MOV video downloads with washed-out colors instead of MP4

You’ll need to talk to Apple Support. The only other remote possibility is Apple did it to save space on your iCloud space.

you’re in the US, please call  1-800-MY-APPLE, or outside the US, consult the support articles below. In Canada, call 1-800-263-3394.

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

Thanks for that. I’ve got a better idea of your workflow now.

Let’s start here, videos recorded on an iPhone in HEVC are H.265 in a .MOV container.

Videos recorded on an iPhone in most compatible are H.264 in a .MOV container.

iPhone does not store anything or convert to MP4 except in third party software.

How are you getting MP4 files for uploading to iCloud?

I think what’s happening is settings have accidentally changed in the OpenShot software. It was set at some point to export/save MP4 video files. But somehow the export/save function is set to .MOV. This is not something easily done (if it’s even possible) on an iPhone.

OpenShot does give the option to export/save as .MOV. If you’re not sure how to change the export/save settings, the OpenShot group on Reddit would be a good start. I’m not familiar enough with the software to be able to advise you.

Hopefully this may explain some things if you’re using iCloud. I’m not sure it applies specifically to your situation.

Videos uploaded to iCloud Photos are not altered in quality or format by Apple. They are stored in their original format, at full resolution and quality. This means footage shot on an iPhone—whether in HEVC (.MOV) or H.264—remains in that same codec and resolution in iCloud Photos.

However, when using Optimize iPhone Storage, the copies stored locally on your device may be lower-resolution previews, while the full originals remain in iCloud. This can create the impression that videos are compressed or modified, but the stored originals are not.

When videos are manually uploaded to iCloud Drive instead of iCloud Photos, Apple may apply automatic lossy compression to multimedia files (including photos and videos) for storage optimization. This compression slightly reduces quality to save space but is generally minimal and visually indistinguishable in normal viewing.

Did you read what I wrote above it explains how video files may be altered when uploaded or downloaded to your iPhone.

If you are manually uploading the files, iCloud can and will make changes. If the Photos app backs them up to iCloud no changes are made.

If you’re editing on your iPhone and upload to iCloud from Apple Photos app. Video file is unaltered and stored in original format.

If your workflow is anything else there’s about a dozen things in your workflow that could alter the video file. Uploading from the PC desktop to iCloud at the very least compresses the file.

Do you edit on PC? If so, have any editing apps or OS updated recently?

This exact problem has happened within the past week as well using an iPhone 13 Mini. I can't find a way to get my videos to download from iCloud or be exported from my phone as anything but .MOV files. I always downloaded my videos from iCloud automatically as .mp4 files to my Windows computer up until now. I changed no settings. This seems like a glitch that requires fixing, as I am now unable to use my videos in the way I need. Please let me know if you hear of a solution. Thank you.

What site are you uploading to? Have you talked to the sites support team?

Contact Apple Support is the easy way to find out.

try with https://apps.apple.com/us/app/compress-video-compressor/id1525616709?mt=12 compress from mov to mp4

it might be the the HDR system though

You're being somewhat vague about what cloud you are storing your videos on. You also say it's your "livelihood". If so I would highly suggest, at a bare minimum, store your videos locally such as on an external hard drive giving you complete personal control of your content rather than somewhere on the cloud that may or not be there in the future. I could go on but there's plenty of information out there on how to backup your files safely.