How to Cut Videos on Xiaomi: 5 Ways to Cut Down With Step-by-Step Instructions

Cutting videos on Xiaomi smartphones is a challenge that every user who wants to remove extra snippets from videos faces before posting on social media or sending them to friends. Unlike computer editors, mobile tools often seem limited, but in fact even the standard Gallery app on MIUI offers basic cropping features, the problem is that these features are hidden in non-obvious menu sections, and their capabilities depend on the firmware version and device model.

In this article, we’ll look at all the available ways, from built-in editors to professional apps, and also reveal nuances that aren’t mentioned in the official instructions, such as why some formats might lose sound after cropping, how to maintain the original video quality, and which Xiaomi models (like the Redmi Note 12 Pro+ or POCO F5) support advanced editing tools. If you’ve ever lost hours searching for the “shook video” feature in your phone menu, this guide will save you time.

Method 1: Standard editor in the Gallery appendix

The fastest way to crop video on Xiaomi is to use the built-in editor in the Gallery app, which is available on all devices with MIUI 12 and later, but its interface changed depending on the version. For example, on MIUI 14, the path to tools became shorter, and on older firmware (before MIUI 11), the cropping function may not be at all.

To get started:

1. Open the Gallery app and select the desired video.
2. Slip the Edit button (pencil icon in the bottom menu).
3. In the menu that opens, select the Trimming tab (sometimes called Trimmer or Remove Snippets).
4. Drag sliders on the timeline to highlight the desired segment.
5. Click Save or Ready – the video will be processed and saved as a new file.

Important: Xiaomi’s built-in editor has limitations:

• 🔹 Does not support cropping with accuracy to the frame - only in 0.5-1 second increments.
• 🔹 Does not store metadata (date of shooting, geotags).
• 🔹 On some models (e.g. Redmi) 9A) Maximum duration of clipped video – 5 minutes.

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If you start twitching after clipping, try saving it to MP4 (H.264) instead of HEVC, which solves the problem on 80% of devices.

Method 2: Google Photos – an alternative with cloud storage

The Google Photos app offers a more flexible cropping tool than the standard Xiaomi Gallery.

• 📱 It works on all Xiaomi models, including older ones (e.g. Redmi 5 Plus).
• 🔄 Supports cancellation (up to 10 steps back).
• ☁️ Automatically syncs edited videos to the cloud.

Instructions:

1. Install Google Photos from Play Market (if not already installed).
2. Open the video in the app and tap the Edit button (the icon with three stripes).
3. Select the Scissor (Scissors) tool.
4. Move the white markers on the timeline to highlight the fragment. Use the Time-by-Standing button (magnitude icon) to fine-tune the fragment.
5. Click Save copy – the original will remain intact.

Google Photos automatically optimizes videos for social networks: if you crop a video longer than 1 minute, the application will offer to export it in a format suitable for Instagram or TikTok.

Method 3: Professional applications (CapCut, InShot, KineMaster)

If the built-in tools don't work, you should look at third-party editors. They offer not only cropping, but also multi-track editing, effects and color correction. For Xiaomi devices with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processors (such as Xiaomi 13 Ultra), these applications work without lags even with 4K@60fps video.

Comparison of popular editors:

For cropping in CapCut:

1. Import the video to the project.
2. Slip the clip on the timeline and select Cut.
3. Use yellow markers to select a snippet or divide the video into parts with the split button.
4. Export without watermark (available free of charge).

Method 4: File Manager trimming (for power users)

Little-known fact: Xiaomi with MIUI 13+ can cut video directly in the File Manager, which is suitable for quick cropping without installing additional applications, but has a limitation: it only works with MP4 and MOV video.

Step-by-step:

1. Open the file manager and find the video.
2. Hold your finger on the file, then select Open with → Video Editor.
3. In the window that opens, drag the sliders for pruning.
4. Click Save - the file will be overwritten (original deleted!).

⚠️ Warning: This method doesn't make a copy, it overwrites the original file. If the video is valuable, back it up first.

The advantage of the method is speed: cropping takes less time than in CapCut, since no intermediate coding is used, but the quality can deteriorate when cropping videos with high bitrate (for example, shot on Xiaomi 12S Ultra in 8K mode).

Method 5: Trimming on a computer and then transferring to Xiaomi

If the video is too large (for example, recording from the action camera Xiaomi Mi Action Camera) or requires accurate processing, it is easier to crop it on a PC and then throw it back to the phone.

• 🖥️ Shotcut (free, supportive) 4K HDR).
• 🎬 OpenShot (Simple Interface, Suitable for Beginners).
• 📌 VLC Media Player (can crop video without transcoding).

How to transfer clipped video back to Xiaomi:

1. Connect your phone to your PC via USB-C (select File Transfer Mode in the notification curtain).
2. Copy the video to the DCIM/Camera or Movies folder.
3. Turn off the device and check the video in the Gallery.

⚠️ Note: When transferring videos via Mi Drop (a built-in feature of Xiaomi), files larger than 2 GB may not be sent. Use cloud services (Google Drive, Mi Cloud) or USB-OTG accumulator.

Common Problems and Their Solutions

Even with simple tools, Xiaomi users face common mistakes. Here’s how to avoid them:

Problem 1: After clipping, the video is played without sound.

• 🔊 Check if the sound in the video is turned off (sometimes it’s a bug). MIUI — restart the phone).
• 📹 If the video is filmed in format HEVC (H.265), Try to keep it in place. H.264.
• 🔄 Use another editor (e.g. CapCut instead of Gallery).

Problem 2: You can’t cut a video longer than 10 minutes.

This is a limitation of the built-in editor of Xiaomi.

• 📱 Break the video into parts with CapCut.
• 🖥️ Cut it on the computer.
• 📲 Google Photos – the limit is higher (up to 30 minutes).

Problem 3: After clipping, the video floats or slows down.

The blame lies on the codecs.

1. Open the video in VLC for Android.
2. Go to Settings. → Decoding.
3. Enable the option Software decoding.

Make sure there is enough memory on your phone (at least 1GB free)

Close background applications (especially messengers)

Check the video format (MP4 is easier to cut than MKV)

Make a backup copy of the original

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FAQ: Frequent questions about clipping videos on Xiaomi

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For most tasks, there is a built-in editor in Gallery or Google Photos. If you want professional quality, use CapCut or KineMaster, which are free and support 4K HDR.