How to Compress Large Videos and Send Them Through Email?

Liza Brown

Oct 09, 2024• Proven solutions

The daily email correspondence often involves sending video files to your colleagues and clients, but all mailing platforms like Gmail, Outlook or iCloud have video file size limitations. You can only send files smaller than 25MB with Gmail or 20MB with Outlook, so iCloud can be a quick solution for all iPhone and Mac users as its maximum size limit is 5GB.

Sending large video files through email can be a time-consuming process, and how fast you can upload a file depends on the speed of the broadband you’re using. So, in this article, I am going to show you how to compress large videos and send them through email using Mac and PC computers or Smartphones.

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Compressing and Sending Large Video Files through Email

There are several different methods you can use to reduce the size of a large video file. The fastest and probably the easiest way is to change the video’s resolution, but lowering the frame rate and bitrate or simply selecting a new video format for a video clip can also reduce its size. Here’s how you can compress and send large video files through email.

1. Reducing the Size of Lage Video Files with iMovie for free

All Mac owners can edit and compress the footage they record with free iMovie video editor. Moreover, sending a video through email is also an option you’ll have at your disposal if you choose to compress videos with iMovie.

Simply import a video clip into iMovie and cut, trim or apply visual effects to a video before reducing its size. Click on the Share option in the File menu and then pick the Email feature. Makes sure to select the Small setting in order to ensure that the file is compressed to a proper size and then just add the recipient’s email and the message you want to send to them.

You can also use the standard Export process to change the resolution of a video and match its size to the demands of the emailing platform you’re using.

2. Compressing Videos in Filmora video editor on Windows PC & Mac OS

A video editing software product like Wondershare’s Filmora enables you to manipulate the footage you record with your Smartphone or digital camera in any way you want. After you import a video clip into Filmora and place it on the timeline, you can cut all the parts of the video you don’t want to include in its final version. By doing so, you will also reduce the size of the video clip and make it easier to send via email.

You can also use Filmora’s Export window after you’re done editing a video, to change a video’s file format and bit rate or to lower its resolution. Filmora lets you choose from a variety of output file formats and it also allows you to optimize the videos you send through email for use on different video playback devices.

Even though you can upload videos to YouTube or Vimeo directly from Filmora, sharing videos with your colleagues through email is not an option.

4. Using Android Devices to Reduce the Size of a Video File

The latest models of Android Smartphones can capture crispy sharp videos at high-resolutions, but the sizes of these files exceed the limitations on emailing platforms like Gmail or Outlook. There are a variety of video compression apps you can use to reduce the size of video files directly from your Android device.

Which video compression app you are going to choose, depends on a myriad of factors. That’s why you must consider the video compression method an app utilizes or the number of supported output video file formats before opting for one video compressor or the other.

We recommend using the Video Converter app because it lets you shrink videos you recorded with your Android phone and send them through email or SMS.

You just have to import the videos you’d like to compress into the app, change the Profile to manual and then proceed to select the codec and adjust the video’s resolution and frame rate. You can also use the app’s batch compression features if you would like to reduce the size of multiple files at the same time.

5. Compressing Large Video Files with iPhones

The size of video files you create with your iPad or iPhone can prevent you from sending them through emails. Besides installing iMovie on your device, you should also consider using some free video compression app for iOS. Most video compressors for iPhones and iPads don’t offer video editing tools, which is the reason why we recommend using the Video Slimmer app that lets you trim, merge or rotate video clips.

Reducing the size of a video with this iOS-based app is a straightforward process, but its duration depends on the size of the video you’re compressing. Simply import a file you’d like to shrink and tap on the More icon to adjust the video’s resolution and dimension values.

Once you insert the new values you should tap on the Slim Now button and wait for the compression process to be completed. Make sure to compress a video to a size that fits the file size limit of the emailing platform you’re using.

How to Send Large Video Files through Email without Reducing Their Size?

In recent years, it has become possible to send files larger than 25MB with mailing platforms like Gmail, OneDrive or iCloud with the cloud service, so you don’t have to go through the video file compression process every time you want to send a video via email.

1. Sending Large Video Files through Gmail

It only takes a click to start uploading the video file from your Gmail account. Simply click on the Google Drive icon and head over to the Upload tab. You can then drag-and-drop a video file from a folder on your local hard-drive to Google Drive and then hit the Upload button. The length of the upload process depends on the size of the file and the speed of your Internet connection.

2. Attaching Large Video Files to Emails You Send with Outlook

The maximum size of the file you can send via Outlook cannot exceed 20MB, which can limit your options if you have to send videos through emails on a daily basis. Luckily, Outlook offers an easy way to attach large video files to all emails you send through this emailing platform.

Click on the dotted-grid icon and then select the One Drive option from the drop-down menu. Afterward, you just have to choose if you want to upload a single video file or an entire folder. Your files will start uploading immediately, so you should just create a new email, click on the Attach icon and select the video files you added to One Drive. Click on the Next button and then choose the Attach as a One Drive File option and proceed to insert the recipient’s email and the message.

3. Using iCloud to Send Large Video Files

Before you can start sending large video files with iCloud you must first make sure that the Use Mail Drop When Sending Large Attachments feature is enabled. You can do this by clicking on the Gear icon and selecting the Preferences option. Head over to the Composing tab and make sure that Use Mail Drop When Sending Large Attachments checkbox is selected. Enabling this feature will set the iCloud’s maximum files size limit to 5GB.

Click Done and proceed to compose a new email as you normally would. Attach the video file you’d like to send to the email and then insert all other relevant information.

Sending videos through emails doesn’t necessarily have to be a painstakingly long process that takes ages to complete, since compressing a video is easy on macOS, Windows, iOS or Android platforms. Each video compression app we covered in this article enables you to shrink videos even if you have no previous experience, so it is best to pick the one that is best suited for your video compression demands. Which devices and apps are you using to compress your videos? Leave a comment below and share your opinions with us. 

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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