How to crop a video on iPhone
Cropping a video on iPhone works the same way as cropping a photo, in the Photos app.
In the Photos app
- Open the video in Photos and tap Edit.
- Tap the crop icon in the row along the bottom.
- Drag the corners of the frame to set the area you keep. Pinch to zoom in first if you need to be precise.
- Tap Done, then Save Video or Save as New Clip.
Use Save as New Clip if you want the original left alone.
Cropping for Reels, TikTok or Shorts
If the goal is a vertical post, cropping by hand is the slow way to do it. You are eyeballing a 9:16 frame out of a 16:9 clip, and you will be a few pixels off every time.
Two things to know:
- Cropping throws pixels away. Crop a 1080p clip down to a third of its width and you are uploading a 360 pixel wide video. It will look soft.
- Cropping is not the same as reframing. If the subject does not fit a vertical frame, you want bars or a blurred fill behind it, not a tighter crop.
Cropping in the browser instead
Our cropper gives you a crop box you can drag on a full size preview, plus fixed output ratios, and it runs entirely in your browser. Nothing uploads.
- Open the cropper and drop the video in.
- Press C or tap Crop, then drag the box. Zoom in with pinch or the zoom buttons to place the edges precisely.
- Under Output, set Format to 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9.
- Leave Blur fill on if you want the empty bars filled with a blurred copy instead of black.
- Press Export.
Questions
Does cropping a video reduce quality?
Cropping itself removes pixels, so the result is lower resolution than the source. The re-encode on save costs a little more. Start from the highest resolution copy you have.
Can I undo a crop on iPhone?
Yes, if you saved over the original. Open the clip, tap Edit, then Revert.
Why does my cropped video have black bars?
The crop shape does not match the output shape. Set the output format to match what you cropped, or turn on a blurred fill so the bars are not black.