Transfer Videos from External Hard Drive to iPhone/iPad
This guide will show you how to transfer videos from external hard drive to iPad or iPhone. The method to watch movies directly from the external hard drive is also included.
Best way to transfer photos from my iPhone to an external hard drive?
I have a 2 TB hard drive and would like to copy a bunch of photos off my phone and onto there. What would be the most efficient way to do this?
- Question from Reddit
Watching videos is a good way to kill time while traveling. You may have stored lots of videos on the external hard drive, and now you want to transfer videos from external hard drive to iPad/iPhone, right? You’ve come to the right page. This guide will introduce two ways to help you achieve the goal. Just keep reading to learn more.
Part 1. How to Transfer Videos from External Hard Drive to iPhone iPad on PC
Although you can sync videos to iPhone/iPad using iTunes, you have to take the risk of losing the existing media data on device. To make it easy, the professional iOS data transfer tool named AOMEI FoneBackup is a better choice.
- Transfer unlimited videos between iPhone/iPad and external drive.
- Preview and choose videos stored on USB drive from PC to transfer.
- Large video files can be easily transferred within minutes.
- Safe USB connections keep all your data from leakage.
- Various iOS devices and versions are OK (iPhone 16/iPad 10/iOS 18).
Now free download this tool on your computer and follow the steps below to put videos on your iPhone/iPad.
1. Run AOMEI FoneBackup > Plug in your iPhone/iPad and the flash drive. (You may need to enter the passcode on iPhone/iPad so that the software can access your device.)
2. Click Phone Transfer on the left side of the interface. Choose PC to iPhone. Click Get Started to continue.
3. Click the “+” icon > Select the videos you’d like to add to iPhone/iPad > Click Open to continue.
4. Confirm the videos that will be sent to your device > If everything is OK, click Start Transfer to start.
5. When the transfer is completed, click OK.
Part 2. How to Import Videos from External Hard Drive to iPhone iPad without Computer
Actually, on iPadOS and iOS 13+ devices, Apple has added official external drive support. It allows you to directly transfer files from an external hard drive to iPhone/iPad, and you can view files without saving them to iPhone/iPad.
● Supported External Hard Drive Formats: FAT32, exFAT, APFS, macOS Extended journaled.
● iPadOS and iOS support MP4 video (using the extensions .m4v, .MP4 and .mov), but do not support MKV and older formats.
How to Connect the External Hard Drive to Your iPhone or iPad
Generally, the external hard drive must be self-powered. Otherwise, you should use a powered hub or Apple’s Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter, which can provide power to it using the adapter’s onboard Lightning connector.
To connect an external hard drive to iPad or iPhone, insert a Lightning to USB Camera Adapter or Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter into the charging port. Or either directly to its Lightning or USB-C port (for some newer iPads).
Export Videos from External Hard Drive to iPad/iPhone
1. Connect the external hard drive to your iPad or iPhone:
2. Go to Files app > Look under the list of Locations (Tap Brower first on iPhone).
3. Tap the name of the external hard drive > Tap Select to choose the videos you want to add to iPhone/iPad.
4. Tap Move > Select the location and here you should choose On My iPhone/iPad > Or choose one folder where you want to store your videos.
5. Finally, tap Copy.
Watch Movies from External Hard Drive with iPad/iPhone
In most cases, there is not enough storage space on iPhone and iPad to store all these videos. The good news is that with iPadOS and iOS 13+, it’s possible to watch movies or other content directly from an external hard drive!
1. Connect the external hard drive to iPad/iPhone. Make sure your external drive is connected to its own power source.
2. Open Files app > Look under the list of Locations (Tap Brower first on iPhone) > Find the name of the external hard drive and open it.
3. Find and tap the video you want to play > Wait for the video to load to full screen (It may take a few seconds to a few minutes depending on the length of the video.)
Conclusion
That’s all for how to transfer videos from external hard drive to iPhone or iPad. You can rely on AOMEI FoneBackup to help you put videos on device or choose to directly transfer videos to iPad via Files app.
If you have any questions about this guide, please leave a message to tell us and we will get back to you ASAP.