Fix orientation before you frame the climb
A climbing video can look upright in your phone gallery but sideways after import or sharing. Before cropping away half the wall, establish which way the saved video should be displayed. Orientation is a different problem from a portrait crop: rotating makes the wall upright; cropping chooses which part of that upright picture remains visible. Start from the original recording and keep it unchanged.
Compare the same original in two places
Open the original in the gallery, then in the editor or player where the problem appeared. Check the actual wall and people rather than the position of the playback controls. A ceiling, upright doorway, or standing person can help, but an overhanging wall alone is not a reliable vertical reference. Record whether the whole picture is turned a quarter turn, upside down, or merely displayed inside a different-shaped frame.
If only one app shows the file sideways, that is evidence of a playback or import difference, not proof that the camera recorded damaged pixels. Video files can describe display orientation separately from their stored picture dimensions, and apps may interpret that information differently. This guide does not identify a particular app bug or promise that every editor handles every source file the same way.
Separate rotation, crop, and screen behavior
First ask whether turning the entire picture would make the scene upright. If yes, investigate rotation. If the scene is upright but the feet are missing, investigate the crop and framing instead. If the image is upright with empty space beside it, that may simply be a landscape recording displayed in a portrait canvas. Stretching it to fill the canvas changes body proportions and is not an orientation correction.
Turning the phone while watching can rotate the interface without changing the saved file. Likewise, a mirror or flip command reverses the picture; it does not do the same job as a quarter-turn rotation. Keep left and right consistent if you plan to use the clip for beta review.
Make one controlled correction
If the chosen editor provides a rotate control, use the smallest correction that makes the scene upright. Work on a copy or a non-destructive project. Do not combine rotation, a new crop, a speed change, and a quality change in your first test: several simultaneous changes make the result harder to diagnose. This is a general editing workflow, not a claim that CruxCut includes a manual rotation control.
Save a short test with recognizable features near the beginning, middle, and end. Open the saved file outside the editor. If it is upright in both the gallery and the destination where the original failed, you have a useful corrected source for the next edit. If the saved copy is still sideways, stop stacking additional rotations on successive exports. Return to the original and check the editor's current help or support guidance for its supported file types and orientation behavior.
Then choose the final canvas
Once orientation is consistent, decide whether you need a landscape review copy or a portrait sharing copy. Check the whole attempt before tightening the crop. Leave enough room for reaches, foot placements, and the finish; a corrected opening frame does not establish that the entire sequence fits. Keep useful setup and outcome when trimming. Repeatedly exporting a shared copy is not a substitute for keeping the original.
Example: upright in the gallery, sideways in the editor
Suppose a wall sign is horizontal in the gallery but vertical after import. Compare the unchanged original in another available player. If the difference is limited to one import path, note that path and test a single corrected copy in an editor that supports rotation. Check the result outside that editor before continuing. This is a diagnostic example, not an observed CruxCut incident. A screenshot alone cannot establish how the finished video plays.
Check the file you will actually send
- Keep the original and identify the file that first looks sideways.
- Confirm rotation is needed, rather than a crop or screen-layout change.
- Correct once, then inspect the saved copy outside the editor.
- Review the beginning, middle, and finish before sharing.
- Use only footage you have permission to share, including identifiable people.
If the problem persists, provide support with the source device, the app that displays it correctly, the app that displays it incorrectly, and whether a saved test also fails. Offer a short permitted sample through the accepted support channel, without credentials or private bystander footage. Label corrected copies clearly using the organization workflow. For a separate loss-of-detail problem, see sharing-quality troubleshooting.