How to Add Subtitles in iMovie (and What to Do Instead of Importing)

Why iMovie can't take your SRT

iMovie's text tools are titles: styled text attached to a clip or a stretch of the timeline, meant for headings, names and short captions. A subtitle file is something else, a list of hundreds of timed lines that a player or editor reads and lays out automatically. iMovie has no reader for that list, so an SRT you made elsewhere can't be dropped in. What an SRT file is shows the structure iMovie would need to understand.

Route 1: type subtitles as titles

For a short clip, titles work. Choose a lower-third style title, place it over the first line of speech, type the line, and trim the title to match. Repeat for each line.

• It's fine for a 30-second clip with ten lines.
• It becomes slow beyond a couple of minutes: each line is placed, typed and trimmed by hand.
• The text is burned into the exported video and can't be turned off.

A timestamped transcript speeds this up even for short clips: you copy each line instead of transcribing by ear and know where it starts.

Route 2: send the project to an editor that imports SRT

On a Mac, iMovie can send a project to Final Cut Pro, which imports SRT captions. Free editors such as DaVinci Resolve, Shotcut and Kdenlive also import SRT; you'd export the finished video from iMovie and import that single file, then add the subtitles on top. Guides for DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and Shotcut or Kdenlive walk through each.

This is the route for anything long: the subtitles land in one step and stay editable.

Route 3: burn the SRT in after export

If you don't want to learn another editor, export the finished movie from iMovie, generate or prepare the SRT from that export, and use the free HandBrake to burn the subtitles into a new copy of the video. Adding an SRT to an MP4 with HandBrake covers the settings. The result is a single video file with subtitles everyone sees.

Route 4: keep the subtitles as a separate file

YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, LinkedIn and media players like VLC all accept SRT files alongside the video. If your video is going to one of those, you don't need subtitles inside the video at all: upload the iMovie export and its SRT separately. Viewers can turn subtitles on and off, and you can fix a typo without re-exporting. Uploading subtitles to YouTube is the most common case.

Getting the SRT, with mydubly

Export the finished movie from iMovie first (File > Share > File on a Mac, or the share button on iPhone and iPad), then upload that export to the subtitle generator. The video stays on your device; only the audio is sent. You get SRT and VTT files in the spoken language, or translated into one of 21 languages, for 1 credit per minute after the 100 free credits at sign-up. A timestamped and a plain transcript come with every run, which helps if you're using Route 1.

Limits and trade-offs

• Burned-in subtitles, from titles or HandBrake, can't be switched off or translated later without re-exporting.
• Moving to another editor means a learning curve; for a 5-minute video, typing titles may still be quicker.
• Automatic subtitles come one line per cue with no fixed length limit, and without speaker names; check and split long lines before burning them in, since you can't fix them afterwards.
• If you edit the iMovie project after making the SRT, the timings no longer match. Make subtitles last.

Choosing a route by video length

Under a minute, a few lines

Titles in iMovie. Copy each line from a timestamped transcript so you're not transcribing by ear.

A few minutes, one platform

Keep the SRT separate and upload it with the video. Nothing to learn, and fixes take seconds.

Long, or several languages

Move the export into an editor that imports SRT, or burn in with HandBrake, one copy per language.

Shared as a file in chats or on a USB stick

Burn in, because messaging apps and many TVs ignore separate subtitle files.

Whatever route you choose, keep the original export without subtitles. It's the master you return to for a new language, a corrected line or a different platform. If you plan to translate the video later, making videos translation-ready lists habits worth adopting while you edit, such as avoiding text baked into shots that a subtitle would have to cover.

Exporting from iMovie for subtitling

Export at the resolution you'll publish, and keep the audio as it is; no need for a separate audio file. If the file is very large, a smaller export is fine for making the subtitles, because only the sound matters to the timing, as long as it's the same edit. Extracting audio from a video explains the audio-only option if you'd rather upload a few megabytes than a few gigabytes.