Questions and answers

It finds the largest videos in your Photos library, makes smaller copies of the ones you pick, checks each copy, imports it into the same albums with the same details, and lets you move the originals to Recently Deleted when you are ready.

It depends on your videos. A 4K iPhone clip usually shrinks by 70 to 90 percent at the default setting. VidFeather estimates each clip before you start, so you see the number for your own library.

Smaller always means some information is gone; the question is whether you can see it. The default makes a 1080p copy at a quality level meant to look like the original on phones, laptops and TVs. Compare lets you judge for yourself on your own clips before you commit.

Yes. Clips stored only in iCloud are listed like the rest. When you compress one, Photos downloads the original first. Copies are added to your library and sync to your other devices as usual.

Yes. Drag files or folders into the window, press ⌘O, or use Open With in Finder. Copies of those files are saved in your Compressed folder and are not added to Photos. The files themselves stay where they are.

Only when you ask it to, and only to Recently Deleted. You press “Move Originals to Recently Deleted…”, macOS asks you to confirm, and the originals stay there for 30 days. A copy of each original is also saved to a folder on your Mac.

Nothing in Photos changes until a copy has passed every check. If VidFeather is quit midway or a check fails, the original is untouched. Interrupted jobs start again from the beginning.

Membership in shared and smart albums (Photos does not let apps add to them), People (Photos recognizes faces in the copy again by itself), and the ability to undo edits, because the edited version is what gets compressed. Each of these is written in the notes of the job it affects.

Live Photos are not linked to their copies. Slo-mo copies play at normal speed and Cinematic copies lose the ability to refocus, so neither is selected unless you choose it, and VidFeather asks first.

HDR stays 10-bit HDR. Dolby Vision from iPhone is kept and checked frame by frame. Dolby Vision from other sources would lose its Dolby Vision layer, so those clips are skipped unless you turn them on.

It is the sweet spot between size and sharpness for most screens and the default. You can choose 720p for bigger savings, or keep the original resolution and just compress more efficiently.

The open-source x265 encoder by default, which makes the smallest files at a given quality. Apple’s hardware encoder is an option when speed matters more.

Encoding works the Mac hard. Turn on quiet mode and VidFeather keeps the fan under a speed you choose by slowing down, which can take several times longer.

Free for your first 3 videos. Pro is $19 once, for up to 3 Macs. There is no subscription.

Macs with Apple silicon running macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

No. Quiet mode reads the Mac’s fan and temperature sensors, which Mac App Store apps are not allowed to do, so VidFeather is sold directly from this site.

Only to activate. After that it checks in about once a month in the background and keeps working for another 30 days if it can’t reach us.

No. All work happens on your Mac. There is no account, no analytics and no crash reporter. Activating Pro sends your license key, a one-way hash that tells your Macs apart, and the app version. That is all.