Technipages

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Windows 10: How to Trim Video

By Mitch Bartlett 67 Comments

After recording videos with my smartphone, I often need to trim parts of the video files. Fortunately, Microsoft Windows 10 has tools that provide an easy way to trim video. Just follow these steps.

  1. Right-click the video file, and choose “Open with” > “Photos“.
  2. Select the “Trim” button located at the upper-right portion of the window.
  3. Slide the two white sliders to where the portion of the video you wish to keep is in between them. The blue slider only shows the current frame and has no bearing on trimming.
  4. Once you have the area of the video you wish to keep selected, click the “Save a copy” option located at the upper-right portion of the window.
  5. Give the video file a new name. Once saved, it will be the new trimmed version of the video.

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Comments

  1. Iggy J. says

    I didn’t have permissions to save either and resetting didn’t fix problem. I circumvented problem by:
    1. Right-click video and Open with Photos.
    2. Select Edit & Create>Add animated text
    3. At top left, click Trim, then adjust blue sliding markers for start/finish time.
    4. Click Save a Copy.
    5. Optional step: Click more options and uncheck box Use Hardware accel…
    6. Click Export, then Export again.

  2. Laurence says

    Thank you for this. I trimmed the end off an MP4 from 102 minutes to 88 minutes 18 seconds.
    The video quality is only very mildly degraded, and does not matter for my purpose in this case.

    My concern is that the FILE SIZE HAS INCREASED from 399,574 KB original to 792.917 KB trimmed.

    Looks like I will be doing this the slow way with VLC Media Player instead.

  3. jan says

    Sadly it just took me to the same place I had previously reached under my own steam. The blue line never completes the last tiny bit. I can see a file where I saved the trimmed video but it can’t be opened. I guess because the edit hasn’t finalised. I have left it for ages (long enough to go and get breakfast prepared!). Totally stuck!! Any suggestions? A solution would get undying gratitude!!

  4. Jenny Jhung says

    Oh I see that it is only when I playback with the Windows photos program, not the Windows player program.
    They must be thumbnails for the video file.

    Thanks so much for your help.

    Now I just have to figure out how to merge the clipped files :)

  5. Jenny Jhung says

    Following your instructions I was able to cut the video into shorter clips.
    But, when I replay, there is always a slide in the beginning and at the end that is from the middle of the trimmed video. How can I remove this slide/image?

  9. Ray says

    Worked like a charm, the sliders default to the whole video. So look at the beginning and end and move to where you want to trim.
    Thank you.

  10. Pam Best says

    I don’t have “open with”. I only have “open”. Is there some way to change that setting.

  12. Charles says

    This is fantastic! I have so many video files, I’m having memory concerns. This is so easy and whether I trim 5 seconds, 5 minutes or an hour it reduces the size of the video file by more than half! I don’t see any quality issues in the trimmed files. Is it compression? I don’t know – I’m trimming all my video files – no more memory concerns!

  13. Lauren says

    Super helpful! Edited two videos with no issues. Mine were both 50-60 mins, so just as a note for others if it is a longer clip the screen will kind of gray out for a little while to process. You’ll think it’s not working, but give it a few minutes.

    Thanks for posting.

  15. John says

    Thank you. You were the only one that gave me the critical piece of information that I needed to make it work. Specifically the “white” slider bars, not the blue one! Noone else made this clear. If you don’t use the white sliders the “Save a copy” will not become active.
    You might also want to mention that the quality is “somewhat” degraded in the trimmed version; not seriously, but it does appear to be not quite as clear. The file size is less than half of the original and I only trimmed 5 secs off a 1:45 sec video.
    Thanks again.

  16. Phil says

    It worked perfectly for me, thanks!
    (I trimmed a video which I created from a Powerpoint presentation)

  17. Sam says

    It worked when I trimmed an 18 second video to 16 seconds but repeated tries to shorten a 3& 1/2 min video to a minute & a half keeps saving as 0 bytes and no video.

  18. Sandra Ng says

    Why my finished file plays in slow motion? Did I do something wrong in the trimming process?
    How can I get it to play at normal speed?

  19. Dike says

    Works well except that it changes all the frame rates to 30fps. Where can I disable this??

  21. Vipul Takalkar says

    Hey. It is absolutely useful. I have tried many tools to trim but they add watermark in free trial version s.

  22. jennifer says

    How do I trim it to a specific duration instead of having to toggle the sliders and guess?

  25. Christopher Moor says

    Same here. Good old Microsoft. Millions of people reporting it and they haven’t fixed it in years. Nadella is an idiot with no idea how to do anything but Azure.

  26. peter says

    What if I wish to re-order a video. e.g. taking moving the second section to the start etc? How do I do that? Thank you.

  27. koray says

    I have this: “it looks like you don’t have permission to save changes to this file.” It also says save a copy instead. Well, I am trying to save a copy, there is no other option?

  28. Charmaine says

    I cannot save the trimmed video. I get an error box that says:

    It looks like you don’t have permission to save changes to this file. Try saving a copy instead.

    How do I fix this??

  29. Danielle says

    I’ve tried to trim my video clip on two different types of computers and each time the clip is sped up. What can I do to avoid this problem ?

  30. Paul says

    The trim worked, and saved. BUT … the original was 482 mb and the trimmed copy is 1.51 gb … almost 4 times the original size!!!! That really doesn’t help.

  31. JennyD says

    After you do the trim and you know the beginning and end is where you’ve marked it, go to the top right of the “photos” screen and use the drop down to choose ‘save as’. The file will go to wherever you designated BUT it is not ready to play yet. Notice that on the ‘photos’ page where you did the trim, that a blue line is now in the middle of the screen and moving slowly. That is film actually getting ready to be complete. Wait for it to finish and then you can close out ‘photos’ and go to your file and it will play.

  32. Trimmer says

    DO NOT FOLLOW THIS GUIDE
    Trimming video using Windows Photos reduces the quality of the trimmed video and worst of all reduces frame rate from 60FPS to 30FPS.

  33. Jennifer Mayweather says

    Thanks for the good tutorial. wonderfox hd video converter factory can also trim/cut videos easily. I use it to do basic video editing like cutting, cropping and merging.

  34. vidyasagar says

    Hi, I trimmed the video, however it will not let me save, “i don’t have permission” how do i get around this? Thanks!

  37. Mike says

    Hi, I trimmed the video, however it will not let me save, “i don’t have permission” how do i get around this? Thanks!

  38. Rosa Maria Gonzalez-Lamas says

    Having the same problema as Julie. It doesn’t allow me to save the document. Save as button does not work.

  39. Julie M Robert says

    The save section is not illuminated so I cannot save after moving the dial to trim. Thank you so much.

  42. Brooks Carter says

    A friend sent me an MP4 video. After setting the section to be trimmed, I tried to use the save a copy option and I got a message that said, “It looks like you don’t have permission to save changes to this file. Try saving a copy instead” which, of course is what I had already tried. How do you solve this?

  43. Stemgurl81 says

    Thanks so much! We already spend so much on our tech tools I appreciate being shown how to use the features on something I already own rather than downloading yet another tool.

  44. kelios incantare says

    I’ve tried this several times, but for some reason the trimmed copy won’t play after it’s saved. Any ideas?

  46. Mitch Bartlett says

    What I do is I split it where I want the first segment, then split it second at the end of what I want to edit out. Then the segment in the middle can be deleted. Repeat until end of video.

  48. Tray R. says

    I wanted to trim parts in multiple sections, piecing the video together, but it deleted the rest of the video! Glad I saved the whole thing on my drive first…

  49. Stacy says

    BEST and EASIEST – I just trimmed a video file using your amazingly easy and correct instructions after fighting with understanding how to do this and feeling like a dunce from other “instructional” pieces online.

  50. Sue says

    Thanks Mitch.
    Am SO pleased I found your page as this was so easy after I’d been grappling with complicated software.
    I can now send my speaking extracts to event organisers. Hurray!

  51. Cody says

    Easy, works great in windows 10 without having to download any other software. Thanks for sharing!

  52. Fernando Hernandez says

    Once I open the video with the Photos app, and open the trimming option, only one marker appears. I assume I need two for the trimming to take effect?

  54. Dan says

    Nope. When I follow the advice it does NOT give me the option of any “save a copy” as the save a copy is greyed out.

  57. Steve says

    When I try to trim a 10 minute mp4 video there’s a message saying the video is less than 1 second and the only option is to close! Please help!!!

  59. carol says

    Im trying to trim my mp4 video and I’m on windows 10..but it says not supported
    Ugggghhh!! Help!!

  60. Nelly H says

    It does the job but I won’t say it works. I have a 4Gb MP4 file around 160 minutes long. I followed the steps and trim out 20 minutes at the ending. The result file is only 140 minutes long and both Video and Audio are good. The problem is not it takes 2 hours to finish but the result file is 7.95Gb!.

  61. WIlly G says

    how do you trim something in the middle? with the start and the end in the video, taking out part of the middle??

  62. Cranky Cat says

    Same here about it washing out the video. That’s what led me to look for some other way to do it.

  63. Karl Eirik Bu says

    Whenever i trim a video I get this slight gray tint on the final video, regardless of if I cut 10 seconds or 5 minutes of the video. Any known solutions?

  65. Kimberly says

    Oh, man. This helped me A LOT. I was going nuts trying to figure out how to easily do this. Thanks so much!

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