How to Import Voice Memos Into iMovie

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Add voice memos to iMovie on Mac or iPhone

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: February 6, 2025

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iPhone/iPad

|

Mac

This wikiHow teaches you how to add recordings from your iPhone, iPad, or Mac's Voice Memos app to an iMovie project. Since voice memos are automatically saved in a common audio format (MP4), it's as easy as sharing or dragging the file into your iMovie project.

How to Add a Voice Memo to iMovie

On an iPhone or iPad, open the Voice Memos app and click “Share” on the voice memo you want to import. Then, tap the iMovie app and select the movie you want to add it to. On Mac, open iMovie and the project you want to edit. Open the Voice Memos app and drag the voice memo to your project.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

iPhone/iPad

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It's the black icon with a red and white waveform and a blue cursor on top. A list of your recordings will appear.
The play controls will appear below.

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These three horizontal dots are at the audio's bottom-left corner. A menu will expand.
This opens the sharing menu.
You may have to swipe left across the row of app icons until you find iMovie's purple-and-white star icon. This will open iMovie.
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Select your movie. Once you select your movie from the list, the voice memo will be added to the project. Unless the clip is less than a minute long, the audio will expand to fit your video. If it's a shorter clip, it will be behave like a sound effect and just play once.
- If you see an error that says the memo cannot be added, try closing both apps. Then, open iMovie, select your project, return to the home screen, and then re-open Voice Memos. It should work now.
- You can adjust the audio length by dragging the left or right edge of each clip.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Mac

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If you haven't already, click the iMovie icon, which is the purple-and-white star in your Applications folder in Finder.
This opens the project in the timeline.^{[1]
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Open the Voice Memos app on your Mac. It's the black icon with a red and white waveform and blue cursor. You will find it your Applications folder in Finder.
- If you recorded your voice memo on your iPhone or iPad and have Voice Memos set to sync with iCloud, you should also see your iPhone/iPad voice memos in the app.^{[2]
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Drag the voice memo into your iMovie project. If you want the voice memo to stay with the clip even if you move it somewhere else in the project, drag it just below the clip. If you'd rather the voice memo not move when you rearrange clips, drag it to the bottom of the project (to the "music well" area, which is indicated by the music note icon).^{[3]
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- If the clip is less than a minute long, it will just play once. If it's longer, it will adjust to fit the length of the video.