Rotate video in Photos for Mac

I also ticked on export to save IPTC? to a XMP, not sure what to do with this now though!

The XMP file is only good when using an app like Adobe Lightroom which can import such a file and associate the date inside it with the photos it's associated with.

After rotation with Quicktime Player did you export the file out via the File ➙ Export menu option and check to see which formats were available?

Give Quicktime Movie a try. It might be a tad larger then the original but will have the .mov extension.

Thanks so amp is no good to me as I only use Photos app now.

I didn't get the options you have listed there. Its the QT built into Yosemite if that makes a difference. Also this was a test, and so the clip was low quality, only options were iPad.pod touch, or 480P.

Which did you choose?

I am using QuickTime Player 7 for Mac OS X v10.6.3 or later. Download QT Player 7 and see if it has any more export options than the other QT Player. You may have to purchase and install QuickTime 7 Pro for Mac OS X - Apple in order to the the other options.

QuickTime Player Version 10.4

Yes. I have that one also. Download the other player and see if there are any additional option than what you have in your current player.

I had this problem too. I noticed on Photos for Mac that some of my videos needed to be rotated. I use iCloud photo library and also have it enabled on my iPhone so that all the same photos and videos are on my phone. If you have the same setup this should work for you:

1. On your iPhone or iPad buy the iMovie for iOS app

2. On your iOS device open the photos app and open video that is the wrong orientation

3. Click edit

4. Click the three dots in a circle at the bottom of the screen (beside the play button)

5. Select iMovie

6. The video should load in iMovie.

7. Use your fingers on the screen to rotate the video

8. Click Done. (You should see a message that the video is exporting)

9. The video should now be in the correct orientation on your phone.

10. Wait, the change will eventually sync to Photos for Mac (You can sometimes speed this sync up by closing and opening Photos for Mac)

Oh my! It took hours of researching, but i finally found it and the solution is extremely simple.

Download Quicktime 7 pro.

Open the video.

Click windows -> movie properties (or CMD+J)

Click on video track -> visual settings

Click rotate whatever directions you want to.

Save video (or CMD+S)

And that's it!

No reencoding, no quality or metadata loss and it's instant.

I just delete desired video in Photos, then reimport it and it's done!

Hope this will help a lot of people 😉

It is quite simply insane that Apple, the it-just-works company, the company with more resources than literally any other on earth, has let it come to this. These hackish, kludgy workarounds for something so basic as rotating a video in one of its core software products that ties in with hundreds of millions of shipped devices.

Apple really and truly doesn't care about its software anymore, and even more so its Mac software.

Ok, who's going to the the first "Level 9" to tell me and others "if you don't like it, just use something else"? My response is a) I guess I'm still clinging onto the days when Apple built software with care and competency, and b) If you use products in the Apple ecosystem, they are supposed to tie together, and supposed to work together, and it ain't just that easy. Obviously. Many people once willingly paid extra for Apple hardware because the software was so much better; Apple proves time and time that they've forgotten/forsaken that. They no longer care about delighting customers, only locking them in.

So yeah, you (still) can't rotate the videos in Photos? C'mon. Ridiculous.

And yes, I've sent Apple feedback, down that worthless black hole.

While this solution helped rotate the video, my metadata was lost. I just adjusted the date/time on the video info after importing it to Apple Photos 1.3.

It's not a perfect solution, but it worked. The only perfect solution is for Apple to build rotation into Photos, either natively on the mobile device or in Photos.

Brian Steck wrote:

While this solution helped rotate the video, my metadata was lost. I just adjusted the date/time on the video info after importing it to Apple Photos 1.3.

It's not a perfect solution, but it worked. The only perfect solution is for Apple to build rotation into Photos, either natively on the mobile device or in Photos.

Or to use the movie program that Apple gives you for movies instead of a photo program - Photos has no Movie capabilities except to trim and play - is is not and is not intended to be a Movie editor - that is what iMovie is

LN

That's a good point Larry.

Bit considering Apple built iPhoto/Photos to manage all media (both photos and videos), allowing a simple rotate feature doesnt seem like a stretch. If all imported photos went to iPhoto and all imported videos went to iMovie, then iMovie would be an obvious solution. But that's not what they decided to do, either on mobile or desktop; in both, Photos is the app to manage video and photos. Why force people to open (and I'll add, purchase) another app? Perhaps, therein lies the reasoning.

At the very least, it makes sense to allow rotation as an editing option on the mobile device. Especially since trimming is already an option-- it's not like rotation is that much harder.

Again - Photos is for Photos - iMovie is for movies

and you do not purchase iMovie - it is included with your system

and for most people trimming and viewing movies is all they want to do - if you want to do more you need to use the proper software

If you want to explain to Apple how their software should work use this form - http://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html -- everyone here is a user exactly like you and has exactly the same ability you have to change software or features - none

LN

Larry, the only method of rotating videos on a mobile device is to purchase iMovie on that device. Yes, the latest version of iMovie is free.

I'm not here to bash Apple -- they make incredible products. Nico_Mike had a solution that helped, but isn't a complete solution to this thread's original question.

Some companies review their thread's occasionally. But even better than that, open source developers often create fixes to help solve the problems before those companies have the chance to fix them. My comments were meant to point out an obvious lack in the software in hopes that someone else might have a solution to fill that gap.

I'm sure Apple is glad to have you monitoring the forums to stand up for them.🙂 Keep up the good work!

No exporting needed, all you have to do is read manual and Help )

SOLUTION: In Photos on your Mac, select “Preferences”. There is a selection to “Use as System Photo Library”. Click on this to allow whatever photo library you are using when you opened Photos to be used in iMovie and other applications. You can always open Photos and use other libraries, but only the one you are using as the “System Photo Library” will be recognized by other applications such as iMovie and also.

Rotate you video and it will show as you like in Photos

Should be as simple as rotating still images.