My iPhone MOV fails to decode — why?

Newer iPhones record HEVC (H.265) by default. Safari decodes it everywhere; Chrome and Edge only where the system has an HEVC decoder. Set the iPhone camera to “Most Compatible” (H.264) or convert with MOV to MP4 in Safari first.

Why is the GIF larger than the video?

GIF is a 1989 format with no real compression; a few seconds at 480 px can exceed the MOV. Shorter clips, smaller width and 8–12 fps are the levers.

Yes, the loop option is on by default; turn it off for a play-once GIF.

Is the video uploaded?

No. Frames are decoded and encoded on your device.

Video Converters

MOV to GIF

That five-second iPhone clip would be perfect as a GIF in a message or a README. Choose the moment, the size and the frame rate; the GIF is built on your device.

Runs in your browser — files never leave your device.

Drop MOV file here

or click to browse · paste from clipboard · up to 2000 MB

Select file

Options

Start (seconds)

Duration (seconds)

Width

Frame rate

Loop forever

Why convert MOV to GIF

MOV is what iPhones, iPads and Macs record. Messaging apps, GitHub, Slack and email preview a GIF inline without a player, which is why short reactions and demos travel better as GIFs than as video files.

The MOV is decoded frame by frame in your browser (HEVC clips from newer iPhones need a browser with hardware HEVC support — Safari, or Chrome on Mac/Windows with the codec installed), scaled, and quantised to an optimised 256-colour palette. A 3-second clip at 480 px and 12 fps is typically 1–3 MB.

How to convert MOV to GIF

Drop the MOV file onto the page.
Set the start time and duration (keep GIFs under 10 seconds), width and frame rate.
Click Convert and download the GIF.

About the formats

MOV · QuickTime movie · .mov

Apple’s QuickTime container, the default for iPhone videos and Mac screen recordings; very close to MP4 but not accepted everywhere.

MOV and MP4 share the same underlying structure, so MOV to MP4 usually only needs repackaging, not re-encoding.
iPhone MOV files are often HEVC (H.265) with HDR, which Windows and many web apps cannot play without conversion.
Screen recordings on Mac are MOV with H.264 and can be very large.

GIF · Graphics Interchange Format · .gif

A 1987 format limited to 256 colours per frame, still everywhere because it is the only animated image format every app can play.

GIF transparency is all-or-nothing: a pixel is either fully opaque or fully transparent.
Animated GIFs are large — a 10-second clip can be bigger than the same clip as MP4.
The 256-colour palette causes banding in photos; PNG or WebP is better for still images.

Related conversions

More in Video Converters · All converters