Software: Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 17

I want to edit portrait oriented videos taken with my phone for Instagram and YouTube Shorts. When I open the program I select the portrait format and, when the video is added to the timeline, I select "Keep the existing format". However, the new video always seems to end up landscape with black bars on each side. How can this be prevented or corrected?

Thank you.

How are you setting up your project as 1080x1920? When you star it, is your Monitor panel showing as upright video?

What happens if you start a project by going to the program's Project menu, selecting New and then selecting Match Media Settings, then browsing to select an upright video?

Ensure that both your project settings and video format are set to portrait orientation. If the issue persists, try manually adjusting the aspect ratio in the program's settings or using a different video editing software specifically optimized for vertical videos.