Mac Photos App - How to trim a video?

[Buadhai]

This on an M2 MBA (15.3) with a video taken with an iPhone 14 Pro (18.3).

I took a short (one minute) video with the iPhone. It is in the Library on the Photos app (10.0) on the MBA. I want to trim the first few seconds. I can't see how to do that with the Photos app. The "trim handles" mentioned in several online suggestions do not appear.

I tried opening the video in QuickTime Player. I was able to trim the video there using the "trim handles", but when I try to save the trimmed video, I get this:

How is a video taken with an iPhone not compatible with QuickTime Player?

My solution was to export the video, then open with QuickTime Player and then trim it and then save it.

There must be a better way.

 

[BigBlur]

I don't know which guides you followed, but the one Apple has works for me.

How to edit videos on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro - Apple Support

Trim the length, adjust slow-motion, and more.

support.apple.com

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Your remedy was a favorable option. Photos app is for photos. Yes, one can import and play videos in it too but it's not really a video editor tool.

Do what you did (which can be as simple in Photos as right click, Open with, Quicktime... EDIT... "save as...", desktop location and then drop the new version back into Photos if you want to store videos in Photos. Delete the original now that you have the edited version.

OR export it and open it in iMovie to do simple or more complex editing. Then render it post-edit and if you want to store a perfected video in Photos, drop the rendered one back in again. Delete the original.

Unless you really want to fatten the Photos library by storing videos in Photos, consider creating a folder(s) for them somewhere else (including on a big external HDD). Then you can index them in the TV app which is a nice option for organizing your own video content. You can even uncheck just one box to NOT IMPORT big video files to the limited-capacity internal drive but just leave them where they are. And if these are videos you would like to easily watch on a TV in your home, turn on home sharing and use the "Computers" app on AppleTV to select and watch them.

The point here is avoiding having a gigantic Photos library because so much space is eaten up by video. If you lean on iCloud for Photo storage, video eats up a LOT of iCloud capacity too.

 

[Buadhai]

I don't know which guides you followed, but the one Apple has works for me.

How to edit videos on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro - Apple Support

Trim the length, adjust slow-motion, and more.

support.apple.com

The problem was ignorance on my part. I didn't see the trim sliders because the video was big enough to push the timeline off the bottom of the screen. Sorry.