“You don’t have to watch any other video, this is the one.”
If you’ve ever tried to batch process a bunch of video files in HandBrake on a Mac and couldn’t figure it out, welcome to the club. It’s one of those things that should be obvious but absolutely isn’t, and it trips up basically everyone who tries it for the first time.
The good news is the fix is dead simple and it all comes down to one trick nobody tries.
Learn how to batch upload files effortlessly!
The Problem Everyone Runs Into
So here’s what happens. You open HandBrake, you click Open Source, and you naturally go to select your video files. Makes sense right? That’s what you’d do in literally any other app.
And it works fine if you’re just doing one file but it completely fails you when you want to batch process multiple files at once.
The move is counterintuitive and that’s exactly why people miss it. It’s the folder, not the files.
Do not choose your files in your folder. You’re going to choose the folder itself.
That’s it. That’s the whole trick that “messes everyone up”.
How to Actually Do It, Step by Step
Step 1: Get Your Files Into One Folder
Before anything else, make sure all the video files you want to process are sitting in a single folder. If they’re scattered around your desktop or wherever, just right-click in Finder, hit New Folder, and drag your files in there.
In the video the folder was called “Untitled Folder” and had three MOV files in it: IMG_3098.MOV, IMG_3096.MOV, and IMG_3097.MOV. Nothing fancy.
Step 2: Open the Folder in HandBrake, NOT the Files
This is where people get tripped up every single time. Open HandBrake, click Open Source, and navigate to your folder. Now here’s the critical part and I cannot stress this enough:
Warning
Open the folder, not the files. Don’t click on any videos inside the folder—just select the folder itself and click Open.
You’re selecting the folder. Not the files inside it. Just the folder. When you do that, HandBrake scans everything inside automatically.
You’ll see it scanning all three files (or however many you’ve got) one after another.
Step 3: Add the “Add to Queue” Button if You Don’t See It
Once your files are scanned you need the Add to Queue button in your toolbar. If it’s not there already, don’t panic.
Tip
Right-click the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar, then drag the Add to Queue button into place and click Done.
Step 4: Add All Your Titles to the Queue
Click the little dropdown arrow next to Add to Queue, then hit Add All Titles to Queue. It’ll ask you to confirm so just click Override.
Now if you check your queue window you’ll see all your files lined up and ready to go:
IMG_3096.mp4IMG_3097.mp4IMG_3098.mp4
The queue shows “Encoding title 1 of 3” which means everything got added correctly. That’s the green light.
Step 5: Hit Start
Click Start and HandBrake runs through all of them one after another.
“Now it’s going to do all three of those.”
That’s the whole process. No plugins, no terminal commands, no weird workarounds. Just select the folder instead of the files and HandBrake does the rest automatically.
Why Selecting the Folder Works
HandBrake’s batch scanning is designed to operate at the folder level. When you point it to a folder it treats every video file inside as a separate “title,” kind of like how it handles chapters on a DVD or Blu-ray.
That’s why clicking individual files only loads one thing while selecting the folder loads everything. It’s a design choice that makes total sense once you know about it but is basically invisible if you don’t. Folder-level scanning is the key.
Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| HandBrake | A free, open-source video transcoder for Mac, Windows, and Linux. |
| Open Source (in HandBrake) | The menu command for selecting a video file or folder to process. Not the same as the software licensing term. |
| Add to Queue | HandBrake feature that lets you line up multiple files for back-to-back processing. |
| Queue | The list of video files waiting to be encoded. |
| Customize Toolbar | A macOS feature for adding, removing, or rearranging buttons in an app’s toolbar. |
| MOV | A multimedia container format from Apple, super common for iPhone video recordings. |
| MP4 | The most widely used video container format and HandBrake’s default output. |
Who This Is For
If you’re compressing a pile of iPhone recordings, converting MOV files to MP4, or just trying to get a bunch of videos ready for upload without clicking through them one at a time, this is for you.
You don’t need any advanced HandBrake knowledge and you don’t need to be a Mac power user. The whole thing takes under a minute to set up and then HandBrake handles everything automatically from there.
Now go try it with your own files and stop encoding them one by one like it’s 2009. Seriously, save your time. 👋
