Let's start by assuming that I have a perfectly compatible file. (In my use case, I was literally trying to get a video I took on my iPhone, that lives in my iPhone photos/video gallery, onto my iPad, so this isn't about conversions or codecs.)
Now, there are many ways to transfer and watch the the video, but I can't find a single darn way to save it with my other videos and photos:
- If it's short, or I'm willing to clip it, I can email it to myself, but unlike photos, clicking on a video enclosure doesn't allow you to save it to the native app. You can open it in vlc, good reader, etc.
- If it's under 180MB, I can upload it to Dropbox from the source device (iPhone for me) and then access or watch it on the destination device (iPad for me). But I can't save it to photos from Dropbox on the iPad
Why do I care, if I can access it and even watch it as described above? Two reasons:
- I like having things organized in one place. I don't want to have to remember which vids are in Photos, vs. Dropbox, vs. Good reader, etc.
- Most apps that use video (including Apple's own iMovie, for frack's sake) can only open and access movies located in the photos app.
Please tell me I'm missing something elegant, if not obvious?
Best Answer
I'm surprised nobody has answered this correctly.
The solution is to open iTunes, click on your iPhone, go to the Photos tab, then Sync Photos for the folder that contains the photo and video subfolders you want to sync. Each subfolder will then be sync'ed to your iphone UNDERNEATH the Camera Roll as new Albums, and these are treated seperately than the Camera Roll and will always remain synced.
Furthermore, apps that can access the Camera Roll almost always can also access Synced Albums, so this should really work well for you. I keep a whole bunch of old photos and videos on my iPhone at all times using this method and it works great.
As a bonus, unlike the Camera Roll, these Synced Albums don't get backed up in iTunes, so it won't slow down your Backup like a growing Camera Roll will.