How To Merge Videos In Windows 11/10 Using the Built-In Photos App

Want to merge videos in Windows 10 or Windows 11 but don’t have any idea how to proceed? Here we will explain to you how to merge videos with Windows’s built-in Photos app in a step-by-step manner.

You must be knowing that Windows Movie Maker (Windows Essentials 2012) has been retired by Microsoft and the download links have been taken offline officially though you can download Windows Essentials 2012 from some independent or third-party sites like ours.

Leaving Windows Movie Maker aside, still, you have something best in-built with Windows 10 and Windows 11 that helps you merge your videos. That’s the built-in Photos app. With its simple and user-friendly interface, the Photos app allows a user to merge videos effortlessly.

Merging Videos With the Built-in Photos App

Follow the steps below and you will be able to merge all your videos within no time.

Note that to merge videos using the Photos app, you require Windows 10 v1709 (Fall Creators Update) or higher. See the article How to Find Your Windows 10 Build Number, Version, Edition and Bitness for more information.

Instructions for Windows 10 (2004 and up) and Windows 11

  1. Launch the Photos app.
  2. From the Collections tab, click New videoNew video project. This starts a blank project.
    photos app merge combine videosNote: On Windows 11, you can also click on the Video Editor tab in the Photos app and click on the New video project button. The rest of the instructions are the same in Windows 11.
    windows 11 video editor photos app
  3. Assign a name for your video and click OK.
    photos app merge combine videos
  4. In the Project library, click on the Add button to add the videos you want to merge.
    photos app merge combine videos
  5. Once added the videos, select all the videos, and click Place in storyboard.
    photos app merge combine videos
    The storyboard is a section at the bottom of the screen where you can manipulate your videos by adding special effects, trim, or split the videos before combining them into a single file.
    photos app merge combine videos
  6. If you want no changes made to the clips and want to merge them as they are, click on the Finish video button on the top right corner of the window, and complete the process.

    Customizations

    Optionally, from the Storyboard section, you can trim or cut unnecessary portions in a clip using the Trim, or Split button. For instance, I’ve split the 1st video into two parts using the Split feature. The first part is 5.97 seconds which I wanted to remove from the video before merging them.

    Note that your original videos won’t be modified.

    photos app merge combine videos

    Now, I’m deleting the intro clip which I have split earlier, by right-clicking on it and clicking on the Remove this video clip.

    photos app merge combine videos

    Now, you have done all the modifications (trim, split, add a caption, applied 3D effects, or filters), click on the Finish video button.

    photos app merge combine videos

  7. Select the output resolution from the list. Unfortunately, only 3 preset video quality options are there.
    Editor’s note: The original videos used in this example are 360p, but I have no choice other than to choose the lowest quality option in the list, which is 540p. I’m expecting a dramatic increase in the output file size which we’ll check later.

    photos app merge combine videos

  8. Assign the output file name and save it to your desired location.
    photos app merge combine videos

That’s it. The videos are merged now.

Output file size

Let’s check the output file sizes. As you can see, the output file size is way bigger than it should be. The individual 360p video clips amount to less than 22 MB, whereas the combined one (540P output option) is almost 92 MB even with 6 seconds of video trimmed at the beginning.

photos app merge combine videos

You’d think that the output file size would be lower if the Photos app had the 360p output option. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Another project: 720p (input) to 720p (output)

See the results from another project I created. The input video clips are 720p and I chose the 720p option in the Photos app output options.

RESULT: The output video file size is 3.6x bigger which is unacceptable by any standard!

photos app merge combine videos output file size big



So, in either case, the videos outputted from the Photos app have a poor compression format. This means we need to use a third-party tool to compress the video using a good codec.

Using Avidemux

Alternatively, you can use the freeware Avidemux to split or merge videos for your personal video projects. For more information, check out the article How to Merge/Combine/Join Multiple Video Clips using Avidemux

Here’s the output file size comparison — Photos apps Vs Avidemux.

avidemux join merge video clips

The Photos app re-encodes the file regardless of whether the source files are similar not. In Avidemux or other third-party tools, you have the choice to do a simple merge (Copy) of identical video clips without having to re-encode or change the resolution.


Instructions for older versions of Windows 10

  1. Click Start, type Photos, and click on it to launch the app.
  2. Click on the “Create” button available there right beside the search box.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  3. Once you click on it, you will get three options, namely “Automatic video with music,” ” Custom Video with music” and “Album.” You need to click on “Custom Video with music.”
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
    Note: You can proceed with “Automatic video with music” as well to merge Videos With Windows 10 Built-in Photos App. Things will remain the same.
  4. You’re all set to merge videos. Now just select the first video that you want to merge with another and then click on “Create.”
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  5. Once you click on ” Create,” you will be asked to define a name for the merged video file. You can save the file with any name that you want.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  6. Now you’re in editing mode. You will see “Project Library” section therein editor screen. You need to click on “Add photos and videos” to add all those videos that you want to merge.
  7. Once added, drag and drop them to the ” Storyline” section.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  8. Next, you define music for your merged videos. You can either keep the default audio of target videos that you’re merging or use other soundtracks to replace the default audio. To do so, click on the “Music” glyph icon as shown in the image below.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  9. You can click on “None” if you want to keep default audio of your videos.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  10. If you want to change the default audio of your video or replace it, click on “Your Music” tab and then “Select A Music File” to add a new audio track to your merged videos and replace their default audio track.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  11. Save Merged Video File. To save the merged video file, you need to click on “Export or share.”merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  12. You will be asked to select the file size.
    merge or combine videos using windows 10 photos app
  13. Select any file size that meets your requirement.

That’s it. You’ve successfully merged all your videos with Windows 10/11 Photos app. Your merged video file will now get saved automatically in the following folder path:

%USERPROFILE%\Pictures\Exported Videos

Hope this post has delivered some valuable information to you. Also, keep following us to get more techy updates. Have questions? Let us know in the comment section.

(This article was last updated on January 5 2022 for Windows 11.)


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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

15 thoughts on “How To Merge Videos In Windows 11/10 Using the Built-In Photos App”

  1. This is all irrelevant to the task. I have carefully attempted to follow the instructions here. There is NO “Create” button on the home page of the Photos app. If one opens the “Video project” process there is NO “Combine Clips” window and none can be generated, hence no “Create Video” button. I have the latest version of Windows 10. Today’s date is Oct. 5, 2019. How old is this article (shouldn’t all such things be dated)?.

    Reply
    • this is true . create video may not be there but new video option is there. using this u can take videos and pictures to merge into a file

  2. I followed the steps above, I cannot find the “Create” button to. Is it because of complicated steps then I operated wrong? I tried several times and failed. Then I gave it up and sought one third-party software to do that. Then I got Joyoshare Video Joiner in Google result. It is not freeware but offers 5 chances to merge videos for free. I just use it once, so it is equal to a free one.

    Reply
  3. Greetings!
    I looking for merging in my videos with its audio, whereas you are presenting video Append-er / Joiner i.e. I am taking a parallel action; yours is serial one.
    Regards,
    RS.

    Reply
  4. Thanks for this helpful article. It’s been updated now with the current version of Photos and the process described above works just fine to merge videos.

    Reply
  5. Worked perfectly! And I’m not especially “tech-savvy” but the Photos app video maker plus these clear directions made such a nice presentation for my friends! I’ll be sharing it on Zoom soon. Thanks so much!

    Reply
  6. This is very basic functionality, though the instructions are fine as they stand.

    Issue not resolved is how to match frames from multiple video files. In your examples you are simply joining files, possibly with merge dramatic features. But, what if you wish to merge at a specific frame?

    There must be a way to identify matching frames from different video files… but this is not the tool for that it seems

    Reply

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