How to Rotate Video

To fix a clip that opens lying on its side, rotate video in a video editor and export it, so the new orientation lives inside the file. Here is how to rotate sideways video 90 degrees in Movavi Video Editor, plus a few other routes if you would rather use what is already on your computer.

If you post travel vlogs, film family road trips, or record tutorials for YouTube, you have probably met this one: the clip plays upright on your phone and lies on its side everywhere else. Movavi Video Editor is an intuitive video editor with customizable video templates, one-click AI tools, and hundreds of drag-and-drop effects. It is a desktop app for Windows and macOS, and turning a clip takes a few clicks in Rotate and Flip. You see the upright picture in the preview before you export, so the first pass already gives you a clip you can use.

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Edited by

Sam P Dunn

November 9, 2026

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Why does a phone video open sideways?

A phone often records the picture in one fixed orientation and adds a rotation flag: a small note in the file’s metadata that tells a player which way up to show it. Wikipedia’s entry on Exif, the metadata standard for camera files, lists orientation (rotation) among the tags that cameras, smartphones included, record.

A player that reads the note shows the clip upright. A website or program that skips it shows the clip on its side. Turning the picture while you watch fixes only your own screen; VLC, for example, applies its rotate and mirror filters during playback. Some clips arrive upside down instead of sideways, and the same fix applies. To rotate video clips for good, turn them in an editor and save the result.

How to Rotate Video 90 Degrees in Movavi Video Editor

Picture a travel vlogger who filmed a street market with the phone held sideways, or a parent with a road-trip clip that refuses to stand up. Both fix it the same way. A teacher who filmed a classroom demo sideways for a YouTube tutorial does too. Four steps, and each one starts from where the last one left off.

Step 1. Add your footage

Click Add Files, then select all the clips and photos you want in the video.

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Step 2. Rotate the clip

Open Tools > Crop and rotate. Click the Manual tab at the top of the tool panel to reveal the rotation options. Click the Rotate icon to turn the video 90 degrees. Once it looks correct in the preview, click the white Apply button to save your changes.

Step 3. Export the video

Click Export, choose the export format, then click Start.

The rotation is now part of the exported file, so it opens the right way up in other players and on other sites. MP4 is the format to pick for the widest compatibility. For the YouTube tutorial, the editor can also upload the exported video straight to YouTube, with title, description, privacy, and tag settings on the way out.

A turned phone clip often leaves black bars at the sides of a widescreen project: the picture is taller than it is wide, so it sits in the middle of a wider frame with empty space on both sides. The crop tool removes them. Its Manual mode lets you drag the crop frame yourself, and its Auto mode uses AI to keep the main subject centered while it reframes. For the street-market clip, that means the stall owner stays in the middle of the frame after you crop.

How to rotate several videos at once

A phone often records the picture in one fixed orientation and adds a rotation flag: a small note in the file’s metadata that tells a player which way up to show it. Wikipedia’s entry on Exif, the metadata standard for camera files, lists orientation (rotation) among the tags that cameras, smartphones included, record.

A player that reads the note shows the clip upright. A website or program that skips it shows the clip on its side. Turning the picture while you watch fixes only your own screen; VLC, for example, applies its rotate and mirror filters during playback. Some clips arrive upside down instead of sideways, and the same fix applies. To rotate video clips for good, turn them in an editor and save the result.

How to rotate several videos at once

To rotate video clips in bulk, use Movavi Video Converter, the Movavi tool for converting video, audio, and image files across formats.

Step 1. Download and install the software

Click one of the buttons below to get the installation file. Open it and follow the on-screen instructions. Then, the program will launch automatically.

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Step 2. Add files to the program

Just click Add Media and select Add Video.

Step 3. Rotate videos

Click the Edit button next to your file to open quick-adjustment tools where you can crop, rotate, enhance colors, add subtitles, or trim the clip.

On the Crop tab, go to the Rotate section in the right panel and click the left or right arrow to rotate the video. To rotate all of your loaded clips at once, check the Apply to all files box below the rotation icons. You will see the new rotation in the preview monitor immediately. Click Apply, then Save and Close.

Step 4. Save the videos

Click Convert to process and save the finished files.

Inside Movavi Video Editor, rotate each clip separately: select it on the timeline and repeat Step 2. A road trip full of phone clips takes one quick round per clip, and each clip keeps its own turn.

VLC media player

VLC is a free, open-source player, and its desktop version includes filters that rotate and mirror video during playback. It can also convert files, which is how a rotation gets saved.

How to rotate a video:

Open the video in VLC and choose the rotation in its video effects. Check the picture.
Open Media > Convert / Save, click Add, select the video, then click Convert / Save.
Next to Profile, click the wrench (Settings) icon. On Video codec > Filters, tick Video transformation filter, then click Save.
Choose a destination file name, then click Start.

Clipchamp

Clipchamp is Microsoft’s browser-based editor, built into Windows 11 and Microsoft 365.

How to rotate a video:

Click the clip on the timeline so it’s highlighted.
Click the three dots in the floating toolbar above the preview, then click Rotate by 90 degrees until the clip is upright. The freehand rotate tool under the preview turns a clip up to 360° if you want a custom angle.
Click Export and save the file.

QuickTime Player

QuickTime Player is the built-in media player on Mac, and its Edit menu can rotate or flip a clip.”

How to rotate a video:

Open the movie in QuickTime Player.
Choose Edit > Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip Horizontal or Flip Vertical.
Save the result: File > Save, or File > Export As. Apple’s page says to click Done after editing clips (View > Show Clips). The save and export menu names come from third-party guides.

Common mistakes when you rotate a video

A phone often records the picture in one fixed orientation and adds a rotation flag: a small note in the file’s metadata that tells a player which way up to show it. Wikipedia’s entry on Exif, the metadata standard for camera files, lists orientation (rotation) among the tags that cameras, smartphones included, record.

A player that reads the note shows the clip upright. A website or program that skips it shows the clip on its side. Turning the picture while you watch fixes only your own screen; VLC, for example, applies its rotate and mirror filters during playback. Some clips arrive upside down instead of sideways, and the same fix applies. To rotate video clips for good, turn them in an editor and save the result.

Movavi Video Editor

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Frequently asked questions

How do I rotate a video 180 degrees?

n the Movavi video editor, you can flip your footage while avoiding black borders. First, click Add Files to load your media, then go to Tools > Crop and Rotate and select the Manual tab. Click the Rotate icon twice: a 180-degree turn keeps the frame shape, so a landscape clip stays landscape, unlike a single 90-degree turn which adds black bars.

How do I save a rotated video permanently?

Export the project. The exported file carries the rotation. The project itself is saved as an .mepj file, so you can reopen it later and change the turn without touching your original clip.

How can I rotate several videos at once?

Batch rotation lives in Movavi Video Converter. In the editor, you turn each clip on its own and export them together in one project.

How do I rotate a video for YouTube without losing quality?

Rotate once and export once. While you edit, Fast Track HD works on lighter copies of HD footage and swaps back to the full-quality originals on export. Choose MP4 for the export. One turn and one export means the video reaches YouTube looking the way it did in the preview.