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Common fix · Video

Make a horizontal video vertical without cropping

By Updated How we write these

1 min read

What you’ll end up with

A 9:16 version of a landscape video with the whole picture visible, ready for Reels, Shorts or TikTok.

Turning a 16:9 video into 9:16 has three options, and each suits a different video. Cropping fills the frame but cuts off two-thirds of the width — fine for one person in the middle, bad for anything wide. Black bars keep everything but look unfinished. The popular third way puts the whole picture in the middle over a blurred, darkened copy of itself, so the clip feels full-screen and nothing is lost.

Rotating the video is not the answer: that turns the picture on its side rather than changing its shape.

What to do

  1. Reframe it with a blurred background

    Drop the video into Video to Shorts, choose Whole picture, blurred background, and pick the clips you want — or add one clip covering the whole video. Each is rendered at 1080 × 1920 with no watermark.

    Make it vertical

  2. Or crop it to fill the frame

    If one person stays in the middle of the shot, cropping to 9:16 fills the screen and looks more immersive. Drag the frame over the part to keep.

    Crop to 9:16

  3. Compress it for the upload

    Vertical clips for sharing rarely need to be huge. Squeeze the file under the platform’s limit if it’s going by chat or email too.

    Compress the video

Settings that work

Recommended settings
Size 1080 × 1920 px (9:16)
Framing Blurred background for wide shots; crop for one centered speaker

Questions

How do I make a horizontal video vertical on an iPhone?

Open this page in Safari, choose the video from Photos and make it vertical here; the result saves back to Photos. The Photos app’s own crop only crops, which cuts off the sides.

Why not just rotate the video?

Rotating turns the picture sideways, so people would have to tilt their heads. Reframing keeps the picture upright and changes the shape of the frame around it.

Will it add a watermark?

No. There’s no watermark, no sign-up and no limit on how many videos you make, because it all runs on your own device.

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