Christian Heilmann

How to trim a video in MacOS using Finder!

Thursday, February 20th, 2025 at 1:41 pm

Context menus are a treasure trove of features you miss otherwise. Did you know for example that you can trim videos in MacOS Finder?

All you need to do is open the context menu on any video file, go to “Quick Actions” and select “Trim”:

MacOS finder with a selected video file and the context menu open and the Quick Actions selected and Trim available.

You then get a trimming interface that allows to drag the start, end and move the selection around.

A video with the trimming interface visible

You can then choose to save the video as a copy or replace the original one. If the video is an MP4 there is no re-encoding and the saving is immediately done.

Interface to select to save the video as a copy or replace the current one.

If you are already previewing the video by pressing space, you can also get to the trim interface using the button.

Trim button in the preview

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