Requirement
Install termux from
- play store
- github.com/termux/termux-app latest but require allow install from unknown source
open termux and update
$ pkg upgrade
install ffmpeg
$ pkg install ffmpeg nano termux-api
Allow termux to manage files
$ termux-setup-storage
Finding the correct path
Find location of your file, and open termux
You can get file info from file manager provided by your phone. This is information from Google File -> File info
/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
Open your termux
~ $ cd ~/storage
~/storage $ pwd
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage
~/storage $ ls
audiobooks downloads movies podcasts
dcim external-0 music shared
documents media-0 pictures
In android it is DCIM but in termux it is become dcim
Note these:
- From file manager: /emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa -> to broadcast the files
- From termux: /data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage/dcim/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa -> to browse in termux terminal
Split a video by time
Target:
- every piece has 1 minutes 58 seconds
- resolution low 480
- output h264
- sound mono
command to convert '172967815750944 (1).mp4'
$ ffmpeg -i 172967815750944\ \(1\).mp4 -vf scale=-2:480 -r 25 -c:v libx264 -preset veryfast -crf 28 -ac 1 -c:a aac -b:a 96k -f segment -segment_time 118 -reset_timestamps 1 out_%03d.mp4
this command will create files with name starting with name out_[number].mp4
This is fastest way to split video into smaller size, but you need to write the long command. This is bash sh to split file to avoid write long command. Open nano and copy paste it, name it with mysplitvid.sh. Make it execute $ chmod u+x mysplitvid.sh.
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
# Check input
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 inputvideo.mp4"
exit 1
fi
INPUT="$1"
BASENAME=$(basename "$INPUT" .mp4)
# Output directory (public, visible to other apps)
OUTDIR="/sdcard/Download/${BASENAME}_split"
mkdir -p "$OUTDIR"
# FFmpeg split + encode
ffmpeg -i "$INPUT" \
-vf scale=-2:480 \
-r 25 \
-c:v libx264 \
-preset veryfast \
-crf 28 \
-ac 1 \
-c:a aac \
-b:a 96k \
-f segment \
-segment_time 118 \
-reset_timestamps 1 \
"$OUTDIR/${BASENAME}_out%02d.mp4"
# Notify Android media scanner for all outputs
for file in "$OUTDIR"/*.mp4; do
am broadcast \
-a android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE \
-d "file://$file" >/dev/null
done
echo "✅ Done!"
echo "📂 Output folder: $OUTDIR”
Convert video h256 to social media
Target:
- Video Codec: H.264 (libx264)
- Audio Codec: AAC
- Pixel Format: yuv420p (Required for maximum compatibility)
- Audio Sample Rate: 48kHz or 44.1kHz
- Container: MP4
To convert an H.265 MP4 to a Twitter-compatible, highly compressed, lower-resolution MP4 using FFmpeg, you need to re-encode the video to H.264 video codec, AAC audio codec, a maximum resolution of 1280x720, and a lower bitrate/higher CRF value.
Assume your file is inputfile.mp4 and located at Download folder in your Android. Here are command to convert your video to make compatible for social media. Currently social media do not support high compression like h265.
~/ $ cd ~/storage
~/storage $ ls
audiobooks downloads movies podcasts
dcim external-0 music shared
documents media-0 pictures
~/storage $ cd downloads
~/storage/downloads $ ls *.mp4
inputfile.mp4
~/storage/downloads $ ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 28 -preset medium -vf "scale=1280:720,format=yuv420p" -c:a aac -b:a 128k -movflags faststart output.mp4
...
This is bash sh to split file to avoid write long command. Open nano and copy paste it, name it with myconverth265.sh. Make it execute $ chmod u+x myconverth265.sh.
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
set -e
if [ $# -ne 2 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 input.mp4 output.mp4"
exit 1
fi
INPUT="$1"
OUTPUT="$2"
ffmpeg -i "$INPUT" \
-c:v libx264 -crf 28 -preset medium \
-vf "scale=1280:720,format=yuv420p" \
-c:a aac -b:a 128k \
-movflags faststart \
"$OUTPUT"
MEDIA_PATH="$(realpath "$OUTPUT")"
am broadcast \
-a android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE \
-d "file://$MEDIA_PATH"
echo "Scanned:"
echo "$MEDIA_PATH"
Rotate
ffmpeg -i inputvid.mp4 -vf "transpose=1" outputvid.mp4
Parameters:
-i inputvid.mp4: Specifies the input video file.
-vf "transpose=1": This filter rotates the video 90 degrees clockwise.
0 = 90° counterclockwise and vertical flip (default)
1 = 90° clockwise
2 = 90° counterclockwise
3 = 90° clockwise and vertical flip
Example use
$ cd storage/dcim/Camera
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "transpose=2" out.mp4
$ ls ~/storage/dcim/Camera/out.mp4
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage/dcim/Camera/out.mp4
am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE -d file:///storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/out.mp4
Merge file with the same video properties
list file to merge
~/.../Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa $ ls
out_001.mp4 out_004.mp4 out_007.mp4
out_002.mp4 out_005.mp4
out_003.mp4 out_006.mp4
Create file list.txt
~/.../Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa $ nano list.txt
E.g
# comment list of files
file 'out_001.mp4'
file 'out_002.mp4'
file 'out_003.mp4'
file 'out_004.mp4'
file 'out_005.mp4'
file 'out_006.mp4'
file 'out_007.mp4’
Merge
~/.../Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa $ ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i list.txt -c copy merged.mp4
broadcast the new video
~/.../Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
$ am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE -d
file:///sdcard/DCIM/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
Make your output video accessible by other application
Your output file owner is Termux. To make it accessible by other applications e.g. photos, files, etc, you can try these option
• Force android system to scan your output
$ am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE -d file:///sdcard/[real_location]
From file location above
Note these:
- From file manager: /emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
- From termux: /data/data/com.termux/files/home/storage/dcim/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
Replace [real_location] becomes file:///sdcard/DCIM/Camera/Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa
It will scan all files in drive, or you can specify for specific file only.
Using termux-api (termux-media-scan) is an alternative way for am. On newer Android versions (Android 10+), this may not work due to scoped storage restrictions. termux-media-scan is the recommended way.
$ termux-media-scan /sdcard/[real_location]
I test am and termux-media-scan on android 13 infinix Note 12, they work properly without issue. except for multimedia store in Thumbnail folder, only show in file manager, e.g google files.
Using bash script
To use bash script, at ~/ create bash script e.g. convert.sh and you can paste the bash code above under nano editor
~/ $ nano convert.sh
~/ $ chmod +x convert.sh
Goto directory e.g Download and run the script using ~/[filename].sh e.g
~/.../Thumbnail/ebd64812dbf4ded1ce79xa $ ~/convert.sh vidIn.mp4 vinOut.mp3
