Rotate a Video, Free nothing stored

Choose the turn that puts your subject upright

Use Turn to choose 90° right, 90° left, 180° or No turn; the starting selection is 90° right. Look at which way the subject leans before choosing. A sideways recording needs a quarter-turn, while an upside-down recording needs a half-turn.

The Flip choices are No flip, Mirror left to right or Flip top to bottom, starting at No flip. Mirroring swaps the sides of the picture and can correct backward lettering in a selfie recording. You can combine a turn with a flip; the engine turns the frame first and flips it afterward.

An orientation flag can spare the original video frames

A compatible rotation-only file can carry a display instruction instead of a newly encoded picture. The tool attempts this path when the source is outside the WebM/Matroska family, its video codec fits the MP4 output, no flip is selected and Bake into the picture is off.

That successful path copies the picture data. Other cases encode new frames, including a failed copy attempt that falls back to baking. Read Quality under the result to see whether the original frames were kept. The file size can change even when the picture was copied, because the file wrapper is rewritten.

When a player ignores the saved turn

A video can look correct in one app and sideways in another when the second app ignores its orientation instruction. Turn on Bake into the picture and process the original with the intended turn. This writes the change into the picture itself and re-encodes the footage.

Check the saved result in the app or display where you plan to use it. Baking avoids relying on rotation metadata, but it does not guarantee that every device supports the exported video format. Keep the original so you can make another export if needed.

Check the sound and file type after turning

Rotation attempts to retain the primary audio track. Supported audio can be copied, while some exports convert it. A browser that cannot handle the track may drop it; the Sound result says whether it was kept, absent in the source or could not be retained. Listen before using the export.

The copied rotation path saves MP4. Re-encoding tries H.264 in MP4 first, then a supported WebM encoder. The saved extension can therefore differ from your input. This tool does not offer a manual output-format selector or preserve every extra audio track.

Turn local footage within the browser’s limits

The source video is read locally and the result is assembled in browser memory. Your clip is not uploaded for rotation. The website still needs to load its code and can send service requests and processing error reports.

Even a copied turn requires this browser to decode the source video. Flipping and baking also need an encoder. Use an up-to-date browser and follow any format or size error shown. A shorter source or a computer can help with a phone’s memory budget; there is no fixed processing-time promise.

One orientation change applies to the whole recording

This is a whole-clip correction. It cannot follow a phone that turns halfway through filming or rotate only one section. For changing orientations within a recording, use a timeline editor to separate the sections and correct each one.

Turning an already-upright landscape scene does not reframe it into an upright portrait composition: it also turns the people and horizon. Rotation fixes direction, not framing or softness. If the upright clip needs more detail, the linked Video Enhancer handles that separate job.

How do you use the rotate video?

1. Open the sideways clip

   Choose a MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV video from your device. Check the starting orientation before making a change.

2. Set the direction

   Choose 90° right, 90° left, 180° or No turn under Turn. Add a flip only if the picture also needs mirroring.

3. Run and review the correction

   Start rotation, play the result and listen to the sound. Read Quality and Sound to check how this export was processed.

4. Save your result

   2 free downloads, 8 more after sign-in.

When is the free rotate video enough?

Rotate Video: questions and answers