How to Convert MOV Videos to MP4 for Free

mov to mp4

Can I convert MOV to MP4? I have no problem playing MOV on my Mac computers, but I also need to play them on my portable mobile phones and game consoles?” – Question from an online forum.

MOV and MP4 are both very similar lossy container formats. You can usually convert MOV to MP4 without encoding. MOV is initially developed by Apple as a format for QuickTime. MP4 is based on MOV to develop and it has been the industry standard today. If I must point out some difference, then it is the compatibility. Almost all devices support MP4 but not MOV.

Now let me show you the best ways to convert MOV videos to MP4 for free and losslessly

Part 1. How to Convert MOV to MP4 Online for Free

Video converting has become a very easy task today especially with the advent of so many free online video converter like Wondershare Online Uniconverter, Zamzar, CloudConvert, FreeFileConvert and so on. Take Wondershare Free Video Converter for example. It supports most popular video and audio format yet it doesn’t contain any ads.

  • Go to Wondershare Online Uniconverter website.
  • Click “+” to browse to import MOV files from your local computer. You can import up to 2 files at a time.
  • Select the output format as MP4 and click “Convert” button.
  • It takes a few minutes depending on the size of your MOV files. When it is done, you can click “Download” button to download the converted MP4 files.

convert mov to mp4 online

Pros:

1. Free and convenient to use.

Cons:

1. Limited to convert up to 100Mb for each MOV video.

2. It takes relatively long time to upload and download the video files.

Part 2. How to Convert MOV to MP4 with VLC for Free on Desktop

Want to convert MOV videos on your Mac/Windows desktop directly? That is very easy too. You can search from Google to find free MOV converters such as HD Free Converter Factory, Any Video Converter.

But the best ones in my option are the free tools like QuickTime, iTunes, VLC player. Now let me show you how to convert MOV to MP4 with VLC on Mac.

convert video to mp4 vlc

  • Launch VLC Player. If you haven’t install it, you can download and install it online first.
  • Click “Media” menu > choose “Convert/Save” on the popup context menu.
  • Next, you can click “Add” button to import MOV videos from your computer.
  • Choose the new format as “MP4” and then select a destination folder.
  • Click “Start” to convert MOV to MP4 format.

Pros:

1. It is totally free and robust to use.

2. Has no limitation on the size of imported MOV video files.

Cons:

1. This feature is not so intuitive, many users don’t even know VLC can convert MOV files.

Part 3. How to Convert MOV Video to MP4 on iPhone/Android

Mobile devices have dominated the entertainment market compared to computers. If you have got some MOV files on your iPhone or Android but want to convert them to MP4, you can go ahead to convert MOV to MP4 on your mobile phone.

How? You can use the free online video converter which we have talked above before. Or alternatively you can search “iPhone Video Converter” on Apple Store or “Video Converter for Android” from Google Play store.

If you have no idea which app to use, I’d recommend you to use iConv for iPhone and Total Video Converter for Android.

iConv is a handy iPhone video converter app which is capable of converting 3GP, FLV, MP4, MOV, MKV, MPG, MPEG to various new formats.

  • Put all your MOV videos on the imported folder.
  • Follow the screen instruction to start convert.
  • When it is done, you will find the converted files on the output folder.

Pros:

1. Directly convert MOV video on mobile phone without the need of computers.

Cons:

1. It requires in-app purchase for some advanced features.

Part 4. More Tips: Batch Convert Any Videos to MP4 Losslessly

The above are top 3 ways to convert MOV to MP4 for free.

But they are not perfect ways. As I know, many people around me have complained that the output video quality is reduced. Yet some said they can’t convert other formats of files like HEVC, WMV, RMVB, M2TS, MKV and so on.

If you’d like to convert all kinds of videos to MP4 losslessly, you should definitely give this professional software DRmare Video Converter for Windows/Mac a try.

This software is developed with the most advanced video encoding technology and it keeps updating time from time. When converting videos, it can avoid unnecessary encoding and keep the video untouched during converting.