How to Fix Audio Delay on Mac - 3 Easy Ways

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Olga Weis Jul 26, 2021

How to sync video and audio? Desync is a frustrating, immersion-breaking problem that may build up as the video goes on. It may happen due to different causes. Depending on the cause, it may sometimes be fixed in the player, or you may have to resort to editing software. Whatever the case, this article should help you identify and solve the problem.

Sync Audio and Video of Equal Duration - Elmedia Player

Adjusting audio delay in a video player for Mac is the simplest desync solution, that doesn’t require you to edit and re-render the video in any way. In Elmedia Player, this option can be found in Audio - Increase/Decrease Audio Delay. If you need to change the delay by a lot, we recommend that you use hotkeys. This makes the process easier and quicker. Note that this fix will only work if both tracks have the same duration. It won’t help if audio or video is sped up or damaged with missing parts.

Sync video and audio with Elmedia Player

How to Synchronize Audio with Video in Elmedia Player

1. Download Elmedia Player and open it.

2. Start playing the video.

3. If the sync audio and video aren’t aligned, or if audio needs to be slowed down, select Decrease Audio Delay. Delay option in the Audio menu (or use the ‘⇧⌘[‘ hotkey).

4. When the situation is opposite and the audio is behind the video, select ‘Increase Audio’ option in the Audio menu (or use the ‘⇧⌘]‘ hotkey).

Whenever you are adjusting the timing, the OSD message will be displayed in the top left corner of the player window. The message quickly disappears once you are done.

How to Sync Audio and Video on Mac in VLC

VLC has a sync option for audio. It’s easily accessible, and works both if the audio is too far ahead or lagging behind. Once again, this only works if the audio has the same length as the video. In other cases, you’ll need to edit it and adjust the track length.

How to Use VLC to Synchronize Audio and Video

1. Open a video in VLC.

2. Click Window - Track Synchronization.

3. Set "Audio track synchronization".

Remember that you can also set it to negative values. Useful if the audio is ahead of the video.

iMovie - a Direct Approach to Synchronization

If you find yourself frequently rewatching a desynchronized video, or don’t have access to a player with an adjustable video delay, you can use an editing app. If done correctly, this will permanently synchronize your file. iMovie is a good choice, since it’s a stock that you can find on any Mac.

How to Sync Tracks in iMovie

Open iMovie and import your video.
Add it to the timeline by dragging.
Right-click the video track on the timeline and choose "Detach Audio".
Move either the video or the audio track around to try and synchronize them.
Test sync by previewing the video.
Click "File - Share - File…" and save the clip.

Possible Desynchronization Reasons

There are several possible reasons why a video might have bad sync.

Misaligned tracks - audio may start playing sooner or later than video, producing constant, unchanging delay.
Different track duration - may be caused by a broken container or improper encoding. In this case, a simple delay tweak might not be enough, and you’ll have to extend or shorten one of the tracks in an editing app.
Corrupted parts of the video - a player might skip over damaged parts of one track, but the other track will continue playing as usual. This defect type is difficult to fix. It’s easier to have a backup, if it’s important.

You may be interested in related articles

1. What does it mean to sync audio and video?

Simply put, syncing audio to video is to align the audio output with the video output so they match. When this happens, the video plays perfectly and the experience is much more enjoyable to the viewers. There’s nothing worse than watching a video with an audio delay.

2. How do I fix Audio and out-of-sync video?

You can use Elmedia Player audio delay Mac software to get the job done. In just a few simple steps you’ll be able to match the audio and video and never have delays or mismatched videos again.

3. Why is my video lagging behind my audio?

There are many reasons why sync audio and video issues may happen. Some have to do with the video itself, sometimes it’s the source (like a receiver or cable box, etc.), or other processing issues. So it requires editing after the fact, to align the audio to the video to get it just right.

4. How do I fix the audio delay on my Mac Bluetooth?

Due to the time required to encode and decode bluetooth signals, there is always some delay on bluetooth audio devices. You can try adjusting the audio delay in your player (we suggest Elmedia Player) to compensate for it. If you go back to wired headphones or your Mac’s speakers, don’t forget to reset the delay!

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Requirements: macOS 10.12+ , 89.2MB of free space
Version 8.8(3188) (19 Sep, 2022) Release notes
Category: MultimediaApplication

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Dreamer 2022-08-27T02:29:41

...if audio needs to be slowed down, select Decrease Audio Delay — I thinks it's the opposite, if the audio is ahead of the video then INCREASE the AUDIO DELAY and the video should thus synch with the audio.