How to Rotate Video on Your iPhone or Mac

Never watch another sideways movie again

iMovie on an iPhone.
by Joli Ballew
Microsoft MVP, Lynda.com trainer, Microsoft Press author, and college professor.
Updated August 07, 2019
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If you accidentally took a sideways video with your iPhone camera when you were sure you were shooting in landscape mode, rotate the video. There are several ways to rotate a video that appears sideways or upside down. iMovie is free and available from the App Store for both iPhone and Mac. Other free, third-party apps available in the App Store for iPhone are Rotate And Flip - RFV and Video Crop – Trim & Cut Videos (which also rotates videos).

iOS 13 introduces the ability to rotate videos directly in the Photos app, so these instructions apply to devices running earlier versions of the operating system.

How to Use iMovie to Rotate a Video on an iPhone

If your iPhone has iMovie on it, use iMovie to rotate a video. Here's how:

iMovie requires iOS 9.3 or later.

  1. Open iMovie.

  2. Tap Create Project, then select Movie.

    Creating a new project in iMovie on an iPhone

  3. In the Camera Roll, tap the video you want to edit to add a blue check mark.

  4. Tap Create Movie.

    Creating a movie in iMovie on iPhone

  5. Tap Edit.

  6. Place two fingers on the clip (at the top of the screen) and make a rotating motion. An icon appears, and the clip moves when you lift your fingers. Rotate 90 degrees at a time, either clockwise or counterclockwise.

  7. Tap Done to save the changes.

    Rotating a video clip in iMovie on an iPhone

  8. To save the updated video, tap Share, tap Save Video, then choose an export size.

    Saving a video in iMovie for iPhone

  9. The video will process and move to your Library (in your Photos app).

Use iMovie to Rotate a Video on a Mac

If your videos are stored on a Mac, use iMovie to rotate them. iMovie comes pre-installed on all Macs. This app also rotates any video 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.

Here's how to use iMovie for Mac to rotate a video.

These instructions use iMovie 10.

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

  1. Open iMovie, then click Create New.

    Creating a new project in iMovie for Mac

  2. Click Movie.

    Creating a new movie project in iMovie 10

  3. Select Import Media, then find the movie you want to modify and click OK.

    Import Media button in iMovie 10

  4. In the Media pane, click the clip.

  5. In the Preview window, click the Crop button.

    The Crop button in iMovie 10

  6. Click either Rotate Clockwise or Rotate Counterclockwise as many times as desired. Each click moves the clip 90 degrees.

    Rotation buttons in iMovie 10

  7. Rotating may create bars at the top and bottom of your video. Click Crop to access the Crop tool.

    Crop tool in iMovie 10

  8. Drag the handles to eliminate the bars, then click the blue check mark to make the changes.

    Cropping a video in iMovie 10

  9. To save the updated video, click Share, click File, then follow the prompts to name the file and choose a location.

    Saving a movie from iMovie

This process may lower the video quality, so it's a less ideal solution than doing it on the iPhone.