How to play videos copied to iPhone using Files app in iOS 13.x

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How to play videos copied to iPhone using Files app in iOS 13.x

I would like to use the Files app to copy video files from a Windows shared folder (SMB share) to my iPhone over my LAN/WIFI so that I can watch them on the iPhone even when offline (airplane mode, etc.).

Status: Successfully connected Files app to Windows share and copied video to iPhone.

However, when I tap/open the file in the Files app, it does not play the movie...it just displays the file details (see screen shot below), even though it appears to recognize it as an MPEG-4 video. (The icon for it in the Files app is even the old Videos app icon.)

The video file is valid...plays in Windows both via Media Player and VLC. (Tried both an m4v and mp4 extension.)

Using iPhone Xr with iOS 13.5.1

Windows 10 Pro 2004 version with iTunes 12.10.7.3 installed via Microsoft Store

So, the question is, should this work, or am I not understanding how Apple intends for me to accomplish this?

I would expect the video to open and play in the Apple TV app (that replaced the Videos app) or in the browser, but not to play at all appears to be a bug.

As a related example, when I took the screen shot below, I saved it to the Files app. When I tap on the image file, it opens and displays the image...why would this not work for the video?

(With apologies to BTTF, "Hello, MacFly"?!)

Related sidebar...

Note that the video file in the Files app is not listed/available in the Apple TV app.

However, there is an older video that I had sync'd to the iPhone via iTunes (several years ago, probably using my iPhone 6, Windows 7, and the old iTunes) that DOES show up in the Apple TV app under both Home Videos and Downloaded).

While I suspect I may be able to use this process now, it would be preferable and easier to just copy it via the Files app rather than having to run iTunes and go through the sync process. (Much easier to just copy files and delete them when I'm done watching rather than having to add them to the iTunes library, sync, remove them from the library, sync, etc.)

There is also the use case of downloading, say a training video from the web, while not at home and able to sync to iTunes...saving this to the Files app and playing it from there would be the obvious thing to do.

See?

iPhone XR, iOS 13

Posted on Jul 6, 2020 7:33 AM

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e_eq_mc2 Author

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4 points

Jul 7, 2020 7:38 PM in response to e_eq_mc2

Update & resolution...

OK, so I worked through this with an Apple support rep on the phone and we figured it out.

TL;DR is that it was the video file's container and/or codec.

If using VLC to create/convert a video, use the muxer setting mux=mp4

Details...

While talking w/ Apple support, I offered the suggestion of copying a video from my Photos library (taken w/ the iPhone) and using the share option to save it to the Files app. This generated a .MOV file and this played successfully from the Files app.

Next, we tested copying a .mp4 file that we knew worked on the iPhone...this is the same one that had been synced to it via iTunes and would play from the Apple TV app. Copied this from my share to the Files app and it too played successfully from it.

With that info, I let the support guy go since I knew it was something with my test file.

I am using VLC to save/convert these files. I was initially using the muxer option mux=ts because that matched the source of the video.

Once I changed to using the muxer option of mux=mp4, then I was able to play the video file from the Files app.

Using the mux=ts option generated:

- Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (h264)

- Codec: ADTS

Using the mux=mp4 option generated:

- Codec: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC (part 10) (avc1)

- Codec: MPEG AAC Audio (mp4a)

Hope this helps someone else out.

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How to play videos copied to iPhone using Files app in iOS 13.x

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