On Mac

  1. Select the clip in the timeline.
  2. Click the Noise Reduction and Equalizer button above the viewer.
  3. Tick Reduce background noise and drag the slider (0 to 100%).
  4. Play it back and adjust.

Source: iMovie for Mac User Guide, support.apple.com, checked on 19 October 2026.

On iPhone and iPad

The iPhone and iPad versions of iMovie offer volume, mute, fade, speed and automatic music ducking, but no noise reduction (iMovie for iPhone User Guide).

  1. Open the video in Noise Reducer and save the cleaned version to Photos.
  2. Start your iMovie project with the cleaned video.
  3. Edit as usual. The voice is already clean.

Questions and answers

Can iMovie on iPhone remove background noise?

No. The noise reduction control is only in iMovie for Mac.

Is iMovie noise reduction good?

It helps with steady noise. For wind, traffic and changing noise, a speech model usually does better.