How to Fix a Sideways or Upside-Down Video

October 27, 2026

Why videos end up sideways

A phone does not always record a video the way you see it on screen. Many phones store the picture in one fixed direction and add a small note, called an orientation or rotation flag, that says "turn this when you play it". Some players follow the note and show the clip correctly. Others ignore it, and show the clip lying on its side or upside down. That is why a video can look fine on your phone and appear rotated on a computer, in a messaging app or on a website.

The same thing happens when a phone is held in an unusual position at the moment you press record, or when an app exports a video and drops the orientation information.

Rotate or flip: two different fixes

Rotate turns the whole picture by 90 or 180 degrees. Use it when the video lies on its side or is upside down.
Flip mirrors the picture, left to right or top to bottom. Use it when the picture is a mirror image, for example when text appears backwards after you filmed with the front camera.

A mirror image cannot be fixed by rotating, and a sideways image cannot be fixed by flipping, so it helps to identify which problem you have first.

Which rotation do you need?

If the top of the picture points to the left, rotate it right 90 degrees.
If the top points to the right, rotate it left 90 degrees.
If the picture is upside down, rotate it 180 degrees.

Step by step

Open the video rotator and upload the clip.
Choose rotate left 90°, rotate right 90° or rotate 180°, then download the result.
If the picture is also mirrored, run the result through the video flipper and choose horizontal.
Play the final file in a player other than the one where you saw the problem, to be sure it is correct everywhere.

The tool writes the rotation into the picture itself, so the video plays the right way up everywhere, not only in players that read the orientation note. The audio track is copied without changes and only the picture is turned. Because the picture has to be processed again, the video is re-encoded at a quality close to the original, and it takes a little longer than a simple trim.

Remember the shape changes

After a 90-degree rotation, a vertical clip becomes horizontal and the other way round. If you wanted a vertical clip for social media after all, see our guide on making a vertical video.

How to avoid the problem next time

Hold the phone steadily in the orientation you want before you press record.
Avoid pointing the phone straight up or down when you start, because that is when the phone is most likely to guess the orientation wrongly.
If your phone has a rotation lock, use it to stop the screen from changing while you record.
Check the first seconds of the clip before you move on.

If you only need part of the clip, cut it with the video trimmer, and to make the file smaller before sharing, use the video compressor. Everything runs in your browser, so your video is never uploaded to a server.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my video look fine on my phone but sideways elsewhere?

Many phones add an orientation note to the file, and some players follow it while others ignore it. Writing the rotation into the picture makes it correct everywhere.

Does rotating affect the sound?

No. The audio track is copied without changes and only the picture is turned.

Will I lose quality when I rotate?

The video is processed again at a quality close to the original, so any difference is practically invisible.