Permute 4.0.11 — Mac version

You have a video that won't play on your old tablet, a batch of HEIC photos a Windows mate can't open, or a long screen recording where you only need the audio. That is the sort of tangle a straightforward media converter sorts out, and Permute 4 is built exactly for it.

It treats video, audio and images in the same simple way. Drag a file in, pick a format, and off it goes. A good first job is converting a video to MP3 so you can listen to a talk while you cycle. Or try dropping two short clips onto the window and ticking the merge box — it stitches them into one file without a fight.

Images get the same treatment. Grab a folder of PNGs and turn the lot into JPEGs in one go. Another useful trick for the newcomer is adding a subtitle track to a film. Just load the video, toggle the subtitle option and point it at your SRT file.

There is no clutter and no timeline to puzzle over. It is a tool that does one thing cleanly, and it runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs.

Re-encoding a file that’s already MP4

One of the most common slip-ups is dropping a video file in and choosing “Convert to MP4” without checking the current format first. If the video is already MP4, you are not really fixing a compatibility problem — you are just adding extra compression on top. Look at the file info in Finder before you start.

Another mix-up is thinking every format works on every device. An MP4 file can use different codecs inside, and an elderly telly might reject H.265 even if the wrapper is right. When you are converting for a specific gadget, use Permute’s built-in device presets rather than guessing. There is one for older Apple hardware that saves a lot of faff.

People also forget that merging two videos is not the same as joining scenes. If you drop a landscape 4k clip and a portrait phone clip into one job, the result will look odd because the dimensions do not match. Trim and crop them to the same shape first, or pick one clip as the size reference.

The subtitle tool catches some folks out too. You cannot just tick the box — you have to point Permute at an actual SRT or ASS file. If the subtitle file name does not match the video name, the app will not guess the connection for you.

Shrinking iMovie ProRes exports to sharable sizes

Permute works well as a middle step in a longer workflow. Say you edit a rough cut in iMovie and export it as a large ProRes file. You can drag that export straight onto Permute and crunch it down to a smaller H.264 MP4 for sharing. No need to open a heavy editor twice.

It also plays nicely with Finder’s Quick Actions. Once you have run a few conversions, the formats you use most appear in the right-click menu. Select a batch of WAV files on the desktop, right-click, and pick “Convert to MP3” without opening the main window at all.

Because permute 4 uses FFmpeg under the hood, it handles obscure codecs that QuickTime Player will not touch. If you download a video from a forum and it will not preview — just a white icon — drag it in. Permute often makes sense of it when nothing else will.

Audio workflows benefit from the tight link with the system audio engine. You can convert a video to AAC and the resulting file lands ready to drop into GarageBand or Audacity without another transcode step.

Pointing the output folder away from your originals

Set your default output folder early. If you leave it on “Same as source file,” your tidy folders soon fill with converted copies mixed in with the originals. I point mine at a folder called Converted inside Documents so everything stays separate.

Practise the merge feature once with two short throwaway clips. That way you learn where the merge checkbox lives and how the ordering works — top file plays first — before you trust it with an hour of family footage. The ordering is simple but easy to miss when you are in a hurry.

Build a small custom preset list. After you convert your first batch of HEIC photos to JPEG, save that as a preset. Each time you find a format pairing you will use again — like MKV to Apple TV — save it. Within a week you will have five or six presets that cover most of what you actually do, and you can stop scrolling the format menu each time.

Lastly, keep the permute download around as a disk image backup. If macOS plays up after a big system update, having the original DMG means you can reinstall in seconds without hunting for it again.

• macOS 26 or later
• Apple Silicon Mac