Reverse video searchon iPhone and Android.

Use this when someone sent you the video, or you saved it from an app. Uploading the file covers the whole video, not just its opening seconds.

1. 1.Save the video to Photos (iPhone) or Gallery (Android). In WhatsApp or Telegram, open the video and use the save or download option.
2. 2.If the app will not let you save it, use screen recording while it plays: on iPhone from Control Center, on most Android phones from Quick Settings. Trim the recording so it starts and ends on the clip itself.
3. 3.On retrace.video/search, tap Upload video and pick it from your library. Files up to 100 MB and up to an hour long work.
4. 4.The free scan samples up to 24 distinctive frames across the whole video and tells you how many matching pages exist and on which platforms.

A screen recording carries the app's interface and can lose some sharpness. It still works for a visual search, but the original file is better when you can get it. More ways to keep a copy are in how to save a video to analyse it.

Use this when all you have is a still image, or the video has been deleted and only a screenshot survives.

1. 1.Pause on a clean frame and take a screenshot. Crop out the app's buttons, captions and stickers around it.
2. 2.Upload the screenshot to Retrace like a video. Images in jpg, png or webp are searched as a single frame.
3. 3.Or search it for free with Google Lens: in the Google app, tap the camera icon and pick the screenshot. On supported Android phones, Circle to Search works directly on a paused video. Either way, it is one frame per search.

One frame is a narrower search than a whole video. If the clip has several scenes, repeat the search with a frame from each. There is more on this in find a video from a screenshot.

Whether you screenshot one frame or let a scan sample several, the search works on what the image shows. Some frames are much easier to match than others.

• —Distinctive over generic. A landmark, a shop sign, an unusual object or a recognisable face in a wide shot beats a close-up of sky, water or a blank wall.
• —Sharp over blurred. Pause when the camera is still. Motion blur removes the detail a visual search relies on.
• —Clean over decorated. Text overlays, emoji, stickers and the app's buttons are often added by whoever reposted the clip, so they differ between copies. Crop them out when you can.
• —Full frame over cropped. Keep as much of the original picture as possible. A heavy zoom on one corner leaves too little to compare.

• —The link opens the app instead of the browser. Long-press the address bar in Safari or Chrome and paste the link there, or copy the link from inside the app and paste it on the search page directly.
• —The file is too big. Long videos filmed in 4K can pass 100 MB. Trim the clip to the part you want to trace with the editor in Photos or Gallery, then upload the shorter version.
• —The video came through a chat. Messaging apps often compress video and strip its details. That is fine for a visual search, since the search compares what the frames show, not the file's data.
• —Nothing matches. Try a different frame, a screenshot of the most distinctive moment, or a free image search with Google Lens. A clip that only ever circulated in private chats may simply not be on any public page.

The free scan tells you how many pages show the same footage and on which platforms. You get two free scans, then one every 12 hours, with no account. Unlocking a search costs $0.90 and lists every match with its link, which moment of your clip matched, and how many frames agree. You pay from a wallet you top up from $1.90; the balance never expires and there is no subscription. Details are on the pricing page.

Results come from visual web search, so they include pages that search engines have indexed. Private accounts, deleted posts and content that was never indexed will not show up. Retrace also does not tell you which copy was posted first: open the pages it finds and compare their dates yourself, as described in who posted a video first.