How to rotate or flip a video that plays sideways

You open a video you filmed on your phone and it lies on its side, or hangs upside down. The footage is fine. The player is showing it the wrong way round, and turning it takes a few seconds.

Why videos play sideways

A phone records the picture in the shape of its sensor and adds a note to the file saying which way up you were holding it. Players are meant to read that note. Some apps, older players and a few websites ignore it, and the video appears turned. Videos that were edited or re-saved by other software can also lose the note.

Turn it, or flip it

Use the left and right buttons to turn the video a quarter turn at a time. Press the same button twice for upside down. Flip mirrors the picture from left to right, which helps when text in the video reads backwards. The preview shows the result before you save, so you can try combinations until it looks right.

Quality and speed

For MP4 and MOV files this is usually quick and does not change the quality, because the turn is stored as a note in the file and the pictures themselves are left alone. For formats that cannot hold such a note, such as WebM and MKV, the pictures have to be redrawn, which takes longer.

If a player still shows it wrong

A few players ignore the stored turn even after you save. If yours does, turn the video here, then open the Convert page and choose WebM or MKV. Those formats cannot store the note, so the picture is redrawn the right way up and every player shows it correctly.

Keep the original

Your original is never changed, because the result is a new file. Keep both until you have played the new one on the device where it matters.

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