How to Trim a Video on iMovie

This wikiHow teaches you how to split a video clip at a selected time and trim it using iMovie on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad. iMovie is Apple’s official video editing toolkit for all computer platforms and MacOS/iOS mobile devices. You can use iMovie’s “Split Clip” tool to split video clips and create cuts at any point in the video.

Table of Contents

On Mac

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Open the iMovie application on your computer. iMovie has purple icon with video camera

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white is in white star. You can find it in the Dock or the Applications folder.

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Select the video project you want to edit. Double-click the movie or video project on the “Projects” page to open the editing toolset.

The video editor is located in the lower half of the application window.

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Choose the exact time to trim the video. Play the video clip in the editor at the bottom half of the screen and pause at the exact moment you want to cut.

You’ll see the entire video’s editor scroll in the bottom half of the screen.
You can click anywhere in the video reel to jump there.
The white playhead bar will show up at the exact time you want to crop.
You can press the space bar to play/pause the video.
Use the left and right arrow keys to move the playhead one frame forward or backward.
A complete list of iMovie keyboard shortcuts can be found on Apple’s official support page at: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH22830?locale=en_US.

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Press ⌘ Command + B on your keyboard. This key combination will automatically split the clip into two parts right at the moment the playhead is located.

After splitting, you can select either part and press Delete key to delete.

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Right click at the moment that you want to cut in the video (optional). Instead of pressing a keyboard shortcut, simply hover over the video clip in the bottom editor and right-click at the exact moment you want to trim.

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Select Split Clip from within the right-click menu. Similar to the use of keystrokes, this will also trim the video at the exact time you choose.

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Click when you want to cut in the video (optional). Or most simply, you can flip through the video and choose when to trim with just one click.

This will automatically place the white vertical bar at the correct time in the video clip.

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Click the Modify menu in the menu bar. This button is located in the menu bar at the top of your Mac screen. A menu will drop down.

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Click Split Clip in the Modify menu. The video will be cut at the exact time you choose with just one click.

On iPhone or iPad

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Open the iMovie app on your iPhone or iPad. iMovie has purple icon with video camera

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white is in white star. You can find it on your home screen or apps folder.

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Tap the project you want to edit. Select a movie or video project on the “Projects” page to open its details.

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Click the Edit button. This button is below the video thumbnail and title. The selected video will open in the editor.

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Long press and drag the video scroll at the bottom. Hold down the video scroll at the bottom of the screen and drag to the exact moment you want to split the video.

You’ll see the entire video’s editor scroll in the bottom half of the screen.
You need to place the white playhead bar at the exact moment where you want to split the clip.

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Tap the video scroll in the editor at the bottom of the screen. A yellow highlight bar will appear on the video scroll in the editor, and editing tools will also appear at the bottom of the screen.

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Select Actions in the bottom toolbar. This button looks like a scissors icon. Options with the video will appear.

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Click Split located above the bottom toolbar. The video will be cropped at the position of the white vertical bar.

Steps

On Mac

On iPhone or iPad

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