Premiere Pro how-to
How to separate audio from video in Premiere Pro (unlink)
Short answer
Select the clip in the Timeline and choose Clip > Unlink. The audio and video become separate clips you can move, trim or delete on their own. To make a new audio-only file instead, select the clip in the Project panel and choose Clip > Audio Options > Extract Audio. For a one-off selection, Alt-click (Option-click) just the audio or video part without unlinking.
Checked against: Adobe Premiere (formerly Premiere Pro), 2026 releases, Windows and Mac.
Method 1: Unlink in the Timeline
Select the clip
Click the clip in the Timeline. Linked clips select their audio and video together.
Unlink
Choose Clip > Unlink (or right-click > Unlink). The audio and video can now move independently.
ClipUnlink
Delete or move the part you don't need
Click empty Timeline space, then select only the audio (or video) and delete or move it.
Relink later
Shift-click the audio and video clips and choose Clip > Link to make them one unit again.
ClipLink
Method 2: Extract the audio as a new file
Extract Audio
In the Project panel, select the clips and choose Clip > Audio Options > Extract Audio. New audio files named with "Audio Extracted" appear in the project; the originals stay untouched.
ClipAudio OptionsExtract Audio
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If it doesn't work
| What you see | Fix |
|---|---|
| Unlink is greyed out | Select the clip in the Timeline, not the Project panel. Clips without audio have nothing to unlink. |
| Moving the audio pulls the video too | Linked Selection is on and the clips are still linked. Unlink them, or Alt-click to select one part. |
| Red numbers appear on the clips | Those show how many frames audio and video are out of sync. Right-click the number and choose Move into Sync. |
| Need the audio as an MP3 | Export with File > Export > Media and choose an audio format such as MP3, or use Extract Audio for a WAV in the project. |
Questions people ask
How do I delete the audio from a video in Premiere Pro?
Unlink the clip (Clip > Unlink), select only the audio part and press Delete. Or Alt-click the audio and delete it.
Does unlinking change my original file?
No. It only changes the clip instances in the sequence; the source media and Project panel clip are untouched.
Can I link several audio clips to one video?
Yes. Adobe allows one video clip linked to several audio clips, each on its own track with the same channel format.
More Premiere Pro guides
Sources and how we checked
- Adobe Help: Link audio and video clips (checked 2026-10-05; Adobe blocks automated readers; text read from the Internet Archive copy of 27 Sep 2026)
- Adobe Help: Extract audio from clips (checked 2026-10-05; Adobe blocks automated readers; text read from the Internet Archive copy of 20 Sep 2026)
Adobe documents Link, Unlink and Extract Audio; the Alt-click selection, out-of-sync indicators and audio-only export follow Premiere's current behaviour as described by several current guides.
Reviewed October 5, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Each step is compared with Premiere Pro's own documentation (linked above) and with the top search results for this task; where they disagree, the maker's documentation wins. Steps without a source link follow the menu names that several current guides agree on.