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Get a Video's Duration and Resolution with mdls

Read length, pixel dimensions, and codecs of any video file from Spotlight metadata.

macOSvideometadatamdlsLow risk
Run mdls -name kMDItemDurationSeconds -name kMDItemPixelWidth -name kMDItemPixelHeight video.mp4 to see a video's key facts.

01Command

Command
$ mdls -name kMDItemDurationSeconds -name kMDItemPixelWidth -name kMDItemPixelHeight -name kMDItemCodecs movie.mp4

02What it does

Spotlight already indexes technical details of every video on your Mac, and mdls reads that index without launching the file. This is faster than ffprobe and needs nothing installed — perfect for checking whether a clip fits a platform's upload limits. Run plain mdls video.mp4 first to see every attribute Spotlight has stored.

03Risk

RiskLow risk
!Warning: The metadata comes from Spotlight's index: freshly downloaded files may briefly report (null) until indexing catches up. Duration is reported in seconds, not minutes and seconds.

04Undo

✓No undo needed — this command does not change persistent state.

05Sources

  • mdls - display metadata for a file
    SS64 · technical · 2026-09-17
    Evidence: Documents mdls -name for reading Spotlight metadata attributes such as duration and pixel dimensions.

Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Category: Media

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Dump every indexed attribute of any file: EXIF, dimensions, duration, authors, content types.

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Query Spotlight's Raw Syntax with mdfind
macOSmetadatasearchmdfind

Use kMDItem attributes to search file metadata the Spotlight UI can't express, faster than find ever will.

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