Pop Mood Daily
news /

How to rotate videos on a mac

How to rotate videos on a mac

Have you ever had a video that was recorded vertically or sideways, and you wish it was orientated either horizontally or otherwise rotated? This is often the case with videos recorded on iPhone or Android phones shot with the notorious Vertical Video Syndrome, but the technique we’ll demonstrate works to flip or rotate any movie, even if it’s not from a smartphone.

Perhaps the best part of this is that with Mac OS X you can easily and quickly rotate any video or movie file without requiring any added software to do so, as the feature is built directly into the MacOS X video viewing app QuickTime. It doesn’t matter if the video has been recorded as 4K, HD, or standard, slow motion or regular speed, or whether it’s your own video or another movie file from elsewhere.

How to Rotate or Flip Videos in Mac OS X

This works to rotate or flip any video or movie file in Mac OS X, the newly rotated video will be saved as a new video file and will not override the existing movie unless you give it the same name.

    Open the video or movie file you wish to rotate into QuickTime Player in Mac OS X

How to rotate videos on a mac

  • Go to the “Edit” menu and choose one of the following rotation options for the video:
    • Rotate Left (90 degrees)
    • Rotate Right (90 degrees)
    • Flip Horizontal
    • Flip Vertical

    How to rotate videos on a mac

  • Save the newly edited rotated video as usual by hitting Command+S or by going to File and “Save”
  • How to rotate videos on a mac

    As you may have guessed, to rotate a video 180 degrees or 270 degrees, you’d simply apply the 90 degree rotation two or three times.

    The newly saved video will be have the orientation defined in the prior save process, whereas the original video will be preserved with whatever orientation it had to begin with (vertical or horizontal, flipped or not).

    This is a handy trick if you come across a video that is recorded the wrong way with orientation off, as is sometimes the case with movies captured from cameras and smartphones, and it offers a simple way to correct any video file that is wrongly arranged or would just be better viewed in another orientation.

    Certainly a nice feature for flipping and re-orientating videos, though unless you’re an avid videographer it may get less use than rotating pictures which are frequently situated wrongly as well.

    For different reasons, you will have the need to rotate a video on Mac.

    You need to rotate the video if you accidentally took a sideways video with your iPhone camera which captured in landscape mode. Or you download a movie online but notice that it is not in a right view how you expected it to.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    If you are a Mac user and want to rotate or flip a video on Mac, you are at the right place. This post will tell you 3 simple ways to rotate a video that appears sideways or upside down.

    Part 1. Best Way to Rotate a Video on Mac

    To quickly rotate a video on Mac, we like to introduce you with a powerful video editor and converter, Vidmore Video Converter. Many useful editing features like rotate, trim, crop, merge and more are designed in it to help you easily edit video based on your need.

    • Upscale resolution up to 4K, H.265/HEVC, etc.
    • Remove video noise, and reduce video shaking.
    • Adjust video effects automatically.
    • Enhance MP4, MOV, MKV, 3GP, FLV, SWF, MTS/M2TS, VOB, DVD, etc.
    • Edit video effects like rotate, mirror, crop, clip, merge, watermark, etc.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 1. Free download Vidmore Video Converter

    Double click the download button above to free download, install and run this video rotating software on your computer. If you want to rotate a video on Mac, ensure you download the right version.

    Step 2. Add video(s)

    Click the “Add File” button to import the video that you want to rotate on Mac. Here you can add and rotate several videos at a time.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 3. Rotate video on Mac

    After loading the video you want to rotate, click “Edit” button to open the main editing window. Here you are allowed to rotate video, crop video, cut video, combine video clips, add watermark, or adjust output effects.

    Click the “Rotate” tab to start rotating your video. 4 rotate options are offered, rotate 90 clockwise, rotate 90 counterclockwise, horizontal flip and vertical flip. You can pick the right one to quickly rotate your video.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Vidmore Video Converter is equipped with a built-in video player which can help you preview the changes. When you are satisfied with the rotate result, click “Apply” to confirm the operation.

    Step 4. Save rotated video

    Vidmore highly supports any popular video and audio formats. You can select any your preferred output format you like.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Click “Profile” and choose a suitable video format from the drop-down list. Then click the “Convert” button to save the rotated video on your Mac.

    Part 2. How to Rotate a Video on Mac with iMovie

    iMovie is the default and free video editing software from the App Store for both iPhone and Mac. You will familiar with iMovie if you often edit media files on Mac. However, for many Mac users, iMovie is a little bit complex video editor. Too many functions are designed in it and made it too professional to use. Considering that, here in this part, we will show you how to rotate a video on Mac with iMovie in details.

    Step 1 . Install and open iMovie on your Mac. Click the big “Create New” and then select “Movie” option from the drop-down list.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 2 . Click on “Import Media” to load the video you want to rotate and click “OK” to import it to iMovie.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 3 . After loading, click the video clip in the “Media” pane. Above the preview window, you will see some frequently-used editing functions are offered there. Here you need to click on the “Crop” button.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 4 . After clicking the Crop button, you are allowed to use either “Rotate Clockwise” or “Rotate Counterclockwise” to rotate the video. One click will rotate the video clip 90 degrees.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 5 . To save and output the rotated clip, you can click Share button at the top-right corner. Choose “File” from the pop-up window and then name the video and select a suitable resolution, quality and destination file folder for it.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Part 3. How to Rotate a Video on Mac in QuickTime Player

    Apple’s QuickTime Player is the built-in media player on Mac. When you play video or audio on Mac, QuickTime will be the default and first choice. It is able to play video clips in almost every popular format, especially for the exclusive Apple format (*.mov). In fact, it also enables you to rotate a video in any direction on your Mac. You can check the following guide to rotate a video in QuickTime Player.

    Step 1 . Open QuickTime Player on your Mac and click the “File”, “Open” to select the video you want to rotate. You can also double click the video and choose QuickTime Player to open it.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 2 . Click the Edit tab on the menu bar and select specific rotate option like “Rotate Left”, “Rotate Right”, “Flip Horizontal” or “Flip Vertical” to rotate the video. The video will be rotated based on the selection you’ve chosen.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Step 3 . when you get the right angle, click on the red close button at the top left of the window. A new window will pop up and prompt you to save your changes by exporting the rotated video as a new video file.

    Step 4 . Input a new name for the rotated video, choose a suitable file folder to save it on your Mac. Then click the “Save” button to save the rotated video.

    Conclusion

    We mainly talked about how to rotate a video on Mac in this page. We show 3 simple ways to help you rotate or flip a video on your Mac. Leave us a message if you have any better method.

    • How to rotate videos on a mac7 Steps to Improve Video Quality with Enhancement Software
    • How to rotate videos on a macStep-by-step Tutorial to Convert MP4 to AMV Format Easily and Quickly
    • How to rotate videos on a mac3 Simple Ways to Crop a Video in Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista and Mac

    @jhpot
    Dec 28, 2016, 1:13 pm EST | 1 min read

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    So you accidentally made a vertical video. Annoying, especially when the footage itself is clearly supposed to be horizontal. What’s a well-meaning videographer to do?

    You can rotate a video right from your iPhone, but if you’ve already transferred it to your Mac, QuickTime can do the job in a flash.

    First, open your video with QuickTime. This program is capable of opening the videos created by most cameras and phones (the video used in this demonstration came from an Android phone, for example.) Next, click “Edit” in the menu bar, then “Rotate Right,” or whatever rotation is appropriate in your case.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    It’s okay if you get this wrong the first time: you can rotate again until you get it right. When you done, you’ll have the video oriented the way you want it:

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Neat! Next you need to save the file, which you can do by clicking File > Save in the menu bar, or by using the keyboard shortcut Command+S. QuickTime will not overwrite your original video, so save the new version anywhere you want (you can delete the original manually if you’d like.)

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Note: if the video you’d like to rotate is imported to Photos (the default photo manager in macOS), you’ll probably notice that rotation options are greyed out.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    This is annoying, to say the least, but there’s a workaround. Simply drag the video from Photos to your desktop, or any folder in the Finder.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Now open the video with QuickTime and rotate it, as descried above. When you’re done, drag the edited version back to Photos in order to re-import it. You can then delete the original video from Photos, if you’d like.

    @howtogeek
    Feb 19, 2016, 12:34 pm EST | 1 min read

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    If you have ever shot a video on your mobile phone, you might be dismayed later to discover that it is sideways, or even upside down. Don’t worry however, you can easily rotate it using no additional software.

    Sad as it is to say, the prevalence of video capabilities on our mobile devices has not turned us into the next Scorsese or Kubrick. No one wants to have to turn their head to watch their kid blow out the candles on their birthday cake or view their dogs romping through the park. That’s okay, however, because while there’s little we can do to take the shake out of our videos, a simple trick on any Mac will quickly rotate them to their proper orientation.

    If you own a Mac, you need not look any further than the old reliable QuickTime app to save the day. With QuickTime, you can rotate the video until it is the orientation you desire and then save it so it always plays correctly. (We mentioned this briefly in our 8 things you can do with QuickTime article, too).

    To begin, open the video you want to fix. As you can see, we need to rotate this particular one 90 degrees to the right.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Click on the “Edit” menu, and you will see four options to rotate (left or right) or flip (horizontally or vertically) your video. We choose “Rotate Right” (“Shift + Command + R”).

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    That’s it, this video will now play with the correct orientation. Now, when we try to close it, we’ll be given an option to save it. We simply decide where we want it to go and give it an appropriate name. If want to, we can even add tags to make it easier to find later on.

    How to rotate videos on a macIf your video starts out in another format, it will be converted to .mov when you save it.

    Now you know, if you own a Mac and have videos that are head-turning for all the wrong reasons, there is an easy and free way to fix them.

    October 15, 2020 (Updated: November 2, 2020)• Filed to: Video Editing Tips

    0 views, 2 min read

    Mac OS devices have their unique features and method of operation. If you are new to video editing or trying editing on Mac devices for the first time, you may encounter some difficulties in operating the system. This is why we have come up with a quick guide on how to rotate a video on mac.

    There are several tools, software, and applications you can use to rotate video on Mac. Each of these tools has its unique shortcuts, procedure, and key. Some of these processes are discussed below.

    Method 3. How to Rotate a Video on Mac by iMyFone Filme – Any Angle

    How to Rotate a Video on Mac with QuickTime Player

    Only rotate 90 degrees each time

    QuickTime is a Mac OS software/application that is used to edit videos. Developed by Apple Inc., QuickTime makes it easy to edit a video and perform basic editing activities. What’s more, the application can open all kinds of videos, even those recorded with a phone camera. Let’s see how to use this tool to rotate a video.

    Steps

    Open your Video with QuickTime.

    Toggle the Menu icon and click on “Edit”.

    Choose the “Rotate Left” or “Rotate Right” option.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Rotate until you get your desired orientation.

    Alternatively, you can use the shortcut key “Command+Shift+L” or “Command+Shift+R”.

    How to Rotate a Video on Mac with iMovie

    Only rotate 90 degrees each time

    Similar to QuickTime, iMovie is a video editing software application developed by Apple Inc. for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS devices. iMovie is one of the default applications that comes with all Apple Inc. PC and mobile devices. Being a video editing software, iMovie is capable of performing basic video editing tasks, including video rotation.

    Rotating a video with iMovie is quite easy and quick. However, if you don’t know how to rotate a video on Mac, it may look difficult to you. Thus, here is a quick guide on how to rotate video on Mac using iMovie.

    Steps

    Open your iMovie application.

    On the app, open your file manager and choose the video clip you want to rotate.

    Click on the “crop” icon (third option).

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Choose the rotate icons on the top right corner (rotate right or left). Each rotation turns the video by 90 degrees.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Rotate until you get your desired orientation.

    Rotate YouTube Video by Video Editor- iMyFone Filme

    Accurate to 0.01 Degree by Any Angle

    iMyFone Filme is a multipurpose, highly-flexible, and easiest Mac software you can use to edit and rotate your videos. With so many luxurious packages and features for users, iMyFone Filme is one of the best apps that as ever existed. More importantly, if you have a high requirement for video rotation, it’s the best choice for you.

    Steps

    Open your iMyFone Filme and import the video to your Media workspace.

    Move video to your timeline.

    Choose the “Edit” icon on the toolbar or just double-click on the clip.

    Here are 3 ways to rotate your video. Choose freely:

    Way 1: Move the Rotate slider in the upper right window to adjust the angle you want.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Way 2: Enter a degree number from 0 to 360, even can be precise to two decimal places like 85.25 degrees.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Way 3: In the preview window, click the white dot on the top of the video, move your mouse to change the angle as you wish.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Apart from the rotating function, here are other exciting features of iMyFone Filme.

    Super easy basic editing can be learned by everyone, including cut, trim, transitions, audios and more.

    Offer various effects and resources like filters, elements, subtitles, royalty-free music, etc.

    You can preview the result instantly without exporting.

    Fast Video mode provides 1-click video making experience.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    How to Rotate a Video on Mac Online

    Alternatively, if you don’t have any of these applications, couldn’t use them to rotate your video, or dissatisfied with the outcome, you can do it online. Some online tools allow you to edit and rotate your videos online. One of such tools is Clideo.

    Clideo is an all-in-one video marketing platform that has the tools to create, edit, compress, and package video for delivery to just about any audience on the web. Unlike the two applications discussed above, Clideo works online and you have to first option the URL on your browser.

    Steps:

    Choose the file to rotate. It only supports Google Drive, Dropbox and video URL.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Select vertical or horizontal rotation. 90 degrees at a time.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Preview the resulting video.

    Save locally to your device.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Bottom Line

    Mac OS devices are unique in terms of unique addresses, applications, and workspaces. Video editors prefer to use Macs for their editing purposes due to their high speed and ease of use. However, beginner editors or those new to Mac devices may find it difficult to edit videos with Mac. In this article, we discussed a quick guide on how to rotate a video on Mac. Which one is your favorite? Or leave a comment if you have better choice.

    Gary Johnson

    (Click to rate this post)

    Generally rated 0 ( 122 participated)

    You have already rated this article, please do not repeat scoring!

    Download the program and follow the instructions below

    Make videos. Share emotions.

    How to Rotate Your Video 90 Degrees

    When you record video on a phone or compact camera, you may sometimes find out (after the fact) that you were holding the device the wrong way, so the video was recorded upside down or at a weird angle and you can’t see it properly. If you want to keep this footage, the only way to rescue it is to rotate the entire movie (or the part of it that was wrongly shot).

    In this article, we’ll highlight several ways to rotate a video.

    How to Rotate Video on a PC or Mac

    If you are looking for a way to rotate a video on a computer, we have the solution for you. Movavi Video Editor Plus can rotate MOV, MP4 (MPEG-4), AVI, 3GP, WMV, MPEG, FLV, and HD videos, plus many more. Download this software and learn how to rotate your video in any direction: you can go 90 or 180 degrees clockwise or anticlockwise – whatever you need to change the orientation to the correct one.

    How to rotate a video with Movavi Video Editor Plus?

    Install the Video Rotating Program

    Download the program file and install Movavi Video Editor Plus on your PC or Mac following the installation instructions.

    Import Files for Rotation

    Open the program and choose the New Project option. Click Add Media Files to add the videos that need to be rotated. The files you’ve uploaded will be added on the Timeline board at the bottom of the program window.

    Isolate the Fragment to be Rotated (optional)

    If you only need to rotate part of your movie, place the red marker on the beginning of a wrongly-shot scene, select the video on the Timeline and click the Split button. Then move the red marker to the end of the scene, and repeat this again.

    Rotate Your Video Clip

    There are two ways you can rotate your video. To rotate a clip by 90 degrees clockwise, select it on the Timeline and press the Rotate button as many times as you need.

    If you want to rotate a video by an arbitrary angle, click the Crop and Rotate button and move the Angle slider until you achieve the desired result. You can also enter the rotation angle value in the field to the right of the slider. When you’re ready, click Apply.

    Save the Rotated Video

    After you invert the video, click Export and select one of the Save options from the tabs on the left of the pop-up window. To export the video, click Start. And that’s all there is to it! With Movavi Video Editor Plus, you can flip any video that was accidentally shot in the wrong orientation in just a few minutes.

    Movavi Video Editor Plus

    Your next step in video-making

    * The free version of Movavi Video Editor Plus has the following restrictions: 7-day trial period, watermark on the output videos, and, if you’re saving a project as an audio file, an ability to save only half the audio length. Learn more

    How to Use an Online Video Rotation Tool

    To rotate a video online, you can use one of the online video rotating services, for example ezgif.com. With an online service, you don’t need to download anything to rotate a video. But this advantage has a cost: the size of the file you can rotate is usually limited, and uploading your video to the website may not be secure. Also, the upload speed depends on the speed of your internet connection, so if your internet connection is slow, rotating your video may take a while.

    If you want to avoid these disadvantages, try using a desktop app, for example Movavi Video Editor Plus. But if you only want to rotate a small clip, online video rotation services can be useful. Let’s look at how to rotate a video with ezgif.com.

    First, choose the video you want to rotate by clicking the Choose the file button. Then click the Upload video button. Mark the appropriate rotation option in the checkbox and choose the output format and encoding. Finally, click the Rotate video button and download the output video.

    How to Rotate Video in VLC Media Player for Free

    If you need a free tool for rotating videos, VLC Media Player can help you. This media player lets you rotate videos by 90, 180, or 270 degrees clockwise and by other degrees in between. Download the program and follow the instructions below to rotate your video.

    Open VLC Media Player. Open the Tools menu and select Effects and Filters. In the window that opens, go to the Video Effects tab and then to the Geometry sub-tab. Check the Transform checkbox and choose the desired angle for rotation.

    Video in VLC Media Player is rotated only for the purposes of playing. If you want to save the changed video, you need to go to the Media menu and select the Convert / Save option after executing the instructions above. Click Add and choose the current video, then click the Convert / Save button. In the Convert window, click the Settings icon. In the window that opens, click the Video codec tab and then Filters. Activate the Video transformation filter and click Save. Go back to the Convert dialog, choose a name and destination for a new file, and click Start. Finally, click Play to begin the transformation.

    And that’s it! However, if you want to rotate videos without these kinds of complicated instructions, we recommend using Movavi Video Editor Plus. This simple and powerful video editing software lets you rotate, trim, and resize your videos in just a couple of clicks. You can download a trial version for free.

    When we record a video, in order to get better action-packed shots, we usually change our smart phone or camera from vertical to horizontal from time to time. It is not a big deal for us to watch the video on a smart phone or on the camera. However, if you want to watch it on computer or TV, it could be really cumbersome. Thus, for our necks’ sake, we must rotate the videos. How to rotate a movie on Mac? As most smart phones or cameras do not support rotating videos directly, we need to find some tools and install them on our Mac to do the video rotation instead. As you can find from the internet, there are many tools can help us rotate videos, some are free, some requires a license fee. Both can solve your problem with different services or qualities. In this article, we would mainly introduce you three ways to rotate videos on Mac. If you are on Windows PC, check out this guide to rotate videos on PC using Filmora, and this tutorial to rotate iPhone vidoes using Windows Movie Maker.

    Method 1. Rotate a video on Mac using iMovie

    iMovie is included free with all new Mac computers. If you Mac does not include iMovie, you need to download iMovie for purchase from Mac App Store. Install and launch iMovie. Click File, and then import movies. Under the CROP option, you can see the rotate function. Rotate the movie left or right by clicking the respective rotating button at the top of the movie. Then click DONE button behind the rotating buttons. Then click FILE to save it on your Mac.

    If you want to know how the iMove is rated by the users, you can check its comments on the Mac App Store. It is unexpected that nearly half users love it while the other half complain for some glitches or its slow performance. Some users even complain that it is too complicated to use. Kindly remind that iMovie will not support all kinds of video formats, such as 3GP. It would not work it your source video format is unsupported by it.

    Method 2. Rotate a video on Mac using QuickTime Pro

    If you have a QuickTime 7 Pro for Mac already, you can use it to rotate the videos as well as doing other edits. If you don’t have this video player or you are still using QuickTime 7 Player on your Mac, you need to purchase a QuickTime Pro registration code from Mac App Store. The registration code will be sent to your email. It is a 20-digit code. Kindly remind that the system of your Mac needs to be Mac OS X v10.5 or later. However, same as iMovie, it does not support certain types of video formats.

    Method 3. Rotate a video on Mac using Video Converter Ultimate for Mac

    To rotate videos and solve the problem mentioned in the first and second method, we can use a third-party application. There are many applications you can find from the internet, and the one we recommend here is Video Converter Ultimate. We recommend it just because most users give it good comment in the recent three years. It is mainly a video converter, converting almost all kinds of video formats from one to another. Its video conversion could be 30x faster than some other video converters. Its user interface is very simple. Users could rotate videos on Mac with only 4 or 5 clicks. Below steps will guide you how to use this video converter to rotate videos on Mac in a few seconds.

    Step 1. Download, install and launch video Converter Ultimate for Mac

    Download below free trial version of the Video Converter Ultimate for Mac. You can follow the steps here to try to rotate any videos and convert them into the format that is compatible with your Mac. With the free version, you can know its simple user interface, its function menu, output video formats etc.

    Step 2. Import Video source to Video Converter Ultimate

    In the user interface, there are four main functions on the top menu bar. The four functions are CONVERT, BURN, DOWNLOAD and Media Server. You can try to check these functions and see what it can do for you later. To rotate a video, we only need to use the first function CONVERT.

    There are two ways to import videos to Video Converter Ultimate. Click the symbol + and the bottom left corner and select the videos from its location. Or you can simply drag and drop it to the App.

    Step 3. Select an output video format, and rotate the Video

    As it is a video converter, you will need to select an output video format first. From the six output formats categories, you can see there are many formats for you to choose. If you want to play the video on your Mac, just click DEVICES, and then select a Mac icon. Once the output format is selected, some of the target information will be displayed on the interface. Behind the target information, there is a pencil symbol. Click the pencil, and you will find the rotate button. You can rotate a video 90 degrees clockwise, or anticlockwise. Click on the same rotation button twice to rotate a video 180 degrees clockwise or anticlockwise. Rotate the videos accordingly to your request and then click DONE to save it.

    How to rotate videos on a mac

    Once you are back to the APP surface, assign a location for your target video and then click the symbol CONVERT at the bottom right corner. You will then be able to view the output. Now the rotation is done. Other than rotating videos, you can also use this tool to trim videos on Mac, crop videos, merge videos on Mac, merge iPhone voice memos and recordings on Mac, etc. If you want more features, such as burning DVD, downloading online videos, streaming videos to TV, get a register version of this video converter for Mac.

    Above shows the three ways to rotate a video on Mac, using iMovie, Quicktime Pro and Video Converter Ultimate. Try them and find a proper one for yourself.

    Anyone please advice how I rotate a video imported to the new Photos App?

    I was going to edit it in iMovie and re-import it but can’t locate the “photos” file. If unable to rotate direct from the app, can someone advice how to locate it to import into iMovie.

    iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), Intel Core 2 Duo. 2.8 GHz

    Posted on May 24, 2015 4:01 PM

    You can rotate the movie with Quicktime Player once you get the video out of the Photos library by either using the File ➙ Export Unmodified Original menu option or Option-drag the thumbnail to the Desktop.

    Posted on May 24, 2015 4:35 PM

    All replies

    • Helpful answers
    • All replies

    I had this problem too. I noticed on Photos for Mac that some of my videos needed to be rotated. I use iCloud photo library and also have it enabled on my iPhone so that all the same photos and videos are on my phone. If you have the same setup this should work for you:

    1. On your iPhone or iPad buy the iMovie for iOS app

    2. On your iOS device open the photos app and open video that is the wrong orientation

    4. Click the three dots in a circle at the bottom of the screen (beside the play button)

    5. Select iMovie

    6. The video should load in iMovie.

    7. Use your fingers on the screen to rotate the video

    8. Click Done. (You should see a message that the video is exporting)

    9. The video should now be in the correct orientation on your phone.

    10. Wait, the change will eventually sync to Photos for Mac (You can sometimes speed this sync up by closing and opening Photos for Mac)

    Sep 19, 2015 4:30 PM

    It is quite simply insane that Apple, the it-just-works company, the company with more resources than literally any other on earth, has let it come to this. These hackish, kludgy workarounds for something so basic as rotating a video in one of its core software products that ties in with hundreds of millions of shipped devices.

    Apple really and truly doesn’t care about its software anymore, and even more so its Mac software.

    Ok, who’s going to the the first “Level 9” to tell me and others “if you don’t like it, just use something else”? My response is a) I guess I’m still clinging onto the days when Apple built software with care and competency, and b) If you use products in the Apple ecosystem, they are supposed to tie together, and supposed to work together, and it ain’t just that easy. Obviously. Many people once willingly paid extra for Apple hardware because the software was so much better; Apple proves time and time that they’ve forgotten/forsaken that. They no longer care about delighting customers, only locking them in.

    So yeah, you (still) can’t rotate the videos in Photos? C’mon. Ridiculous.

    And yes, I’ve sent Apple feedback, down that worthless black hole.

    Sometimes the sensor on your iPhone gets a little confused and you shoot a video and you only realize later that it was shooting in the wrong orientation. That happened on the video above I was doing for another post. It is more likely to happen when you are shooting video straight down towards the ground because the iPhoned doesn’t know which side you want up. Don’t delete the video and don’t give people a sore neck–ROTATE your video using the free version of Quicktime that came with your Mac!

    Step 1: Import your video to your mac.

    I’m going to assume that you import your videos into iPhoto.

    Step 2: Reveal the original file in the Finder.

    In iPhoto click on the video once to highlight it. Then from the menu at the top of the screen select: File > Reveal in Finder > Original File

    How to rotate videos on a mac
    Finding the original file from the menu item: Edit > Reveal in Finder > Original

    Step 3: Open the video in Quicktime.

    You can do this a couple ways:

    Method 1: Double-click on the file in the finder.

    If Quicktime is the associated program with .mov files it will open. Quicktime is the default application if you haven’t installed other software that changed the associations.

    Method 2: Drag the file from the finder where you just revealed it and drop it on the icon of the Quicktime application in the dock.

    How to rotate videos on a mac
    Dragging and dropping the .mov file on the Quicktime icon to open the file

    Method 3: Control Click on the file and select: Open With > Quicktime Player.app

    How to rotate videos on a mac
    If Quicktime isn’t associated with .mov files you can command-click on the file and pick Quicktime from the menu

    Step 4: From the menu at the top of the screen select either: Edit > Rotate Right or Edit > Rotate Left.

    Now your movie isn’t sideways anymore.

    How to rotate videos on a mac
    Now the video isn’t crooked!

    Step 5: Save the rotated video.

    For some reason Quicktime doesn’t have Save in the menu. If you try closing the video it will offer up an opportunity to save it. You can save it in the same folder as the original and iPhoto will pick it up. Mission accomplished–no more accidental sideways video.

    How to rotate videos on a mac
    You can save the rotated video in the same iPhoto location as the original

    Amazon Associate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click on an affiliate link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. The price of the item is the same whether it is an affiliate link or not. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will add value to Share Your Repair readers. By using the affiliate links, you are helping support Share Your Repair, and I genuinely appreciate your support.