Shotcut ships a FLAC preset under Export > Presets > audio, and Shotcut's FAQ describes FLAC as "lossless with compression." This guide walks through the export itself, then through two changes recorded in the official release notes that explain why a FLAC file from Shotcut may not look or behave the way you expect in a player.
You need a project open, something on the Timeline (or a clip loaded in the Source player), and a few minutes — FLAC exports still go through the Jobs panel like any other export.
Before you start
Two things from the official user guide are worth internalising before you click anything.
First, exporting is not saving. The guide is blunt about it:
"The Export panel (also File > Export Video...) is used to create a new video or audio file from your project because File > Save saves a project file."
Second, this is a re-encode, not a copy. The user guide's first sentence on the subject:
"Shotcut can not "pass through" or copy codecs without re-encoding."
So "lossless" here describes the FLAC encoder, not the whole chain. If the audio you are feeding it came from a lossy source, FLAC preserves exactly what Shotcut hands the encoder — it does not recover anything the original codec already threw away. That is still worth doing when you plan to edit or master the file afterwards; it is not worth doing as a way to "upgrade" an MP3.
Step 1: Choose what you are exporting
The From dropdown at the top of the Export panel decides the source, and it offers more than the timeline. The guide lists these among the options:
"Timeline: This is the default if you have added anything to the Timeline."
"Source: You can export a single clip that has been trimmed and filtered in the Source player."
"Each Playlist Bin Item: Exports a separate file for each item in the playlist or, optionally, the current bin if using playlist bins."
That last one is the one people misread — it writes one file per item, not one merged file. There is also a Marker... entry, and the guide narrows what qualifies:
"Export > From lists all range markers (duration longer than 1 frame). Selecting a marker here allows the exporting of just that section of the timeline."
So if you only want the audio of one section, put a range marker on it first rather than exporting everything and trimming later.
Step 2: Pick the FLAC preset
Choose audio > FLAC from the preset list. Shotcut's FAQ puts FLAC in a shortlist of three for this job:
"Extract the audio: Ogg Vorbis, FLAC (lossless with compression), or good old MP3"
Do not skip the preset here. Unlike a normal video export, where the guide says the defaults are fine on their own —
"NOTE: It is not necessary to choose a preset! Shotcut comes with default values that creates a high quality H.264 MP4 file at a reasonable size and speed that automatically adapts to the resolution, frame rate, and visual complexity of your project."
— the default path gives you an MP4 with video in it. The preset is what makes the export audio-only.
Step 3: Export and watch the job
Click Export File, name the file, and let it run. The guide's Quick Start table adds one instruction that people ignore on long exports:
"Do not close Shotcut until the export finishes."
Jobs run one after another rather than all at once:
"Sequential Processing: By default, Shotcut processes one job at a time to maximize system resources. As one job finishes, the next in the list begins automatically."
If the job ends with a red X, right-click it and open the log — the guide calls that window "Essential for diagnosing "Failed" exports."
If you only need the audio track out of a finished video file and do not want to open an editor at all, you can do that in a browser tab instead:
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
This runs locally on your machine, so nothing is uploaded. For the reverse direction — turning a big lossless file into something you can actually send to someone — FLAC to MP3 and the rest of all Clapr tools cover it.
Two release-note changes that explain weird FLAC files
These are the details that are hard to find anywhere but Shotcut's own release notes.
The preset changed container in 2023. Release 23.09.29 records:
"Changed Export > Presets > audio > FLAC to (raw) flac format instead of Matroska."
If you have old FLAC exports from Shotcut that a tool identifies as Matroska, or a shared custom preset built before that release, that is where the difference comes from.
Scrub bars were broken for a few versions. Release 26.2.26 records:
"Fixed FLAC export has a bad duration disabling scrub bars in players (broke in v25.12)."
This is the single most useful entry for anyone whose exported FLAC plays fine but cannot be seeked — the progress bar sits dead and dragging does nothing. Note the scoping: the release notes say this was introduced in v25.12 and fixed in 26.2.26. It is not a statement about how your current version behaves, but it does mean a file exported by a version in that window can carry the bad duration with it. Re-exporting from a newer build is the fix that follows from what the notes say.
One neighbouring fact if you are weighing Ogg Vorbis instead: Release 26.6.25 states that Export > Ogg Vorbis with Cover Art "no longer fails but our Ogg integration does not support cover art" — a current-state note, not just a bug fix.
Common mistakes
- Opening Advanced and changing things at random. The guide warns that "Shotcut's advanced export mode lets you create invalid combinations and does not protect you from yourself." Invalid container and codec combinations can, per the same guide, "Cause export failure Produce unplayable files Result in silent audio or missing video."
- Blaming the export for crackle that has a sample-rate cause. Release 23.05.07 records "Less audio crackling in exports when audio source is not 48000 Hz sample rate," so a non-48 kHz source is a known factor worth checking first.
- Adding the de-click filters in the wrong place. The filters introduced in Release 23.07.29 target clicks and pops heard "when switching between clips due to discontinuities in the audio stream," and the same note says they "may ONLY be added to individual tracks–audio or video."
- Expecting a hand-copied preset to show up straight away. Presets live in the
presets > encodefolder in the app data directory, and the guide says you "must restart Shotcut after manually adding preset files in order for Shotcut to see them."
FAQ
Is Shotcut's FLAC export actually lossless? Shotcut's FAQ describes FLAC as "lossless with compression." But the user guide also states Shotcut cannot pass through or copy codecs without re-encoding, so the export is a fresh FLAC encode of the audio Shotcut produced — lossless from that point onward, not a recovery of a lossy original.
Why is my Shotcut FLAC file a Matroska file?
Release 23.09.29 changed the Export > Presets > audio > FLAC preset to raw FLAC "instead of Matroska," so files (or custom presets) from before that release can still be Matroska-wrapped.
Why can't I drag the progress bar on a FLAC file I exported? Release 26.2.26 records a fix for FLAC export writing a bad duration that disabled scrub bars in players, introduced in v25.12. Re-exporting from a newer build addresses files affected by that.
Can I export only part of the timeline as FLAC?
Yes. Add a range marker — the guide says only markers with a duration longer than one frame appear in the From list — then pick that marker as the export source.
Where do I go if the export fails or hangs?
Shotcut's FAQ tells you to stop the job from the Jobs panel, retry with Export > Video > Parallel processing disabled, and if it still fails, apply the failure percentage to your project duration to locate the trouble spot. More on that in our Shotcut export failed and Shotcut export is slow write-ups, or browse the rest of the how-to guides.
Quotes from Shotcut's official FAQ, Full List of Features, Release Notes and the Shotcut User Guide (June 2026), as captured on 16 September 2026. Release-note entries describe what changed in a given version — check the current documentation for how your build behaves today.
