TL;DR
Select the folder, not the individual files, when you click “Open Source” — this is the trap almost everyone falls into.
After HandBrake scans the folder, use “Add All Titles to Queue” to load every file at once.
Before starting, set a default output folder in Preferences or you may hit a batch-stopping error.
Once you know the clicks, the whole setup takes about 30 seconds — the hard part is where to click.
If you’ve been converting videos one at a time in HandBrake on your Mac like some kind of digital age punishment, I’ve got good news. 💡 There is a way to HandBrake batch convert on Mac, and the reason you haven’t figured it out yet isn’t because you’re doing something wrong. It’s because the workflow is genuinely counterintuitive.
I’m going to show you exactly how to do it, and honestly? You don’t need any other guide after this one. “So, you don’t have to watch any other video, this is the one.” That’s literally how I feel about this process once you see the trick, you’ll wonder how you ever missed it. 🤙
Learn to batch upload files easily in Handbrake for Mac.
The Trick That Messes Everyone Up
Alright so here it is. “This is the trick that messes everyone up.” And it really does. I’ve seen the same question asked on Apple Stack Exchange, Reddit, forums, everywhere.
People open HandBrake, click “Open Source,” navigate to their video files, select one or two or try to select all of them… and nothing works the way they expect. It’s not your fault.
The problem is dead simple. Do not choose your files in your folder, you’re going to choose the folder itself.
That’s it. That’s the whole secret.
When HandBrake sees a folder as the source, it treats every video file inside it as a separate “title,” which is HandBrake’s terminology for individual video clips within a source. It’s the same way the app handles a DVD with multiple titles.
But when you select individual files, it only loads that one file and you’re stuck doing the whole thing manually, over and over, like a maniac. The folder is the source.
One user on Stack Exchange put it perfectly: the key is that you need to select the FOLDER as your source, THEN add files, which is really counter-intuitive. And yeah, it really is. It feels backwards.
Step-by-Step: HandBrake Batch Convert on Mac
Let me walk you through the entire process from the top because even though the “trick” is simple, there are a couple small things you need to get right or the whole batch will fail. Details matter here.
Step 0: Set a Default Output Folder First
This is the step most guides skip and most videos (including mine, honestly) don’t mention. Before you batch convert anything, go to HandBrake > Preferences > Output Files and set a default save location. Do this first.
Warning
If you skip this step, HandBrake may throw an error when you try to start the queue because it doesn’t know where to save multiple files. How-To Geek’s guide flags this as a common stumbling block, and I can confirm it’s annoying to troubleshoot when you don’t realize that’s the issue.
Pick a folder, your Desktop, a dedicated “Converted Videos” folder, whatever. Just make sure something is set there before you go any further. Any destination is fine.
Step 1: Put Your Videos in One Folder
“Now, if you don’t have your files in a folder, of course, you can just click uh, new folder, add your files to a folder, etcetera.” Keep it in one place.
Pretty self-explanatory. Grab all the files you want to convert, MOVs from your iPhone, screen recordings, whatever, and toss them into a single folder. Name it something you’ll recognize. I keep mine simple, like “To Convert.” One folder per batch.
Step 2: Open Source and Select the FOLDER
Fire up HandBrake. Click “Open Source” in the top left. This is where it starts.
Now here’s where you need to fight every instinct you have. Navigate to your folder, and when you see it, when you see all your lovely video files sitting right there, do not click on any of them. Don’t select them. Don’t even think about it. Ignore the files.
“Don’t click your files. Don’t click on any of them. Don’t select any of them, just leave it like this and click open.” Select nothing inside.
You click the folder and hit Open. Or you double-click into the folder so you can see the files, but you select nothing, and then click Open. Either way, the point is: HandBrake needs the folder as the source, not individual files. The folder is the input.
You’ll see it start scanning. “Now you see how it’s scanning all three of those files, cool.” It’ll say something like “Scanning title 1 of 3, preview 1…” in the bottom status bar. That’s how you know it worked. Look for “title 1 of X”.
Did You Know?
If you see “Scanning title 1 of X” where X matches the number of video files in your folder, you did it right. If it just scans 1 of 1, you accidentally selected a single file, so go back and try again.
Step 3: Add All Titles to Queue
This is the second part that isn’t obvious. After the scan finishes, HandBrake only displays one of your files in the main window. It looks like it only loaded one. Don’t panic. That’s expected behavior.
“You’re going to click on this little toggle and if you don’t see this add to queue thing, you can right click on this, click customize toolbar, and you’re going to see it here somewhere and then you’re going to just drag it to your toolbar.” Find the dropdown.
So look for the “Add to Queue” button in your toolbar. Click the little dropdown arrow next to it, and you’ll see the option that says “Add All Titles to Queue.” Click that. This loads the batch.
If the button isn’t in your toolbar at all, right-click on the toolbar area, select Customize Toolbar, find the “Add to Queue” button, and drag it into place. Done. It can be hidden.
Did You Know?
HandBrake uses the term “Title” because the software was originally built for ripping DVDs, where each movie, bonus feature, or episode on a disc was a separate title. The DVD terminology stuck even though most people now use it for regular video files.
Step 4: Choose Your Settings and Override
When you click “Add All Titles to Queue,” HandBrake will ask if you want to use your current settings for all files. Click Override; this applies your chosen preset (format, quality, resolution, etc.) to every file in the batch. Override applies everything.
“Click add all titles to queue. Click override. And now you’ll see that in my queue I have three items. Look at that, one two three.” Verify the queue count.
Step 5: Open the Queue and Hit Start
Click the Queue button to see all your files lined up and ready to go. You’ll see each one listed individually. “It used to just have one. I click start and there we go. Now it’s going to do all three of those.” Now you can walk away.
That’s the whole process. Five steps, maybe 30 seconds of actual clicking once you know what to do. It’s fast once learned.
Why HandBrake Makes This So Hard to Find
I want to take a second to acknowledge something here because this workflow is genuinely poorly designed from a UX perspective. Every other app on your Mac lets you select multiple files. Command-click, Shift-click, drag to select, it’s muscle memory at this point.
So when HandBrake’s “Open Source” dialog looks exactly like every other file picker on macOS, your brain assumes it works the same way. That assumption is wrong.
It doesn’t. HandBrake behaves differently.
And the “Add All Titles to Queue” option being hidden behind a tiny dropdown arrow on a toolbar button that might not even be visible by default? That’s just rough. I’m not trying to bash the HandBrake developers, it’s free, open-source software that handles an incredible range of video formats, from phone footage to ProRes to DVD and Blu-ray sources.
But the batch workflow is the one area where the interface really lets users down. It’s a UI problem.
The entire reason this is confusing is because HandBrake’s file picker looks like it should let you select multiple files. It doesn’t. Select the folder.
Quick Troubleshooting
If things aren’t working the way I described, here are the most common issues I’ve run across. These fixes cover most cases.
- “Only one file shows up after scanning” — You selected a file instead of the folder. Go back to Open Source and make sure you’re selecting the folder itself or opening the folder without clicking on any files inside it.
- “I get an error when I start the queue” — You probably haven’t set a default output location. Go to HandBrake > Preferences > Output Files and pick a destination folder.
- “The ‘Add All Titles to Queue’ option is grayed out” — The scan might not be finished yet. Wait for the status bar at the bottom to stop showing scanning progress, then try again.
- “My converted files look terrible” — That’s a preset issue, not a batch issue. Before adding to queue, pick a preset that matches your needs. For most people, the “Fast 1080p30” preset under “General” is a solid starting point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not with the folder-scan method. All your files need to be in the same folder for this to work. If you have files scattered across different locations, your best bet is to either copy them into one folder first, or add them to the queue one at a time using the standard Open Source > select file > Add to Queue workflow. It’s more tedious, but it does work. Same folder required.
Yes. HandBrake has a CLI tool called HandBrakeCLI that you can pair with a simple shell script to loop through an entire folder of videos automatically. Jeff Geerling wrote a solid walkthrough on exactly how to do this. It’s more powerful than the GUI method and better suited for large batches or recurring workflows. CLI is best for automation.
Yes, when you click “Add All Titles to Queue” and choose Override, it applies whatever preset and settings you currently have selected to all the files. If you need different settings for different files (say, one needs to be 720p and another 1080p), you’ll need to add them individually and adjust settings between each one. Override means identical settings.
Pretty much. HandBrake supports a huge range of input formats: MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WMV, and many more. If HandBrake can open it as a single file, it can scan it as part of a folder batch.
The only limitation is that HandBrake’s output formats are more limited (MP4, MKV, and WebM are the main ones), but that covers the vast majority of use cases. Inputs are flexible.
The total conversion time is roughly the same either way since HandBrake processes files sequentially in the queue, not simultaneously. The time you save is all in the setup.
Instead of loading a file, setting your output, starting the conversion, waiting, then repeating for every single clip, you set it up once and walk away. You save setup time.
Final Thoughts
The whole HandBrake batch convert on Mac situation comes down to one genuinely counterintuitive step: selecting the folder instead of the files. Once you know that, everything else clicks into place. Scan the folder, add all titles to queue, hit start, go make a sandwich.
It’s the kind of thing that takes 30 seconds to do but somehow takes people hours to figure out, and that’s entirely because the interface gives you zero clues that this is how it works. Select the folder.
So here’s my advice: set your default output folder right now (seriously, do it before you forget), throw your videos into a folder, and run through this process once. Do it today while it’s fresh.
After that first batch, it’ll be second nature and you’ll never go back to converting files one at a time. And if you’re dealing with really large batches or want to automate this further, look into the HandBrakeCLI tool. Do one test batch.
Sources and References
- HandBrake Official Documentation — Opening a Video Source
- Apple Stack Exchange — How Can I Easily Add a Batch of Files to the HandBrake Queue?
- How-To Geek — Converting Videos by the Batch with HandBrake
- Jeff Geerling — Batch Transcode a Folder of Videos with HandBrake’s CLI
- ArkThinker — Batch Convert in HandBrake