How to Cut a Video on iPhone (Trim or Remove a Part)

To trim the start or end of a video on iPhone, open it in Photos, tap Edit, drag the yellow handles on the timeline, and tap Done. Photos can't remove a part from the middle, though. For that, open the Video Cutter in Safari, choose the video from your Photo Library, select the part to remove, choose Cut it out, and save the result.

Trim the start and end in Photos

1. Open the video in the Photos app and tap Edit.
2. Drag the left and right ends of the timeline (they turn yellow) to where the video should start and end.
3. Tap Done, then choose Save Video to replace it, or Save Video as New Clip to keep the original too.

Photos keeps the original, so you can undo the trim later with Edit › Revert.

Cut out a part from the middle

1. Open the Video Cutter in Safari.
2. Tap the upload area, choose Photo Library, and pick the video.
3. Play it and pause where the unwanted part begins. Tap Use current position next to Start.
4. Play on to where it ends and tap Use current position next to End.
5. Choose Cut it out, then tap Cut out the selection.
6. Preview the result and tap the Download button. In Safari's download menu, open the file and use the Share button › Save Video to put it back in Photos.

The parts before and after are joined seamlessly; the result is an MP4.

Trim precisely in the browser

The Cutter is also handy when Photos' timeline is too fiddly for an exact cut — type the times (like 0:12.5) instead of dragging, and choose Exact — to the frame. With Fast — original quality, the video is copied without re-encoding, so it stays in its original format and quality, but the clip may start up to a couple of seconds early (it has to begin on a keyframe).

Things to know on iPhone

• Long or 4K videos may be too much for a phone browser's memory. If it fails, trim in Photos first to roughly the right part, then use the Cutter on the shorter clip.
• Keep Safari open while it works — switching apps can pause the processing.
• HDR videos from recent iPhones: Fast keeps the original HDR video. Exact and Cut it out convert it to standard MP4, which can look slightly less vivid.
• Nothing is uploaded: the video is processed on your iPhone.

Other edits you might need

• Split a video into several clips (for Stories, for example) with the Video Splitter.
• Join clips into one with the Video Merger.
• Make it small enough to send with Compress Video to Size.

Getting the result back into Photos

After the cut, Safari saves the file to the Downloads folder in the Files app. To add it to your Photo Library, open it there (or from Safari's downloads list), tap Share, and choose Save Video. You can then delete the original from Photos if you no longer need it.

iMovie

Apple's free iMovie app can also split a clip and delete the middle (tap the clip, Split, then delete the part). It's the better choice for multi-clip projects with titles and music; the browser cutter is quicker for one cut.

Frequently asked questions

Does it add a watermark?

No — no watermark and no sign-up.

Will the cut video keep its sound?

Yes. Both the picture and the sound are cut together.

Can I use it on Android?

Yes — the same steps work in Chrome on Android; choose the video from Files or Photos.