code snippet that automates the process of removing audio from videos files for a whole directory that contains video files:

FILES=/{videos_dir}/* output_dir=/{no_audio_dir} for input_file in $FILES do file_name=$(basename $input_file) output_file="$output_dir/$file_name" ffmpeg -i $input_file -c copy -an $output_file done

I hope this one helps!

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  • Out of interest, how would I use this snippet when there are spaces in the video dir (and output dir)? Commented Aug 12, 2022 at 14:26
  • @PaulSkinner adding quotes should be enough eg: file_name=$(basename "$input_file") Commented Jan 6, 2023 at 13:27
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I have taken @apolak's answer and turned it in to a recursive loop for all folders underneath the input folder. It will retain the directory layout of the input folder, and you can set a max-depth for it to recurse through. The output directory must not be a child of the input directory or it will error, to stop accidental infinite recursion. It should also be fine with spaces in filenames and paths.

NOTE: all files within the input directory will be attempted to be processed, so make sure they're all video files.

#!/bin/bash process_files() { local current_dir="$1" local output_dir="$2" local max_depth="$3" local depth="${4:-0}" # Set default value of 0 if $4 is not set if [ "$depth" -gt "$max_depth" ]; then return fi # Check if output directory is a subdirectory of the input directory and error # This should stop accidental recursive loops if [[ "$output_dir" == "$current_dir"* ]]; then echo "Error: Output directory is a subdirectory of the input directory" exit 1 fi mkdir -p "$output_dir" for input_file in "$current_dir"/* do if [ -d "$input_file" ]; then # If the input file is a directory, recurse into it process_files "$input_file" "$output_dir/$(basename "$input_file")" "$max_depth" "$((depth+1))" elif [ -f "$input_file" ]; then # If the input file is a regular file, process it local file_name=$(basename "$input_file") local output_file="$output_dir/$file_name" ffmpeg -i "$input_file" -c copy -an "$output_file" fi done } # Call function with input and output directories and maximum depth process_files "/Volumes/Storage/ORIGINAL" "/Volumes/Storage/MUTED" 2 # Set the maximum recursion depth to 2
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  • It's easier to have one script that does it for one single file. And then you can run: find . -name '*.mp4' -exec name-of-your-script {} ';' Alternatively, you could do: find … | while read f ; do something something "$f" ; done Commented Feb 6 at 17:51
  • If anyone fancies letting me know why it's getting downvoted, I'm happy to accept feedback. Commented Apr 14 at 8:42

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