Compress videos to save space
Compress the videos in your library into smaller H.264 or HEVC (H.265) MP4 files and win back the space that clips straight off a camera or phone take up.
Starting a conversion
- Select videos, right-click and choose Convert…. Photos in the selection are left out and counted.
- Or use Convert selected on the videos bar, which is made for finding the videos worth converting.
Convert… is greyed out, with the reason, when there is no video among the targets, in the Trash, or when this computer has no FFmpeg — in which case it offers to get it.
The settings
The dialog asks once for the whole batch, and shows an estimate of what the selection would save:
- Format — H.264 plays everywhere, the phone pages included; HEVC is about half the size again, but older Windows and some browsers cannot play it. HDR videos are skipped in H.264 — choose HEVC to keep them HDR.
- Quality — High, Standard or Compact.
- Max resolution — Keep, 1080p or 720p. It only ever scales down, and keeps the picture's shape.
- Skip if it saves — Under 10 %, Under 25 % or Never skip: a video that would barely shrink is left as it is.
Press Convert to queue them.
What happens to the originals
Each video is converted one at a time, and replaces its original only once the new file plays and keeps the same date. Then:
- if the library has a backup folder, the original is moved into the backup's converted-originals folder, so the space is given back — after that, Reset cannot bring it back;
- otherwise the original is kept in the originals folder, so Reset can bring it back, but no space is saved.
Progress, with Stop, is under Thumbnails & video.