Video: iPhone->Photos->QuickTime Player-> unable to save or export

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Video: iPhone->Photos->QuickTime Player-> unable to save or export

I took some video clips with my iPhone, then opened and edited them in Apple Photos on my MacBook Pro, then did Image:Edit With:QuickTime Player.

The clip opened in QuickTime Player and when I tried to export it at 420p I got this error message:

In photos the file shows "HDR" in a little box in the corner and the file information shows it as a .mov file and also shows "HEVC", which I surmise is the video equivalent of the HEIC file type:

What is going on with this and how can I save this file in the .mp4 format at 420p?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 24, 2025 04:02 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

19,236 points

Jul 24, 2025 11:34 PM in response to Wet Baloney

Works for me in Monterey (on a vacation with an old laptop...) and a non-HDR HEVC (I don't have access to HDR HEVC...). 420.mov is successfully exported from QT Player. Does it work for non-HDR HEVC with your setup?

Does it work for HDR HEVC if you File > Export > Original, and then open it in QT Player? If not, it indicates an issue with QT Player, and a workaround might be to use some 3rd party app for the export (Handbrake, VLC, Avidemux, ShutterEncoder, ffmpeg etc. Correctly preserving HDR or converting it to SDR might require some extra tweaks).

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