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Rotate or flip a video

Turn a video a quarter or a half of the way round, or mirror it. On an MP4 or MOV a turn is written as an orientation flag, so nothing is re-encoded and nothing is lost.

I want Rotate

Settings appear once you add a video.

Turn
Mirror left to right Re-encodes the picture. Fixes selfie videos with text in them.
Flip top to bottom Re-encodes the picture.
Preview
Advanced 2

MP4 and MOV can carry a turn without re-encoding. Other formats are saved as MP4.

Quality when re-encoding

Only used when mirroring, saving as WebM, or when the format can’t carry a turn.

Done on your device No upload, no queue, no sign-up.

Bytes sent anywhere: 0 B

Works offline after you’ve used it once.

How to use it

Your video goes into this browser tab, is turned or mirrored on your device, and comes back the right way up with its sound. 0 bytes uploaded

  1. Add your files

    Add a video, or several. A still from near the start appears so you can see which way is up.

  2. Check the settings

    Pick 90° right, 180° or 90° left, or switch on a mirror. The still turns with your choice, so you can check it before anything runs.

  3. Save the result

    Press rotate and save. A turn on an MP4 or MOV is done in seconds; the result says whether the picture was re-encoded.

Why it doesn’t upload

A quarter turn on an MP4 is a few bytes in the file’s header: the instruction that tells a player which way up to show the picture. Sending a whole video to a server to change those few bytes would be nearly all upload and wait, so this does it in your browser and the video never leaves your device.

How to check for yourself

Worth knowing

  • A turn on an MP4 or MOV is saved as an orientation flag, the same one your phone writes. Phones, browsers, VLC, QuickTime and YouTube follow it, but some older editing programs and TV media players ignore it and show the video as it was.
  • Mirroring and flipping re-encode every frame, so they take longer than a turn and are not bit-for-bit identical. High quality keeps the difference invisible.
  • WebM can’t carry an orientation flag, so a turn saved as WebM is re-encoded into the picture. MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV and MPG are saved as MP4.
  • Only quarter turns. Straightening a slightly tilted shot means zooming in and cropping every frame, which is a video editor’s job.
  • Formats the browser can’t play (AVI, WMV, FLV…) have no preview still and use the FFmpeg engine, a one-time 31 MB download.

Questions

Why does my phone video play sideways?

Phones record every video the way the sensor is mounted and add an orientation flag saying how to turn it for playback. Most players follow it. When an app ignores the flag, or the phone guessed wrong because it was lying flat when you pressed record, the video plays on its side. Turning it here fixes the flag, so it plays upright everywhere that reads it.

Does rotating a video lose quality?

A turn on an MP4 or MOV doesn’t: the picture is copied untouched and only the orientation flag changes, so it is lossless and quick. Mirroring, flipping and saving as WebM re-encode the picture, which at High quality is not something you can see.

Which way do I turn it: 90° right or 90° left?

Look at the still under the settings: it turns with your choice. If the top of the picture is on the left, pick 90° right; if it is on the right, pick 90° left. An upside-down video needs 180°.

How do I mirror a video?

Switch on Mirror left to right. That is the fix for a front-camera video where writing comes out backwards. Mirroring can’t be done with a flag, so the picture is re-encoded; the sound is copied as it is.

Is the sound kept?

Yes. The sound track is copied across unchanged, and only re-encoded if you save as a format that needs a different kind of audio, such as an MP4 saved as WebM.

Is my video uploaded?

No. The still, the turn and any re-encoding all happen in this browser tab. The network log under the tool shows the page’s own code loading and nothing going out.

Next steps

Often used before or after Rotate & Flip Video. These run on your device too.