Rotate or flip a video

Why videos come out sideways

A phone records its picture the same way however you hold it, and writes a note in the file saying which way is up. Most players read that note. Some older players, TVs, editing apps and upload forms ignore it, and the video shows on its side. A camera mounted upside down on a bike or a ceiling often writes no such note, so its video is simply upside down.

Octoolo reads the note when you add a phone video, so you see it as it was filmed. Any turn you add on top is written into the picture itself when you export, so the new MP4 needs no note and plays the same everywhere. If a clip looks right in Octoolo but wrong somewhere else, exporting it once settles the matter.

You can usually tell which case you have. A video that plays upright on the phone but sideways on the PC or TV has a note the player is ignoring. A video that is wrong everywhere, phone included, has a picture that is itself turned, and needs Turn left or Turn right.

Turn, mirror, or both

Selfie videos are the usual reason to mirror. Depending on the phone and its settings, front-camera video can be saved as a mirror image, so a sign or a T-shirt behind you reads backwards. One press of Mirror puts it right, and a second press puts it back.

Turning works in steps of 90 degrees, so a slightly tilted horizon cannot be straightened by a few degrees. Pieces you split from a turned clip stay turned, and so does a copy made with Duplicate. To undo a turn, press the opposite button, or Ctrl Z.

Turning changes the shape

A landscape clip turned by 90 degrees becomes tall. The video itself keeps its shape until you change it, so a turned clip first shows with wide bars at its sides. You have three choices:

• Change the video's Shape to Vertical (press Esc first so nothing is selected), and the turned clip fills it.
• Keep a landscape video and leave the bars, colored as you like under Background.
• Keep landscape and choose Fill, cut edges: the clip fills the width and loses its top and bottom.

Vertical suits a clip headed for TikTok, Reels or Shorts; landscape suits a TV screen or YouTube. When you join clips filmed both ways, decide the shape first, then turn each clip that needs it. Crop and reframe explains zoom and position, and merge videos covers mixed clips.

Other ways to rotate a video on Windows

If you only want to watch a sideways video, a player can turn it as it plays: VLC, for one, has a rotate option among its video effects, though the file itself stays sideways. Clipchamp, the editor Microsoft includes with Windows 11, can rotate a clip too, and asks you to sign in with a Microsoft account first.

Turning a video in a player is fine for one viewing. To send it to someone, upload it or put it in a presentation, you need a file whose picture is turned for good.

Octoolo turns the clip on your own PC and saves the fix into a new MP4. The same window can then trim it, join it with others, put a title on it or make it smaller, so a phone video goes from sideways to ready to share in one place.