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I'm using iMovie 10.1.9 on High Sierra. My AirPods are paired and all of my audio is playing through them but I am unable to choose them to record a voice over in iMovie. I've even set them as the default input source in sound preferences but the internal microphone is always used.

I also attempted to record a voice over on iMovie on my iPad Pro, and again, it only uses the internal microphone. I can hear audio in the AirPods but it doesn't use the microphone in the AirPods to record the voice over.

In both cases I can tell that it's not using the AirPods microphone because I can hear lots of reverb and background noise. I also hear nothing if I tap on either of the Airpods when recording but do hear a noise when I tap on the MacBook or iPad body.

Am I missing something or does this just not work?

iMovie Voice Over Input Source System Preferences, default Input Source

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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+50

I couldn't do it in iMovie either (just as you show in your screenshots), but I have an idea.

Just record the audio using Quicktime Player.

Open Quicktime Player and select "New Audio Recording." Your Airpods should show up there as an audio source.

To time the audio with your video, start recording, then switch to iMovie. Hit play on the video timeline (ensure you have no sound playing) and talk along with the video.

Then take your resulting recording from Quicktime Player, pull it into iMovie, lay it on your timeline and sync it up. (Obviously you'll want to trim the ends off.)

(There are alternatives, such as using Soundflower to create patches from one audio source to another, but that seemed a lot more convoluted and complicated to go into.)

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    Thanks, that at least confirms I'm not crazy and not doing something wrong. It's a case of Apple hardware not working with Apple software...
    – ellipse-of-uncertainty
    Commented May 18, 2018 at 13:18
  • I think it’s more about synchronization. Bluetooth audio adds latency as the data is buffered. Your voiceover would be behind the video, so for quality’s sake, I think they don’t allow it for input in iMovie. They mention the delay in GarageBand when using AirPods, and it is pretty noticeable.
    – Bryan Scott
    Commented May 19, 2018 at 15:49
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I found a way to trick iMovie into accepting my AirPods by creating a new Aggregate Device with the Audio Midi Setup Tool. First launch the Audio Midi Setup app, and click the + in the bottom left of the window. Select Create Aggregate Device

Create Aggregate Device

Next select your AirPods input device as the only device in the aggregate and name it something useful.

Select Airpods

Finally, you'll be able to select your new Aggregate Device in the microphone selection dropdown in iMovie. Hope this helps somebody in my position in the future!

Select new Aggregate in iMovie

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  • This worked for me on OS 10.13 - very nice thank you
    – Jake N
    Commented Sep 23, 2019 at 22:50
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I saw this youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnfs10cTlFg Hope it can help you

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