You’ve just shot this incredible 4K clip on your iPhone 15. The lighting is perfect, the action is spot-on, but there’s a stray coffee cup or a random person’s shoulder ruining the edge of the frame. It’s annoying. You want it gone.
Honestly, most people think they need to download some fancy, ad-ridden app from the App Store just to fix the framing. They don’t. Apple tucked the tools right inside the Photos app, and with the power of the A17 Pro chip (or the A16 if you’re on the base model), the rendering is basically instantaneous.
But here’s the kicker: just "dragging the corners" is how you end up with weirdly sized videos that look amateur on Instagram or TikTok.
How to Crop a Video on iPhone 15 Without Ruining It
Let’s get into the actual steps. It’s not just about hacking away at the edges; it’s about maintaining the right aspect ratio so your video doesn’t have those ugly black bars when you post it later.
First, open your Photos app.
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Find that video. Tap it. Look at the top right corner—you’ll see the Edit button. Tap that. Now the screen changes, and you’ll see a row of icons at the bottom. The one you want looks like a square with two arrows rotating around it. That’s the Crop/Rotate tool.
Once you’re in there, a white frame appears around your video.
- Manual Cropping: You can grab any corner and pull it inward. This is "freeform" cropping. It’s fine if you just want to remove a distraction, but it’s risky for social media.
- The Pro Move (Aspect Ratio): Look at the top of the screen. There’s an icon that looks like a bunch of grey rectangles stacked together. Tap that.
- Pick Your Preset: Now you can choose. Want a square for the grid? Tap Square. Shooting for a Reel or TikTok? Choose 9:16. If you’re making something for YouTube, stick to 16:9.
After you pick a ratio, you can still slide the video around inside that frame. Use two fingers to pinch and zoom if you want to get really tight on the subject. When you’re happy, hit Done in the bottom right.
Wait, Did I Just Delete the Rest of My Video?
This is a huge misconception.
iOS uses "non-destructive" editing. Basically, when you crop a video on iPhone 15, the phone remembers the original file. If you realize three days later that you cropped out something important, you just go back to the video, hit Edit, and tap Revert. It goes right back to the original 16:9 (or whatever you shot in) without losing a single pixel of quality.
Avoiding the "Zoom Grain" Trap
Here is something nobody talks about.
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The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max have incredible sensors, but they aren't magic. When you crop a video, you are essentially "zooming in" on the pixels that are already there. If you shot a 1080p video and crop it down by 50%, you’re now looking at something closer to 540p.
It’s going to look grainy.
If you know you’re going to need to crop later—maybe you’re filming a soccer game from the sidelines—make sure you’re shooting in 4K at 60fps. This gives you way more "data" to work with. You can crop significantly into a 4K frame and still have enough resolution left for it to look sharp on a smartphone screen.
To check this, go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and make sure 4K is selected before you hit record.
Beyond the Basics: Cinematic Mode and Action Mode
The iPhone 15 handles cropping differently if you’re using specialized modes.
If you shot in Cinematic Mode, you can actually change the "depth" of the crop while also adjusting the focus points. It’s a bit more processor-intensive, so if your phone feels warm while you're doing this, don't panic. That’s just the silicon doing the heavy lifting.
For Action Mode videos, you might notice the crop tool feels a bit more restricted. This is because Action Mode already uses a "buffer" crop to stabilize the footage. If you try to crop even further, you might see the quality drop off faster than usual.
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Why Your Cropped Video Has Black Bars
You’ve probably seen this. You crop a video, send it to a friend, and it has giant black boxes on the sides.
This usually happens because you used the Freeform crop instead of a standard aspect ratio. Most players (like iMessage or Instagram) are designed to fit specific shapes. If your crop is some weird 1.43:1 ratio you made by hand, the phone has to fill the empty space with black bars to make it fit the screen.
Always, always use the Aspect Ratio presets at the top of the edit screen if you plan on sharing the clip.
The iMovie Alternative
Sometimes the Photos app feels a bit too simple.
If you need to crop multiple clips and string them together, use iMovie. It’s free on your iPhone 15. When you drop a clip into the timeline, tap the clip, then tap the magnifying glass icon. This lets you "Pinch to Zoom" and effectively crop the video while keeping the project in a consistent 16:9 format.
It’s a bit more work, but it’s better for "storytelling" edits.
Advanced Users and Apple Creator Studio
With the recent 2026 updates and the introduction of the Apple Creator Studio subscription, there are even more "AI-assisted" cropping tools available. These can automatically track a subject—like a dog running—and keep them centered in a 9:16 frame even if the original video was horizontal.
It’s basically "Auto Reframe," a feature that used to be exclusive to desktop apps like Premiere Pro. If you’re doing this for a living, that $12.99 a month is probably worth it just for the time you save.
Actionable Next Steps
Don't just take my word for it. Open your library right now and pick a video from your last vacation.
- Hit Edit, then the Crop icon.
- Select the Aspect Ratio icon at the top and force it into a 9:16 (Vertical) shape.
- Slide the video until your face is perfectly centered.
- Hit Done.
- Check the quality. If it looks "soft," you probably didn't shoot in 4K.
Now that you know how to handle the framing, your next move is to check your camera settings to ensure every future video is captured in 4K. This ensures that when you do need to crop, the final result stays crisp enough for any platform.