How to Rotate Video on Your iPhone or Mac

No more sideways movies!

A picture of iMovie on an iPhone.
iMovie. Joli Ballew
by Joli Ballew
Microsoft MVP, Lynda.com trainer, Microsoft Press author, and college professor.
Updated December 29, 2018

There are several ways to rotate a video that appears sideways or upside down when you view it. iMovie is free and is available from the App Store for both iPhones and Macs. There are others you can use on your iPhone if you aren’t a fan of iMovie; two we like are Rotate And Flip - RFV and Video Crop – Trim & Cut Videos (which also rotates videos).

If you have a newer, updated, iPhone you can now take videos in Landscape mode without having to worry about the video appearing sideways when you view it. The need to rotate videos might fade as time passes. 

Use iMovie to Rotate a Video on an iPhone 7, 8, and X

If your iPhone has iMovie on it, or, if you can install the app from the App Store, you can use iMovie to rotate a video. The most recent iMovie app requires iOS 9.3 or later though, so you won’t be able to install the app on older iPhones if it’s not on there already (see the next section if that’s the case).

To rotate a video on a newer, updated iPhone using iMovie:

  1. Open iMovie.
  2. Click Projects.
  3. Click the + sign and click Movie.
  4. From the list that appears, click the video to rotate.
  5. Click Create Movie.
  6. Place two fingers on the video and make a rotating motion. This will rotate the clip clockwise or counterclockwise.
  7. Click Done.

Use iMovie to Rotate a Video on a Mac

If you have your videos stored on a Mac, you can use iMovie to rotate them. iMovie comes preinstalled on all Macs, so you should have it. This is also the place to rotate any video that you have stored an older iPhone, such as an iPhone 4, 5, 6, or possibly 7, if you can’t install the apps you want on it. (You'll have to copy the video from your iPhone to the Mac first though.)

To use iMovie on a Mac to rotate a video:

  1. Open the video to rotate in iMovie.
  2. In the browser or timeline, select the video to rotate.
  3. Click the Cropping button. It is the only square-shaped icon.
  4. Click either the Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counterclockwise button as many times as desired.
  5. Click the Apply button.

Note: To rotate a video on a PC, consider a free app like Movie Maker.

Use Rotate and Flip – RFV to Rotate a Video

The Rotate and Flip app is easy to use and lets you rotate a video on iPhone in a few simple steps. This app also lets you flip a video upside down, right to left, and left to right.

To use Rotate and Flip to rotate a video using your iPhone or, flip a video on iPhone:

  1. Open the app and click the icon that looks like a movie camera.
  2. Click Video.
  3. If you don’t see any videos, click Camera Roll.
  4. Click the video to rotate and then click Select.
  5. Click the 90-degree icon as many times as necessary to rotate the video to the desired position. (The other two let you flip the video).
  6. Click Save.

Use Video Crop – Trip & Cut Videos to Rotate a Video

The and Video Crop – Trim & Cut Videos app lets you rotate videos, flip them, and perform other tasks like setting the video quality and file type settings. You can also add music, filters, and more.

To use Video Crop to rotate a video using your iPhone:

  1. Open the app and click the video to rotate.
  2. Click Flip/Rotate.
  3. Click either Rotate Right or Rotate Left. You can also click Flip Vertical or Flip Horizontal.
  4. Click Done.