Sideways Video Fixer

Install Sideways Video Fixer

Sideways Video Fixer runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs. After buying, download the app zip from your Polar receipt, unzip it, and drag Sideways Video Fixer to your Applications folder.

The app is signed and notarized by Apple. Confirm Open at the normal first-launch prompt.

The app works without a license key. The key in your receipt turns on automatic updates: enter it in Sideways Video Fixer → License…, or when Check for Updates… asks for it. Once a day, the app checks for a new version, shows what’s new, and installs it with Install and Relaunch. Sideways Video Fixer → Check for Updates… checks right away. A key works on 3 Macs. To move it to another Mac, choose License… → Deactivate This Mac first. Your receipt always has the latest version, too.

Open a video

The window says “Drop a video here”. Drop a video on it, or click Choose Videos…, or choose File → Open Videos… (⌘O). You can open several at once.

It works with .mov, .mp4 and .m4v videos, the kinds phones and cameras make. A file it can’t open is listed in orange under the drop area with the reason, like “Holiday notes.mov: This file isn’t a video your Mac can open.”

A video can take a few seconds to show its first frame. The window says “Opening…” until it’s ready.

Turn and flip

• Rotate Left (⌘L) turns the picture a quarter turn counterclockwise.
• Rotate Right (⌘R) turns it a quarter turn clockwise.
• Flip mirrors it left to right, for a selfie video that came out mirrored.

The picture in the window turns right away, so what you see is what you’ll save. The same buttons are in the Video menu.

With several videos in the list, the three buttons turn all of them, because Turn all videos together is ticked. Untick it to turn only the video you see. Click a video in the list to see it, and right-click it for Remove from List.

Trim

Drag the two handles under the video to keep only the part between them. The times show next to the bar, like “0:03.6 to 0:11.0”, and the line under the buttons says how long it is: “Keeps 0:03.6 to 0:11.0, 7.4 seconds.” Play (the Space bar) plays the part you keep. Keep All puts the handles back at the ends.

The trim is for the video you see. Each video in the list has its own.

Choose how to save

The two buttons on the right pick how the new video is saved.

Fast, no quality loss copies the picture as it is and tells the video which way is up. It’s quick and the picture looks exactly the same. QuickTime Player, Photos and most other players follow it; a few players and TVs ignore it.

Fast can only start a trim where the video has a full picture, about once a second in most phone videos. When the start handle is between two of those, an orange mark under the video shows where it will really start, and the window says it, like “it starts at 0:03.0, 0.6 seconds before the handle”. The end is where you put it.

Most compatible saves the picture again, upright. It takes longer, plays the right way on every TV and player, and starts and ends exactly at the handles.

Pick Most compatible for a flip: some players show a flipped video upside down when it’s saved the fast way.

Save

Click Save (⌘S), or Save 3 Videos when you changed several. The window shows “Saving 2 of 3: Birthday cake.mov…”, then “Checking the new video…”. Stop stops after the video being saved, and its half-written file is removed.

Each new video goes next to its original, named like it with “(fixed)” after it: Beach day.mov becomes Beach day (fixed).mov, then Beach day (fixed 2).mov if that’s taken. A file that’s already there is never replaced. Nothing is saved for a video you didn’t turn or trim.

Before a new video gets its name, the app opens it again and checks its length, its sound tracks, and a frame of its picture against the original’s frame turned the way you asked. A video that fails the check is removed.

Then the window lists every video: “Saved and checked as “Beach day (fixed).mov”.”, the reason it couldn’t be saved, or “Not saved: nothing was turned or trimmed.” Show in Finder shows the new file. Back to the Videos goes back to the list, to save again another way. Fix More Videos starts over.

What’s kept

• The date the video was shot and the place, when the phone or camera saved them.
• Every sound track, with its language.
• HDR, and an iPhone’s Dolby Vision, both ways.
• The format: .mov stays .mov, .mp4 stays .mp4, .m4v stays .m4v.
• The Finder dates of the original.

Only the picture and the sound are copied. Extra data tracks some cameras add, like a timecode, aren’t, and the window says so when a video has them. Most compatible makes HEVC from an HEVC video and H.264 from anything else.

Privacy

The app reads only the videos you open, and writes only the new videos next to them. It never changes, moves or deletes the original. Your videos never leave your Mac. Once a day the app sends its license key to updates.flaviocopes.com to check for a new version, and about once a week it checks the key with Polar. There are no accounts and no analytics.

Troubleshooting

macOS asks about a folder

The first time you save a video that’s on your Desktop, in Documents, in Downloads, or on a card or drive, macOS can ask whether Sideways Video Fixer may use that folder. Click Allow, so the new video can go next to the original.

It says the folder can’t be written to

The card is locked, or the folder belongs to someone else. Copy the video to your Movies folder, open it from there and save again.

There isn’t enough free space

The new video needs about as much space as the part you keep. Make room on that disk, or copy the video somewhere with more space.

A TV still shows it sideways

The TV ignores which way is up. Open the original again, turn it, pick Most compatible and save.

The trim starts earlier than the handle

That’s the fast way, which can only start where the video has a full picture. Pick Most compatible to start exactly at the handle.

Sideways Video Fixer isn’t made by, affiliated with or endorsed by Apple or Dolby.