How to Compress MOV File for Free or Online - No Visible Quality Loss

Foreword: Struggling to post a large MOV file on social media such as Instagram and Facebook? Seeking how to compress a MOV file on Mac or online? Wonder how to make mov files smaller without hampering the quality? If the answer is yes, then you've come to the right place. In this post, we'll be showing you 6 free or online ways to reduce MOV file size on Mac and PC Windows without perceivable quality loss.

A video with .mov as the extension name is the MOV file. It's also known as QuickTime video. We want to make a MOV file smaller for various reasons, sometimes for freeing up the disk storage space, sometimes for fast sharing the video with friends via social media or emails, sometimes for a smoother playback experience, etc.

Fortunately, there are many ways to reduce mov size, some of which can help compress a MOV file by 90% of the original size without ruining the quality.

Quick Comparison: 6 Best MOV Compressors to Compress MOV Files

1. Compress MOV Files on Mac/Windows in VideoProc Converter AI

VideoProc Converter AI is the best MOV compressor in the market for good reasons. With support for over 370 formats including ProRes, MPEG4, H.264, and H.265, it can help you compress, convert, and edit virtually any MOV file without hassles. It offers a one-click solution to reduce MOV file size by 90% without affecting the picture quality. 👍

Just enter the target size or drag a slider to specify the compression ratio, it can do the rest and deliver a MOV file with the exact size you desire. Moreover, you can enjoy complete control over export quality and size by customizing video codec, bitrate, frame rate, and other properties with ease and precision. Thanks to the innovative support for level-3 GPU acceleration technology, it can compress even large 4K MOV files at a speed of 47x faster than real-time playback, making it the fastest MOV compressor in the market.

Now let's download VideoProc Converter AI and then follow the steps below to reduce mov file size on Mac and PC Windows:

Step 1. Import a MOV File

Install, and launch up VideoProc Converter AI. Drag and drop the source MOV file into this high-quality MOV compressor. Click on Toolbox and then choose Compress.

Step 2. Compress MOV File

In the pop-up Compress panel, drag the slider to specify the desired compression ratio, for example, drag the slider to 10% to reduce the MOV file size by 90%. Alternatively, go to the File Size menu and enter the desired file size directly. Hit Done to confirm the changes.

Tips:

You can also select a lower resolution from the drop-down of Resolution to reduce the MOV file size. For example, you can save over half of the original size by downscaling a 1920x1080P MOV file to 1280x720P.

You can trim off unwanted segments to make your MOV file smaller. This can be done easily by dragging the green knobs under the preview window.

Step 3. Export the Compressed MOV File

Check Use High Quality Engine for exporting the compressed MOV file with better quality. Hit RUN to start compressing the MOV file on Mac or PC Windows.

Video Tutorial: How to Compress MOV Files on Mac Effortlessly

2. Compress MOV Files on Mac/Windows in VideoSolo

VideoSolo Video Converter Ultimate is a very powerful video editor. Among all the editing functions, its video compression feature is also very prominent. It helps you bulk compress video and audio files while maintaining very high output quality. During the compression process, you can also compress the video directly by adjusting the compression ratio and file size. In addition, depending on your needs, you can set the format, bit rate, resolution and so on. Follow the simple tutorials to have a try.

Step 1. Launch VideoSolo Video Converter Ultimate, then go to the "Toolbox" and choose "Video Compressor".

Step 2. Simply click "+" to add the MOV files that you want to compress.

Step 3. After adding the MOV files, you can go to "Change Source File" to adjust the file size and compress ratio according to your own needs. (Optional)

Step 4. After all the settings, you can click "Compress" to begin compressing MOV files on PC or Mac.

3. Compress MOV File on Mac in QuickTime Player

Mac users? You're in luck as you can use the pre-build QuickTime Player to reduce MOV file size on Mac for free.

Though I have to admit this media player has a very limited range of compression features. With it, you can't enter the exact bitrate value or frame rate value to make a .mov file smaller. From our test, QuickTime Player can work without errors only when being used to decrease MOV (MPEG-2/4 and H.264) files. Worse still, compressing a .mov file on Mac via QuickTime Player somewhat will cause horrible quality loss.

Step 1. Launch up QuickTime Player on your Mac.

Step 2. Press File on the top menu bar to find Import. Click this to feed the MOV file to QuickTime Player.

Step 3. Navigate to the menu bar and choose File again. Choose Export As from the drop-down menu of File.

Step 4. From the 5 options (4K, 1080P, 720P, 480P, and audio only), select the one that is lower than the original resolution.

4. Compress a MOV File on Mac in iMovie

Mac users can also take advantage of iMovie to compress MOV file size for free. This easy video editor can reduce the MOV file to half to the original size or even smaller. However, it is not the perfect solution to condense the MOV file for two reasons. In a nod to beginners, iMovie simplified the quality control options a lot, offering you only rough options like Low, Faster, and Medium to downsize the MOV file.

Besides, iMovie is a CPU-oriented program that might take around 90% of your CPU resource to compress MOV file to a smaller size. Anyway, let's take a look at the answer to how do I reduce the file size of a .MOV in iMovie.

Step 1. Open up iMovie. Press Project, click on the plus button on the top left of the window, and then you select Movie. Choose No Theme on the pop-up query box. Afterward, select Create.

Step 2. Drag and drop the file that comes with .mov as the extension name to iMovie.

Step 3. Press File on the top menu bar, choose Share and select Export File.

Step 4. Now you've come to the setting panel for your video. There are 4 options to shrink the MOV file size.

Step 5. According to your demand, you can choose a resolution lower than the original MOV file; pick the desired quality level since the higher quality level equals a larger file size; set Faster as the compressed mode.

Step 6. Choose Next. Enter the name for the output file and define an output file folder. Next, you press Save. iMovie starts helping you reduce MOV file size on Mac.

5. Compress MOV Files Online in Freeconvert

Freeconvert can compress MOV file less than 1GB to 60+ formats in relatively fast speed. Moreover, this handy online MOV compressor allows you to adjust the bitrate, codec, and several other parameters, so you have different ways to make a MOV file smaller on Mac and Windows.

Step 1. Open Freeconvert on your browser.

Step 2. Hit File, and then you chose the MOV file you want to compress for importing to the app.

Step 3. Choose MOV, MP4, or another format as the result video file type.

Step 4. Choose the tool icon to navigate yourself to the Advanced Options page.

Step 5. Select H265 as the Video Codec. Afterward, you can compress the size of the MOV file by selecting:

• Target a file size (Percentage) and then moving the size slider left.
• Target a file size (MB) and then entering the desired output MOV file size.
• Target a video quality/resolution/bitrate and then adjusting the corresponding value.

Step 6. Hit Apply Setting. Press Compress Now to compress MOV file online.

6. Compress MOV Files Online in PS2PDF

PS2PDF Video Compressor offers a flexible way for people to compress MOV files online for free. The feature I love most about this online toolkit is it allows you to reduce the MOV file size by percentage. Surely, you can still adjust the resolution and constant rate factor to get a high quality compressed MOV file.

Unfortunately, PS2PDF cannot compress large MOV files. From our test, it won't recognize a MOV file with a size larger than 250MB. Another disappointing thing is the support of MOV output is absent. The extension of the video file will change from .mov to .webm or .mp4 after the compression.

Step 1. Visit the official site of the PS2PDF compressor on your browser, press File.

Step 2. Choose Select From Disk, Select From Dropbox (Fast), or Select From Google Drive (Fast) to import the MOV to the online MOV compressor from local disk, Dropbox, or Google Drive.

Step 3. Choose MP4 or WBEM as the output file container and select H.264 as the video codec.

Step 4. On the setting panel of Output Quality And File Size, you can make some adjustments for a better yield out.

• Choose By Percentage as File Size, move the cursor on the quality slider to adjust the compression ratio.
• Choose By Preset Quality, select the favored preset to shrink the MOV. A faster preset usually refers to a smaller outcome video size. You'll also need to assign a proper value for Content Rate Factor. Note: the smaller the content rate factor value, the slower the MOV compression speed.

Step 5. Press Compress Now to start to reduce the MOV file size online.

FAQs

What Is a MOV File?

Wonder what is a MOV file or is QuickTime movie the same as MOV? Below information might shed up a light for you.

1. Apple initially created MOV in 1998 as a container format to use in QuickTime player.
2. A MOV file or the file with .mov as the extension is QuickTime(QT) file format.
3. The data inside a MOV file might include video compressed in codecs like HEVC, MPEG-4, and H.264/AVC, audio codec compressed in codecs like AAC and MP3, and countless other media data.

Why Is My MOV File So Big?

MOV is a video container format which has nothing to do with the final file size. The thing that makes your MOV file large is the media data inside the capsule. A MOV can hold video data encoded by the advanced lossy codec like HEVC and H.264, the lossless codecs like Motion JPEG, and the low compression efficient codecs like Apple ProRes and Cinepak. Since the big file size is one of the key features of the latter two codecs, it's no surprise your MOV file is bulky.