Support

Shrink: Video Size Compressor · iPhone · iOS 17 or later

Most questions are one of the ones below, so it is worth a look first — several of them are about how iOS behaves rather than about the app, and the answer is quicker than an email.

Storage and where things go

Where do my compressed videos end up?

In your Photos library, alongside everything else, with the original date and location intact so they sort into the right place in your timeline. Shrink does not keep them in a private folder of its own.

I compressed a batch, so why has my storage number not moved?

Because iOS keeps deleted originals in Recently Deleted for 30 days, and that space still counts against you until the album is emptied. This is iOS behaviour, not something the app can override.

To see the space now: open Photos › Albums › Recently Deleted, then Select › Delete All. Shrink links you straight there from the Done screen and explains it on the spot. Check the album before you empty it if you want to be sure of what is in there — emptying it is permanent.

Can I get an original back after replacing it?

Yes, for 30 days, from Recently Deleted — unless you have emptied that album, which is permanent. If the original was also in iCloud Photos and synced to another device, check there too.

Nothing was replaced. Did the app do anything?

Shrink never replaces anything without an explicit tap from you. On the Review screen you choose per clip whether to keep the compressed copy, keep both, or discard the compressed version. If you left that screen without choosing, the compressed copies were saved and your originals are untouched.

Skipped clips

Why was a video skipped?

Because compressing it would damage something you cannot get back. The row tells you which of these applies:

• Slo-mo — re-encoding can flatten the slow-motion effect.
• Cinematic — compression would discard the depth and focus data.
• Live Photo — the photo and its video would come apart.
• Spatial video — the second eye would be lost.

I want to compress one anyway.

You can. Open the skipped clip and choose Compress it anyway. You will get the warning first; the decision is yours. It applies to that one clip, not to the whole category.

A clip came out barely smaller, or bigger than the original.

That usually means it was already compressed — a video saved from a messaging app, a download, or something exported by another compressor has very little left to give. Shrink is most effective on footage straight out of the camera, especially 4K, HDR and screen recordings.

Batches, speed and heat

Can I use my phone while a batch runs?

Yes. On iOS 26 and later, a paid plan keeps a batch compressing after you switch to another app or lock the phone, and iOS shows its progress on the Lock Screen. You can stop it from there too.

On the free plan and on earlier versions of iOS, Shrink keeps encoding for as long as iOS allows a backgrounded app to hold the video encoder, and shows progress in a notification. When that window closes, it pauses cleanly and tells you so — nothing already compressed is thrown away. Reopen Shrink and tap Resume. The video it was working on starts again from the beginning.

For a large batch, the fastest route is to leave Shrink on screen, on a charger.

It paused itself and said my phone was warm.

That is deliberate. Sustained video encoding heats the chip, and iOS throttles a hot device, which makes everything slower and harder on the battery. Shrink pauses instead of pushing through, and resumes on its own once the phone cools. Taking it out of a case and off the charger speeds that up.

Why is it slower than I expected?

Speed depends on the chip in your iPhone, the resolution and length of the source, and whether the phone is thermally throttled. 4K, HDR and ProRes take substantially longer per minute of footage than 1080p. The estimate on the Compressing screen updates as it learns the pace of your particular batch.

Quality

How do I check the quality before committing?

Every clip on the Review screen has a Compare button that plays the compressed copy and the original side by side, locked to the same frame. Nothing is replaced until you decide.

Can I change how aggressive the compression is?

Yes — Space Saver, Balanced or High Quality, from the quality control under the compress button, or in Settings. Balanced is the default and stays the default; you never have to open it.

Purchases

I paid, but the app is asking me to pay again.

Open Settings inside Shrink and tap Restore purchases. Make sure you are signed in to the same Apple Account you originally bought with. Purchases are tied to your Apple Account, not to the device, so they follow you to a new phone.

How do I cancel the Monthly subscription?

On your iPhone: Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions › Shrink, then Cancel Subscription. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. Cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date to avoid the next charge; you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.

Do I have to cancel the One-Month Pass?

No. That is the entire point of it. The Pass is a non-renewing purchase: it gives you 30 days and then expires by itself, with no charge afterwards and nothing sitting in your Subscriptions list. If you want another month, you buy another Pass.

How do I get a refund?

Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us — we have no ability to issue one. Request it at reportaproblem.apple.com with the Apple Account you purchased with. If the app failed to do what it promised, please also tell us at shrink@ripeseed.io so we can fix it.

My Pass expired in the middle of a batch.

The batch finishes. A run that has already started is always allowed to complete.

Privacy and data

How do I delete my data?

Delete the app. Everything Shrink stores — settings, history, totals — lives in its own container on your iPhone and goes with it. There is no account to close. Usage events the app has already sent stay in Google Analytics for up to 14 months. They carry a random ID and are not linked to your identity, so we generally cannot find yours to delete them. Events sent to Meta are kept under Meta’s own policy. To stop Meta receiving your advertising identifier, turn tracking off for Shrink in Settings › Privacy & Security › Tracking. Compressed videos you chose to keep stay in your Photos library, since they are yours.

Does the app send anything anywhere?

Starting with version 1.0.5, yes, but never your videos. Their frames, thumbnails and file names stay on your iPhone too, and so does the location stored in each video. The app sends usage events to Google Analytics for Firebase, such as which screens you open and whether a purchase completed, with a random ID that is not linked to your identity. Once per install it also asks Apple whether the install came from an Apple Ads ad. It tells Meta about installs, app opens and purchases, so we can see which of our Facebook and Instagram ads work, and shares your advertising identifier with Meta only if you allow tracking. It still works fully in airplane mode, and holds the events on the phone until there is a connection. Details are in the Privacy Policy.

Why does it ask for notification permission?

Most of what it sends is created on the phone itself: batch progress while you are in another app, a completion notice, a note when a Pass expires, and on the free plan, one reminder a few days after your free videos run out if large videos are still waiting. Starting with version 1.0.5, we can also send an occasional notification about new features, at most once a month, through Firebase Cloud Messaging. You can turn the reminder and the news off separately in the app’s Settings. It is safe to decline the permission; you will just lose the progress notification.

Reporting a bug

Send it to shrink@ripeseed.io. Shrink has no crash reporter of its own, so your email is often the only way we find out something is wrong. It is worth sending.

What helps most:

• your iPhone model and iOS version (Settings › General › About);
• the Shrink version, shown at the bottom of the app’s Settings screen;
• what you did, what you expected, and what happened instead;
• the kind of video involved — 4K, HDR, ProRes, screen recording, how long;
• a screenshot, if there was something on screen worth seeing.

Requests and feedback

Also shrink@ripeseed.io. If something about the app annoys you, that is useful information — tell us plainly. If it saved you a pile of storage, a rating on the App Store genuinely helps other people with a red storage bar find it.

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Shrink is built by RipeSeed. See also the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.