How do I fix a sideways video from my phone?

A clip shot sideways just needs a 90° turn. In Crisp, type "my video is sideways" or pick Rotate right / Rotate left — it turns the picture upright and re-encodes it so it plays the right way up everywhere, not just in one player.

Can I flip a video upside down or mirror it?

Yes. 180° flips an upside-down clip the right way up, and Mirror flips it horizontally (handy for selfie/front-camera footage that came out reversed).

Will rotating lose quality or drop the audio?

Crisp re-encodes the picture with hardware acceleration at high quality, and the audio is kept. The result is written locally and atomically, so you can check it immediately.

Why does my video look rotated in one app but not another?

Some clips carry a rotation flag that only certain players honour, so the same file looks upright in one app and sideways in another. Crisp bakes the rotation into the pixels, so it plays correctly everywhere.

Is my video uploaded anywhere?

No. Crisp rotates entirely on your Mac — nothing is uploaded, so there's no queue, no size cap, and your footage never leaves the device.

Guide · Rotate a video on Mac

How to rotate a video on a Mac

A clip that came out sideways or upside-down — the classic phone-in-the-wrong-orientation problem — is a two-second fix, and it shouldn't need a timeline editor, an account, or an upload to some website. Here's how to rotate a video on a Mac in seconds, 100% offline: turn it 90° left or right, flip it 180°, or mirror it — with the audio kept and either by typing it in plain English or by using the Rotate lane.

Updated July 2026 · step-by-step

The fastest way: just ask

Crisp has a plain-English box ("Or just tell Crisp what to do…"). Drop your video in and describe the problem — it understands the way people actually say it:

rotate it right — 90° clockwise
rotate left — 90° counter-clockwise
my video is sideways — Crisp turns it upright
my video is upside down — a 180° flip
mirror it (or flip it horizontally) — un-reverse a selfie clip

Crisp reads the request, shows you the plan, switches to the Rotate lane and sets the direction for you — you just press the button. And if you ask for a bigger edit in the same breath, "rotate it right and upscale to 4K", the bigger job takes the wheel, so nothing gets dropped.

The manual way: the Rotate lane

Open Crisp and drop in your video

Get the free Crisp app for Mac and drag your clip onto the window. Nothing is uploaded: the whole job runs on your Mac.
Ask for Rotate

In Crisp, select the clip on your timeline and use Rotate in the Tools panel. Or just type “rotate it 90 degrees” in the prompt bar — Crisp maps plain English to the same tool. It's for video clips; if you've staged a photo, Crisp will nudge you to pick a video.
Choose a direction

Rotate right (90° clockwise) or Rotate left (90° counter-clockwise) for a sideways clip, 180° for an upside-down one, or Mirror to flip it horizontally.
Press Rotate

Crisp rotates on-device with hardware encoding, keeps the audio, and saves the result beside your original: one-time. Staged several clips? Crisp Pro rotates each one in the same batch (batch is part of the one-time $129 Pro unlock; one file at a time is free).

Why the same clip looks sideways in only some apps

Phones often record upright but store the video sideways with a little rotation flag that says "turn me 90° on playback". Some players honour that flag; others ignore it, which is why the same file looks fine in Photos but sideways in a browser or on another device. Crisp doesn't rely on the flag: it bakes the rotation into the actual pixels and clears the flag, so the clip plays the right way up everywhere.

Crisp vs QuickTime vs iMovie for rotating a clip

	Crisp	QuickTime	iMovie	Online rotators
Rotate 90° / 180° / mirror	Yes — all four	90° only	Yes	Yes
Plain-English ("my video is sideways")	Yes	No	No	No
Bakes rotation into the pixels	Yes	Metadata only*	Yes	Yes
Rotate + enhance in one step	Yes	No	No	No
100% offline, nothing uploaded	Yes	Yes	Yes	Uploads your clip
No watermark	With Pro ($129)	Yes	Yes	Often watermarked
Price	Free tier + one-time $129	Free	Free	Free + upsell

*QuickTime's rotate often just sets the rotation flag, so the clip can still look sideways in players that ignore it. Crisp bakes it in.

Why offline matters for rotating video

Your footage stays yours. The web "rotate video online" tools upload your clip first. Crisp rotates it entirely on your Mac — nothing leaves the device.
No queue, no size cap. Cloud rotators throttle by file size and make you wait; Crisp works on the whole file locally.
It plays right everywhere. By baking the rotation into the pixels, Crisp fixes the "upright in one app, sideways in another" problem for good.
Batch a whole set. Stage several sideways clips and Crisp turns each one upright in a single batch.

Rotate your first clip — offline

Free to try on your Mac. Fix a sideways or upside-down clip in seconds — no account, no subscription, nothing leaves your device.

Download Crisp for Mac

Apple Silicon · macOS 12+ · Notarized

Rotation questions

How do I rotate a video on a Mac for free?

Use Crisp: drop your clip in, select the clip and type it in the prompt bar (or type "rotate it right" or "my video is sideways"), choose a direction, and press Rotate. It rotates the clip and keeps the audio, entirely on your Mac, with no account, no upload.

How do I fix a sideways phone video?

A sideways clip just needs a 90° turn — type "my video is sideways" or pick Rotate right / Rotate left. Crisp turns it upright and bakes the rotation in, so it plays correctly in every player, not just one.

Can I flip it upside down or mirror it?

Yes — 180° flips an upside-down clip, and Mirror flips it horizontally (handy for reversed front-camera footage).

Does rotating drop the audio or hurt quality?

No. The audio is kept, and Crisp hardware-encodes the picture at high quality on Apple Silicon, writing the file locally and atomically so you can check it immediately.

Can I rotate a photo?

The Rotate lane is video-only. If you've staged a photo, Crisp will point you to a video clip.