MOV to MP4 Converter
A MOV from an iPhone or a camera is almost always H.264 video with AAC audio — the same two streams an MP4 carries. So there is nothing to convert: the packets are copied into a new container and the result is bit-for-bit the same picture.
What to know about MOV
MOV and MP4 are close cousins
Both are built on the same ISO base media format, which is why a rename sometimes appears to work. It is not reliable — the internal atoms differ enough that strict players reject it — but it is the reason a proper repack is so fast.
Why your phone records MOV at all
iOS writes QuickTime because that is Apple's native container, and it can carry things MP4 cannot, like timed metadata and ProRes. For an ordinary clip none of that is in use, so nothing is lost in the move.
The one case that re-encodes
A ProRes MOV out of a proper camera or an editor cannot be copied into an MP4 — MP4 will technically hold ProRes, but nothing outside a few Apple tools will open it. The tool spots that and says it is re-encoding rather than handing you an unplayable file.
What MP4 carries without re-encoding
These are the video codecs a MP4 can hold in a way other software will actually open. If your MOV already contains one of them, the stream is copied across untouched and nothing is re-compressed. Anything else is re-encoded to H.264.
H.264H.265
Need something smaller rather than something different? Compress it to a target size instead — that one aims at a file size you name.
Frequently asked questions
Does converting MOV to MP4 lose quality?
Not here. A phone or camera MOV already holds H.264 video and AAC audio, which is exactly what an MP4 carries, so the streams are copied into the new container untouched. The output is bit-for-bit the same video — there is no re-encode to lose anything to.
Can I just rename .mov to .mp4?
Sometimes it appears to work, and it is not safe. Both formats are built on the same ISO base media structure, but the internal atoms differ enough that strict players, editors and upload validators reject a renamed file. A proper repack takes about as long as reading the file and produces something valid.
Why does my iPhone record MOV instead of MP4?
QuickTime is Apple's native container and can carry things MP4 cannot — timed metadata, ProRes, some live-photo structures. An ordinary clip uses none of that, which is why it converts with nothing lost.
My MOV is ProRes. What happens?
It gets re-encoded, and the tool says so first. MP4 will technically hold ProRes, but almost nothing outside a few Apple tools opens the result. If you want to keep ProRes untouched, convert to MKV instead — that copies it.
Is there a size limit?
The file is streamed rather than loaded whole into memory, so large camera files are fine. A copy is bounded by how fast the file can be read, not by how big it is.