DaVinci Resolve's Deliver page documents exactly two checkboxes that decide whether your rendered file contains audio at all, plus one dropdown that decides which mix goes into it. That is the whole verifiable surface. The other explanations you will find for a silent export — muted tracks, broken bus routing, encoder bugs — do not appear anywhere in Blackmagic's own documentation, so this page stays with what the reference manual and the official codec list actually say.
What the Deliver page actually controls
The DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual describes the two switches word for word:
"Export Video: Turn this checkbox on to render the source video. Turn this checkbox off if you want to render the source audio all by itself; this disables all video controls, and shows an Audio Format dropdown menu in the audio section of settings."
"Export audio: Turn this checkbox on to render the source audio, or audio that you've synchronized in DaVinci Resolve, along with the media being output by DaVinci Resolve."
"Export audio" is the switch that puts sound into a video file. It is not the audio-only toggle — that is what turning Export Video off does, and the manual says doing so replaces the video controls with an Audio Format dropdown.
If the box is off, the render is silent by design and nothing in your timeline changes that. It is the first thing to check, and in practice the last thing most people check.
The fastest fix
- Open the Deliver page and look at the render settings.
- Confirm Export audio is checked. On its own, that accounts for a video file with no sound.
- Look at the Output Track # dropdown before re-rendering. The manual: "Output Track #: This dropdown menu lets you choose which Main or Submix bus you want to output. A Plus button to the right lets you add additional tracks you want to export in this job"
- Add the job to the render queue and render again.
Step 3 is the one that surprises people. The dropdown outputs one bus — a Main or a Submix — and the Plus button is how the manual says you add further tracks to the same job. Whatever bus that dropdown is pointing at is the bus that gets written.
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
Before you re-render a long timeline, confirm what is inside the file you already exported. Pulling the audio out takes seconds and separates two different problems: a file with no audio stream at all, versus a stream that happens to be silent. This runs in your browser, so the render stays on your machine — extract audio from video is the same tool on its own page.
Other documented causes, in order of likelihood
The preset already picked your audio source
Render presets are not neutral. The manual: "Each preset automatically sets up what you need and locks you out of settings that are not necessary for rendering that type of media." For audio, the shipped presets differ in one interesting way:
| Preset | Audio source | Audio codec |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube 720p / 1080p / 1440p / 2160p | "Audio: Main 1" | "Audio Codec: AAC" |
| Vimeo 720p / 1080p / 2160p | "Audio: Bus 1" | "Audio Codec: AAC" |
| TikTok Deliver Page Preset | "Audio: Bus 1" | "Audio Codec: AAC" |
| Dropbox or Dropbox Replay | "Audio: Bus 1" | "Audio Codec: AAC" |
Every value in that table is quoted verbatim from the manual's preset descriptions. The master presets are just as opinionated: for H.264 Master and H.265 Master alike, "Audio defaults to the Codec being AAC with the Data Rate set to 320 Kb/s and the Bit Depth set to 16."
So changing preset changes which bus is read. That is documented behaviour, not a glitch.
One bus goes out unless you ask for more
Alongside Output Track #, the manual documents a path for whole-timeline audio:
"In Single Clip Mode, when you choose "All Timeline Tracks, each audio track in the current timeline will be rendered as an individual track in the rendered media file you're outputting."
The unmatched quotation mark is in Blackmagic's original text. Two further checkboxes shape the result:
"Render one track per channel checkbox: This checkbox lets you specify whether you want to export each channel as an individual track in the structure of the exported file. Multi-channel formats can be specified (2.0, 5.1, etc.), or can be output as flat multi-mono files."
"Render as discrete audio tracks checkbox: This checkbox is similar to the above, in that it still outputs one channel per track. However, discrete tracks have no positioning info, nor do they group as multi-channel clips (2.0, 5.1, etc.)."
When audio is written as several separate tracks rather than one mixed stereo track, what a player does with the extra tracks is the player's decision, not Resolve's. That is the same shape of problem as a multitrack screen recording — see OBS recording has no audio.
The audio codec has to exist on your platform
Blackmagic's Supported Formats and Codecs document (July 2025) lists only four audio encodings with any Encode value at all: Linear PCM in WAV, MP3, AAC/M4A, and FLAC. AIFF, OPUS, AC-3 and u-law show "–" in the Encode column on every platform, meaning read-only.
One of the four is platform-dependent, and the official sources disagree about how:
- The reference manual: "Codec: Lets you choose between Linear PCM (the default), AAC audio, IEEE Float, or MP3. AAC audio encoding is only available on macOS."
- The codec list gives Windows an AAC Encode value of "CBR, VBR, average", and gives Rocky Linux 8.6 (CUDA) "–".
The only point both documents agree on is that AAC cannot be encoded on Linux. For Windows they contradict each other outright, so check the official documentation rather than trusting one of them. That conflict is worth its own read: AAC encoding on macOS only.
The same document's embedded-audio row for macOS and Windows reads "Linear PCM 16/24/32-bit, AAC (based on container), mp3 (based on container), flac (based on container)"; the Rocky Linux version omits AAC. "Based on container" is Blackmagic's phrase — for which container permits which codec, check the official documentation.
For a result that never depends on any of this, render WAV. Linear PCM ("Linear PCM 16/24/32-bit"), MP3 ("Constant bit rate") and FLAC ("Yes") all carry an Encode value on all three platforms; AAC is the only one of the four that is platform-dependent. The audio-only route is covered in exporting MP3 from DaVinci Resolve, and WAV to MP3 handles the conversion afterwards.
What Blackmagic does not document
This matters as much as the list above. A muted timeline track, a mis-patched Fairlight bus, and encoder faults are the three causes repeated most often online, and none of them appear in the reference manual or the codec list as a cause of a silent export. They may still be worth checking in your session, but do not treat them as documented behaviour — check the official documentation before acting on any of them.
How to tell it worked
Render, then open the file and pull the audio out of it before you send it anywhere. If an audio stream comes out and plays, the export is fine. If nothing comes out, the render wrote no audio, which points back at the Export audio checkbox. If a stream comes out but is silent, the checkbox did its job and the Output Track # selection is the next thing to look at.
FAQ
Why does my DaVinci Resolve export have no sound? The two documented causes are the Export audio checkbox being off and the Output Track # dropdown pointing at a bus other than the one carrying your mix. The manual describes the second as letting "you choose which Main or Submix bus you want to output".
Can I export audio only from DaVinci Resolve? Yes. Per the manual, turning Export Video off renders "the source audio all by itself", disables the video controls and reveals an Audio Format dropdown. There is also a dedicated Audio Only preset, which "defaults to rendering the Main 1 bus as a single clip".
Does Resolve export all of my timeline's audio tracks? Not by default. Output Track # outputs one Main or Submix bus, with a Plus button for adding more. The manual documents an "All Timeline Tracks" choice in Single Clip Mode that renders each audio track as an individual track in the output file.
Why can't I pick AAC on my machine? Depends on your platform, and the official sources disagree. The manual states AAC encoding is "only available on macOS"; the codec list gives Windows CBR, VBR and average, and gives Linux nothing. Only the Linux answer is consistent across both.
Is a muted track the reason? Blackmagic's documentation does not say so. It is not listed as a cause anywhere in the reference manual or the codec list, so treat it as an unverified suggestion rather than a documented one.
Render once, check the file, and fix the checkbox rather than the timeline. If something else on the Deliver page is misbehaving, more export fixes covers the rest — and all Clapr tools run in your browser, with nothing uploaded.
Quotations from the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual and Blackmagic's Supported Formats and Codecs document (July 2025), checked 16 September 2026. Blackmagic changes these documents without notice; verify against the official versions before relying on them.
