Cut videos in QuickTime Player: Here's how!

Apple QuickTime Player on Mac is not only good for playing videos of different formats. If you want to quickly and easily shorten a video or cut out certain sequences, you can also use the program preinstalled under macOS for this. In this guide I will show you how to cut videos in Apple QuickTime Player. For faster work, I have also included the appropriate key combinations for various functions. Do you still have any questions? Then please leave a comment! 

Cutting videos in QuickTime Player: How it works!

To watch a video in QuickTime Player to cut, you have to open it with this app first. To do this, double-click on the corresponding file or start it first QuickTime Player app. There you can then select and open the desired video file from the memory of your Apple Mac in the usual Finder manner. Once that is done, you will only see the known options for playback, navigation and volume control.

There are two ways to call up the timeline known from the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, which can then be used to shorten or cut the video. The first is via the menu bar; click there presentation -> Unhide Clips. A quicker way is to use the keyboard shortcut Command + E (⌘E). Now the clip is displayed by means of thumbnails lined up. A red vertical line indicates the current position. You can move it with the mouse or the arrow keys.

If you drag the position indicator to a certain position with the mouse or navigate it with the arrow keys on the keyboard, then you can use the keyboard shortcut Command + Y (⌘Y) to set a cut at this point. If you make another cut further back, you now have three clips and can e.g. B. delete the middle one. It also allows you to split the video into clips and drag them left or right to rearrange them. If you only want to shorten the video at the front or end, double-click on the overview bar mentioned and shown above.

If you have opened a video for editing in QuickTime Player, pressed ⌘E and then - as already indicated in the last paragraph - double-clicked on the thumbnail bar, then the yellow borders known from the iPhone and iPad will appear. You can now use this on the left and right to shorten the front and back of the video. This way you don't have to first cut out the superfluous piece at the beginning or end with ⌘Y and then delete it with the Delete key or backspace. Click on "Trim" to save the cropped video.

Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.