Fix iPhone .mov files for any upload form — lossless container conversion, no upload
Drop an iPhone .mov to turn it into a universally accepted MP4
This is a container rewrite, not a transcoder. The ftyp brand is replaced with a standard MP4 brand and every other box is copied byte-for-byte. H.264/HEVC video with AAC audio converts in seconds with zero quality loss. ProRes, PCM audio, MKV, AVI, and WebM are rejected rather than silently degraded.
An iPhone records .mov as H.264 or HEVC video with AAC audio — the same codecs MP4 uses. The only difference is the file's ftyp box, which declares the brand as qt . Upload forms and Android phones often refuse that brand. Rewriting the brand and leaving every other box untouched turns the file into a standards-compliant MP4 without touching a single video frame. That is why a 2 GB clip converts in about a second and the output is the same size as the input.
A transcoder decodes every frame and re-encodes it — slower, lossy, and CPU-heavy. It is the right tool when the codec itself is incompatible (MKV, AVI, WebM, ProRes). This tool deliberately does not pretend to do that: it detects those cases and tells you, instead of handing back a broken MP4.
| Input | Video codec | Result |
|---|---|---|
| MOV / MP4 / M4V | H.264 or HEVC + AAC | ✅ Converted losslessly |
| MOV | ProRes | ❌ Rejected — needs transcode |
| MOV | PCM audio | ❌ Rejected — convert audio to AAC |
| MKV / AVI / WebM | Any | ❌ Not supported — use HandBrake |
Convert iPhone MOV to MP4 free without re-encoding. Rewrites the container brand and copies the video stream byte-for-byte — seconds, zero quality loss, no upload. H.264/HEVC + AAC.
Transcoding decodes every frame and re-encodes it at a new bitrate — slow, lossy, and CPU-bound. Remuxing keeps the encoded stream and changes only the wrapper. Most “MOV to MP4” requests are really remux requests: an iPhone records H.264/HEVC + AAC, the same codecs MP4 expects. Recognising that turns a ten-minute CPU job into a one-second copy and avoids a generation of quality loss.
Many web forms and Android apps whitelist MP4 by MIME type or extension. A QuickTime file with perfectly valid H.264 inside is rejected before anyone looks at the codec. Rewriting the brand fixes the rejection without touching the video. The one thing to check afterwards is HEVC: some older Android devices and Windows installs cannot decode it, so if compatibility is critical, record in H.264 or transcode once.
Audio is copied exactly like video. iPhone recordings use AAC in an mp4a sample entry, which is already valid MP4 audio, so the track moves across untouched. The exception is uncompressed PCM — common in screen recordings and some cameras — which MP4 players generally refuse; this tool detects it and tells you to re-encode to AAC instead of producing a file that plays silently. Subtitles and metadata tracks are preserved because every box outside ftyp is copied verbatim.
Because nothing is re-encoded. MOV and MP4 are both ISO Base Media files: the video and audio samples sit in an mdat box in exactly the same form. The only thing that makes a player treat the file as QuickTime is the ftyp brand. This tool replaces that brand with a standard MP4 brand and copies every other byte, so the work is a file copy, not a video encode.
None. The H.264 or HEVC stream is not touched, so the output is bit-identical in video quality to the input. File size stays essentially the same — this is not a compressor. If you need a smaller file, convert first and then run it through the video compressor.
ProRes and uncompressed PCM audio are rejected because they are not valid in a standard MP4 — they genuinely need transcoding. MKV, AVI and WebM are different container formats entirely and also need a real transcoder. The tool tells you which case you hit rather than handing back a file that will not play.
Yes. The output is a standard MP4 with isom/mp42 compatible brands and H.264/HEVC + AAC, which Android, Windows, macOS, iOS, and every major upload form accept. HEVC playback still depends on the player having an HEVC decoder, but the container itself is valid.
No. The file is read into memory, the ftyp box is rewritten, and the blob is downloaded — all locally. Nothing is sent anywhere, which matters for unreleased product footage and personal videos.
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