MOV to MP4 Converter

Convert a QuickTime .mov into a universally-playable MP4 (H.264 / AAC). Done on your device — your video is never uploaded.

By LK Forge · Published 6 August 2026 ·

Drop your file here, or click to choose Processed privately in your browser — nothing is uploaded

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100% private. Your file is processed in your browser with ffmpeg (WebAssembly) and is never uploaded. Big or long files take longer and use more memory — for those, trim first.

What is the difference between MOV and MP4?

MOV is Apple's QuickTime File Format, released in 1991. MP4 (ISO/IEC 14496-14) was derived from it in 2001, which is why both containers commonly carry the very same H.264 video and AAC audio streams. Converting MOV to MP4 matters because Windows Media Player, Android, most smart TVs and many upload forms will not open a .mov even when the video inside is ordinary H.264. This converter re-encodes with libx264 at CRF 23 — the x264 default, on a 0-51 scale where lower is better quality — using the veryfast preset, encodes audio as AAC at 160 kbps, pads odd dimensions to even numbers because H.264 4:2:0 chroma sampling requires them, and writes the file with -movflags +faststart so the moov atom sits at the front and playback can begin before the download finishes. The whole encode runs locally through ffmpeg.wasm, so the .mov is never uploaded; the engine itself downloads once per session, on your first conversion.

How to Use the MOV to MP4 Converter

Three steps, all in your browser.

  1. Load your MOV

    Drag a .mov file onto the box or click to select one. MOV is the format iPhones and QuickTime record in.

  2. Convert to MP4

    Click Convert. The video is re-encoded to H.264 with AAC audio — the combination that plays on virtually every device and app.

  3. Download the MP4

    Preview the result and download the .mp4. It is optimised with faststart so it begins playing while it loads.

Why won’t my iPhone .mov open on Windows or upload to the web?

The extension is rarely the problem — it is what Apple put inside it.

QuickTime’s container is the ancestor of MP4: ISO took Apple’s QuickTime File Format and standardised it as the ISO base media file format, so the two files are built from the same nested boxes. What differs is what Apple is allowed to put in a .mov that an MP4 player will not decode.

Since iOS 11, iPhones with Camera → Formats set to High Efficiency record HEVC (H.265) inside a .mov. macOS and Safari decode it; Windows ships no HEVC decoder by default, so File Explorer shows a thumbnail and playback fails with a codec error. iPhone 13 Pro and later, and anything exported from Final Cut Pro, can also write Apple ProRes, which runs to well over a gigabyte per minute at 1080p — which is why a two-minute clip refuses to attach anywhere.

Codec in the .movTypical sourceWindows 11AndroidWeb browsersWhat you get here
H.264 / AACiPhone set to “Most Compatible”PlaysPlaysPlaysH.264 / AAC, re-encoded
HEVC (H.265) / AACiPhone “High Efficiency”, iOS 11+Needs an extensionChipset-dependentSafari onlyH.264 — plays everywhere
Apple ProRes 422iPhone Pro ProRes, Final CutNoNoNoH.264, dramatically smaller
Animation / RLE with alphaAfter Effects, MotionNoNoNoH.264, transparency flattened

This converter re-encodes to H.264 at CRF 23 with AAC audio at 160 kbps and writes the file with +faststart, which moves the moov atom — the index a player needs before it can draw a single frame — from the end of the file to the front. That is what lets the MP4 begin playing while it is still downloading; a .mov straight off an iPhone usually has to download in full first. Going the other way, MP4 to MOV is a lossless remux rather than a re-encode.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I convert MOV to MP4?
Load your .mov file, click Convert, and the tool re-encodes it to an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio inside your browser. When it finishes you can preview the MP4 and download it. No app install and nothing to upload.
Why convert MOV to MP4?
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container and does not always play smoothly on Windows, Android or older web players. MP4 with H.264 is the most widely supported video format, so converting makes your clip play reliably almost everywhere and upload cleanly to most sites. The re-encode uses H.264 at CRF 23 with AAC audio at 160 kbps.
Is my video uploaded to a server?
No — your MOV never leaves your device. Conversion happens locally with ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, so the file is never uploaded, stored or logged. That makes it safe for personal recordings. The video engine (about 10 MB) downloads the first time you convert in a session; after that, no further network requests are made.
Will I lose quality?
Re-encoding is lossy, but the default quality setting (CRF 23) is visually close to the original for normal footage while keeping the file size sensible. Most people cannot tell the difference at normal viewing sizes. Audio is re-encoded to AAC at 160 kbps.
Is there a file-size limit?
We impose no cap, but the browser does: the video engine is 32-bit WebAssembly and holds the input and the output in memory at once, so files much over about 1 GB can run out of memory. Because everything runs in your browser, very large or long 4K files use a lot of memory and take longer to convert. For big files, trimming first with our Video Trimmer helps.

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