--- title: How to convert MOV to MP4 on a Mac (and when you do not need to) source: https://arazioformac.com/notes/convert-mov-to-mp4-on-mac --- # How to convert MOV to MP4 on a Mac (and when you do not need to) A MOV from your iPhone or from QuickTime will not upload somewhere, will not play on a Windows machine, or gets rejected by whatever you are sending it to. **The one-gesture way** 1. Pick the file up in Finder, as if you were moving it. 2. Hold `⇧`. A ring of formats appears around the cursor. 3. Let go toward **MP4**. The new file lands beside the original. MOV converts to seven formats — hold ⇧ and they appear around the cursor: GIF, M4A, M4V, MKV, MP3, MP4, WebM. Six actions work on any file at all — hold ⌃, including on files Arazio cannot convert: AirDrop, Shelf, Copy, Move, Copy Path, Terminal. That is the whole thing. It works on one file or four hundred, and nothing is uploaded — the conversion happens on your Mac. Where the video inside allows it, [Arazio](https://arazioformac.com) copies rather than re-encodes — so an iPhone MOV becomes an MP4 in about a second and loses nothing at all. Where it does not, it re-encodes with Apple's hardware encoders. $9.99 once. The rest of this page is what is actually going on, and the manual routes. ## MOV and MP4 are usually the same video in a different wrapper A video file has two parts: a **container** and a **codec**. The container is the box — MOV, MP4, MKV. The codec is how the picture is actually encoded inside it — H.264, HEVC, ProRes. An iPhone MOV is almost always H.264 or HEVC. An MP4 holds H.264 or HEVC too. So converting one to the other often means **relabelling the box without touching the video at all**. That is called a remux or a stream copy, and it is close to instant and completely lossless. This matters because a tool that re-encodes when it could have remuxed costs you minutes and a generation of quality for nothing. ## The manual ways ### QuickTime Player **File → Export As → 1080p** (or whatever resolution). QuickTime writes a .mov. To get .mp4, some versions let you rename the extension and it simply works, because the file was already compatible. **The catch:** QuickTime re-encodes. It is slower than it needs to be and the result is slightly softer than the original. There is no quality control beyond picking a resolution. ### Just rename the extension Genuinely worth trying first, and it takes two seconds. Rename `clip.mov` to `clip.mp4`. If the video inside is H.264 or HEVC — and from an iPhone it almost certainly is — many players and upload forms will accept it immediately. **The catch:** this is a lie told to the file system, not a conversion. Strict software checks the contents and will still refuse it. It works often enough to be the first thing to try and not often enough to rely on. ### HandBrake The serious free option. Drag the file in, choose a preset, hit Start. **The catch:** HandBrake always re-encodes — it has no remux mode — so a conversion that could have been instant takes real time and loses a little quality. The interface also asks you a great many questions. ### ffmpeg in Terminal If you are comfortable in a terminal, this is the correct answer: ``` ffmpeg -i input.mov -c copy output.mp4 ``` `-c copy` is the important part: it copies the video and audio streams untouched into a new container. No re-encode, no quality loss, usually a second or two. If that fails, the codec genuinely is not MP4-compatible — ProRes, for instance, from a camera or an edit — and you do need a real conversion: ``` ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac output.mp4 ``` **The catch:** you have to install it, and remember the flags. ## When you cannot avoid re-encoding - **ProRes** — common from cameras and video editors, very large, not valid inside an MP4. Must be re-encoded. - **HEVC where the destination wants H.264** — the container is fine but the recipient is not. Must be re-encoded. - **You need it smaller.** A remux does not change the size at all, because the video data is identical. Shrinking means re-encoding, by definition. ## Does converting lose quality? A remux: no. Not a pixel. It is the same data in a different box. A re-encode: yes, always, a little — video codecs are lossy and encoding an already-encoded video compounds it. Do it once from the best source you have rather than converting the same clip repeatedly. ## Why an app, if ffmpeg is free Because `ffmpeg -i input.mov -c copy output.mp4` is the correct answer and most people are never going to type it. [Arazio](https://arazioformac.com) does the same thing as a gesture: pick the video up, hold ⇧, let go toward MP4. It chooses the stream copy when the streams allow it, so you get the instant lossless path without knowing that such a thing exists — and it falls back to a real encode when the codec genuinely cannot live in an MP4. It is $9.99 once, Apple silicon, no free trial. If you are comfortable in a terminal, ffmpeg does this free and I would rather say so than pretend otherwise.