Sync/Transfer video from Mac to iPad/iPhone

Tech Support
1

Hi,

I am looking for suggestions on how to move a video from my Mac to an iPad/iPhone. For example, a downloaded video from YouTube to watch offline.

I am aware of the option to (hardwire) connect the device to the Mac, drag the video to the device in finder, select the sync option under “Home Movies” and various side loading methods. What is the fastest/easiest workflow/app to move the video from the Mac and guarantee you’ll have it available on the iPad/iPhone for offline viewing. Bonus for additional viewing features like playback speed, etc.

Thanks!

2

Have you tried Airdrop? Simple. Straight forward. Quick. I’ve used it to go the other way to move my iPhone photos to my Mac after abandoning the Apple Photos app.

5 Likes
3

I like WALTR for this. Super easy to drag-and-drop, and the videos show up in the TV app Downloads section, where you can use all the usual controls (playback speed, etc).

The developer has moved to a needlessly confusing subscription-only model. I’m not sure it’s still worth it, but as a legacy customer I’m happy with it for the one-time price I paid. You can still download the old version here but I’m not sure what it’s limitations are without licensing. Maybe worth a try and find out!

4

This sounded interesting, but I was turned off by the onboarding and price, so I didn’t even get far enough to give it a trial run. Thanks for sharing though :slight_smile:

6

One approach is to use iCloud Drive. Copy the file to an iCloud folder on your Mac. Then go to your iPhone/iPad Files app and Copy (or Move) the file to a special folder called “On My iPhone”. Files in this folder will always be available offline.

8

Thanks, everyone. Airdrop will work. I think I was hoping for something more like WALTR that @IronicSans mentioned, where 1) it would immediately land in the TV app or 2) something separate from my photos, where the sync process is more in my control.

My use case tends to be before getting on a plane where I can’t rely on internet access and may not have the time to wait for the devices to decide to sync (iCloud).

Thanks again for the replies.