Rotate or flip a video

Most sideways videos need one turn. Check the preview: it shows the video exactly as it will be saved.

Your camera preview is mirrored because that is what you expect to see: when you raise your right hand, the hand on the right side of the screen moves, as in a bathroom mirror. A preview that is not mirrored feels wrong, so video-call apps and most camera apps flip it for you.

What gets saved depends on the app. In Zoom, Mirror my video changes only your own view, and other people and recordings see you the right way round. Other apps and some webcam software save the mirrored picture, so any writing behind you, on a T-shirt or held up to the camera reads backwards. Press Flip horizontally to fix it.

If you record with the camera often, check the setting once in your app, so new recordings come out the right way round. The webcam test shows your camera’s real picture, and the webcam recorder saves what other people would see.

Your computer or phone can probably do this already. These are free:

QuickTime Player (Mac)

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Edit, then Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.
3. Choose File, then Save, to keep the change.

Free and already on every Mac. Saving can take a while on a long video.

Photos (iPhone and iPad)

1. Open the video in Photos and tap Edit.
2. Tap Crop, then the rotate button to turn it 90° or the flip button to mirror it.
3. Tap Done.

The quickest fix for a video already on your phone. Its flip is left to right only; rotating twice turns a video upside down.

Clipchamp (Windows)

1. Open Clipchamp, which comes with Windows 11, and add the video to the timeline.
2. Select the clip and use the rotate button in the toolbar, or flip it from the Transform panel.
3. Export the video.

Re-encodes the whole video on export, like this page does for a flip.

FFmpeg (Any computer)

1. To turn without re-encoding: ffmpeg -display_rotation -90 -i in.mp4 -c copy out.mp4 (clockwise).
2. To mirror: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf hflip out.mp4, or vflip for upside down.
3. To turn the frames themselves: -vf transpose=1 (clockwise) or transpose=2 (anticlockwise).

Free and exact, from the command line.

This page needs nothing installed, works the same on any computer, and turns an MP4 or MOV without re-encoding it.

• It turns in steps of 90°. It does not straighten a slightly tilted video; Photos on an iPhone and most video editors can.
• A turned MP4 or MOV relies on its rotation setting. Every current browser, phone and QuickTime follows it, but a few older players and editors do not. Tick “Turn the frames themselves” if yours is one of them.
• A flip, or a turn of a WebM or MKV, re-encodes every frame to an H.264 MP4, which takes about as long as the video plays on a typical laptop. The picture keeps its size, but an odd width or height loses one row or column of pixels, because H.264 needs even sizes.
• Only the first video and sound tracks are kept. Subtitles, chapters and other tracks are left out, and an HDR video that is re-encoded comes out in standard colour.
• In Chrome and Edge on a computer, a big result is written straight to a file you choose. In other browsers files go up to 2.0 GB and the result has to fit in memory.
• It needs WebCodecs, which current Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox have; the page says so before you start if yours does not. It works on a phone, but a long flip is faster on a computer.

• An MP4 or MOV stores which way up to show each video track as a small transformation matrix in the track header. Phones write it when you hold them upright, instead of turning every frame. Source, checked 8 November 2026.
• QuickTime Player can rotate a clip left or right and flip it horizontally or vertically, from the Edit menu or with Shift-Command-L, R, H and V. Source, checked 8 November 2026.
• The Photos app on iPhone can crop, rotate and flip videos as well as photos, from Edit and then Crop. Source, checked 8 November 2026.
• In Zoom, Mirror my video changes only how you see yourself. Other people, and recordings, see you the right way round. Source, checked 8 November 2026.
• FFmpeg’s -display_rotation option sets a video’s rotation setting, so with -c copy it turns a video without re-encoding it. Its angle runs anticlockwise, so -90 turns a video clockwise. Source, checked 8 November 2026.
• Cisco stopped making Flip video cameras in April 2011, two years after buying the company that made them, as phones took over video recording. Source, checked 8 November 2026.