remotion-dev/remotion · error · Error

No audio track found

Error message

No audio track found

What it means

Thrown inside useWindowedAudioData()'s metadata fetch when mediabunny's input.getPrimaryAudioTrack() returns a falsy track (line 132-134). It means the container either has no audio stream at all or only has video/data tracks, so there is nothing to window or visualize. The thrown error is caught and forwarded to cancelRender(), which fails the Remotion render.

Solutions

  1. Confirm the source file actually contains an audio stream using ffprobe <file> or mediainfo; look for an Audio stream entry.
  2. If the asset is intentionally silent, do not call useWindowedAudioData; render a flat waveform placeholder instead.
  3. Re-mux/transcode the asset to include an audio track (e.g. ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v copy -c:a aac out.mp4).
  4. Point the hook at the original audio source rather than a derived video proxy that may have dropped audio.

Example fix

// before (video-only src -> 'No audio track found')
const {audioData} = useWindowedAudioData({src: staticFile('clip-no-audio.mp4'), ...});

// after (validate before use, fall back gracefully)
const hasAudio = await probeAudioTrack(staticFile('clip.mp4'));
return hasAudio
  ? <Waveform src={staticFile('clip.mp4')} ... />
  : <SilentWaveformPlaceholder />;
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Probe the file for an audio stream before invoking the hook
import {execFileSync} from 'child_process';

function hasAudioTrack(file: string): boolean {
  const out = execFileSync('ffprobe', ['-v', 'error', '-select_streams', 'a', '-show_entries', 'stream=index', '-of', 'csv=p=0', file], {encoding: 'utf8'});
  return out.trim().length > 0;
}

// in the component:
return hasAudioTrack(file)
  ? <Waveform src={file} ... />
  : <SilentWaveformPlaceholder />;

Type guard

async function hasAudioTrackMediabunny(src: string): Promise<boolean> {
  const {Input} = await import('mediabunny');
  const input = new Input({source: src});
  try {
    return Boolean(await input.getPrimaryAudioTrack());
  } catch {
    return false;
  } finally {
    input.dispose();
  }
}

Try / catch

// useWindowedAudioData forwards this to cancelRender(); wrap an ErrorBoundary
// around the composition subtree and fall back to a static placeholder:
// <ErrorBoundary fallback={<StaticWaveform/>}>
//   <WindowedWaveform src={src} .../>
// </ErrorBoundary>

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Pointing useWindowedAudioData at a video-only file (no audio stream), a silent/placeholder MP4 with a video track only, a muted proxy export, a still image mislabeled as audio, or a corrupt file where the audio track could not be parsed.

Common situations: Using a stock video clip that ships video-only; rendering a waveform for an asset that was transcoded without an audio track (-an flag); pointing at the wrong file (e.g. a thumbnail); progressive download truncated before the audio moov atom.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@46a3a6bf13 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/267a02f2c7e968df. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at packages/media-utils/src/use-windowed-audio-data.ts:141

					...(initialRequestInit
						? {requestInit: initialRequestInit}
						: undefined),
				}),
			});

			const onAbort = () => {
				input.dispose();
			};

			signal.addEventListener('abort', onAbort, {once: true});

			try {
				const durationInSeconds = await input.computeDuration();

				const audioTrack = await input.getPrimaryAudioTrack();

				if (!audioTrack) {
					throw new Error('No audio track found');
				}

				if (await audioTrack.isLive()) {
					throw new Error(
						'Live streams are not currently supported by Remotion. Sorry! Source: ' +
							src,
					);
				}

				if (await audioTrack.isRelativeToUnixEpoch()) {
					throw new Error(
						'Streams with UNIX timestamps are not currently supported by Remotion. Sorry! Source: ' +
							src,
					);
				}

				const canDecode = await audioTrack.canDecode();

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