Compress MOV videos
Make iPhone and Mac videos smaller and playable everywhere as MP4, without uploading them.
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How to compress MOV files
Add your files
Drop files on the box, paste them or choose them from your device. Nothing is uploaded.
Check the settings
The default preset suits most files. Change quality, size or format if you need a smaller file.
Download the result
Save each file or all of them as one ZIP. If a file cannot get smaller, you keep the original.
MOV and the iPhone camera
MOV is Apple's QuickTime File Format, introduced in 1991. Its structure of nested "atoms" was later adopted almost unchanged as the basis of MP4, which is why the two formats are so closely related and why most MOV files convert to MP4 without trouble. Today the most common MOV files come from iPhones and iPads, Mac screen recordings and professional cameras that record Apple ProRes.
On an iPhone, the setting Settings › Camera › Formats decides what goes inside the MOV. "High Efficiency" records H.265 (HEVC) video, "Most Compatible" records H.264. HEVC files are smaller, but some Windows PCs, older Android phones, websites and upload forms cannot play or accept them.
Why iPhone videos take so much space
Phones encode in real time and are tuned to keep detail, so they use high bitrates, and recent iPhones can record 4K at up to 60 frames per second. A minute of 4K60 HEVC is several hundred megabytes. Cinematic mode, HDR (Dolby Vision) and ProRes, which is designed for editing and is many times larger than HEVC, push the size higher still.
Most of that data is not needed for viewing on a phone or laptop. A clip that will be watched in a chat or on a social network looks the same at 1080p, and 30 frames per second is plenty for anything without fast action.
Compressing a MOV with this tool
The tool decodes the MOV in your browser and writes an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, which plays everywhere, including on Windows and in web upload forms that reject HEVC. Good starting points:
| You want to | Settings |
|---|---|
| Email a short clip | Target size 18–22 MB, max resolution 720p |
| Send a 4K video to someone on Windows or Android | Max resolution 1080p (the default), frame rate 30, Balanced |
| Upload to a form with a 50 or 100 MB limit | Target size a few MB below the limit, 1080p |
| Share a Mac screen recording | Keep resolution, frame rate 30, Smallest file, audio removed if there is no narration |
HDR (Dolby Vision) clips are the weak spot: the tool converts them to standard dynamic range for the H.264 output, and colors and brightness can look different, so check the preview before you delete the original.
Common issues with MOV files
- The video is sideways. iPhones store rotation as a flag rather than turning the pixels. The tool applies it, so the output plays the right way up.
- Live Photos. The short video part of a Live Photo is a separate MOV of about three seconds. It compresses like any other clip; the photo itself is a HEIC or JPG.
- Slow-motion clips play at normal speed. The slow-motion effect is stored as editing instructions that only Apple's apps read. Export the clip from the Photos app first if you need the slowed-down version.
- ProRes files will not open. Browsers cannot decode ProRes. Export to HEVC or H.264 on the Mac or iPhone first.
MOV questions
Can I just rename .mov to .mp4?
Sometimes the file then plays, because the structures are so similar, but the codec does not change and it will not get smaller. Re-encoding is what saves space.
Is HEVC better than H.264?
HEVC needs fewer bits for the same quality, but it is less widely supported. For sending to other people, H.264 avoids "cannot play this file" errors.
Will compressing remove the location from my video?
Yes, by default. "Remove metadata (location, device, dates)" is on unless you turn it off, so the new MP4 carries the audio and video but not the iPhone's location and camera details.
Does this work on the iPhone itself?
It needs Safari 26 or later (iOS 26). Phones accept files up to 1 GB, and long 4K videos can exceed what a phone browser tab may hold in memory; a computer handles them more comfortably.
Related video tools
For files that are already MP4, use the MP4 compressor. Clips with several audio tracks are covered on the MKV page and all formats on the video compressor page; how it works shows why your videos are never uploaded.