Where to Store Home Videos?

[ForkHandles]

I have over 100 Home Videos that I have made. How on earth am I meant to view them on my iPhone? Has anyone solved this lack of functionality yet?

Workarounds considered.
Option 1: Drag them into Photos, where they get mixed up with video clips taken, indistinguishable as the title data is all hidden.
Option 2: View them in Files, however the downloads keep removing themselves and the interface is clunky at best.

Preferred Option that I can't make work:
1) Put all videos on an iCloud folder. Use macOS's AppleTV app to organise and watch my collection, perfect.
2) Hope, pray and wish some more that the iOS version of AppleTV syncs with the MacOS version and finds all of my films and the links to the iCloud folder. It used to, IT DOESNT ANYMORE!

All I want is to be able to open, organise and watch my home videos in the AppleTV app, its not much to ask but as usual Apple seem to have reduced functionality.

Any solutions gratefully received please.

 

[lin2log]

Seriously?
See titles: ⇧⌘T
Simply copy whatever you want into an album, then open the Photos app on AppleTV, watch.
Unless you simply don't have enough room on iCloud to have everything sync then there no reason it shouldn't.
Otherwise just log out, then back in on the ATV, and let it re-sync.
And no, the AppleTV of all things is obviously not meant for organizing. 🙄
But yeah "as usual" it's Apple's fault when people want to use apps the wrong way i.e. not in the way they were intended and don't even bother checking the manual. 🤦🏼‍♂️

 

[FreakinEurekan]

If you want to view them on iPhone/iPad, when you’re not on the home network, then a folder (or folders) in Photos will work best.

If home network only is okay, put them in the TV app on your Mac and enable Home Sharing.

 

[ian87w]

I have over 100 Home Videos that I have made. How on earth am I meant to view them on my iPhone? Has anyone solved this lack of functionality yet?

Workarounds considered.
Option 1: Drag them into Photos, where they get mixed up with video clips taken, indistinguishable as the title data is all hidden.
Option 2: View them in Files, however the downloads keep removing themselves and the interface is clunky at best.

Preferred Option that I can't make work:
1) Put all videos on an iCloud folder. Use macOS's AppleTV app to organise and watch my collection, perfect.
2) Hope, pray and wish some more that the iOS version of AppleTV syncs with the MacOS version and finds all of my films and the links to the iCloud folder. It used to, IT DOESNT ANYMORE!

All I want is to be able to open, organise and watch my home videos in the AppleTV app, its not much to ask but as usual Apple seem to have reduced functionality.

Any solutions gratefully received please.

It depends on what your final goal is. Is simply viewing all those videos on your iPhone the goal? If that’s the case, this is what I would do.
I would review those videos, and reencode them to newer codec like H.264 or H.265 as needed to make them more compact without losing much quality. Then I would just add them to the Photos app and use iCloud Photos to do the work. This is where paying for iCloud might be worth it, especially when you want to easily share them with your family with their Apple devices.

A more radical approach is to upload all those videos to YouTube as private or unlisted videos. Viewing imo is best with YouTube since it handles the streaming like a champ. And you can easily share the videos with other people easily as everybody is familiar with YouTube. Plus it’s free.

 

[ForkHandles]

Seriously?
See titles: ⇧⌘T
Simply copy whatever you want into an album, then open the Photos app on AppleTV, watch.
Unless you simply don't have enough room on iCloud to have everything sync then there no reason it shouldn't.
Otherwise just log out, then back in on the ATV, and let it re-sync.
And no, the AppleTV of all things is obviously not meant for organizing. 🙄
But yeah "as usual" it's Apple's fault when people want to use apps the wrong way i.e. not in the way they were intended and don't even bother checking the manual. 🤦🏼‍♂️

Thank you for your reply. Simultaneously you have misinterpreted my dilema, mocked me for my ineptitude and provided no assistance.

It’s probably the mocking that let you down I’d say.

 

[ForkHandles]

If you want to view them on iPhone/iPad, when you’re not on the home network, then a folder (or folders) in Photos will work best.

If home network only is okay, put them in the TV app on your Mac and enable Home Sharing.

I think you are right. I’m more annoyed that the functionality go removed from AppleTv iOS app to benhonest

 

[ForkHandles]

It depends on what your final goal is. Is simply viewing all those videos on your iPhone the goal? If that’s the case, this is what I would do.
I would review those videos, and reencode them to newer codec like H.264 or H.265 as needed to make them more compact without losing much quality. Then I would just add them to the Photos app and use iCloud Photos to do the work. This is where paying for iCloud might be worth it, especially when you want to easily share them with your family with their Apple devices.

A more radical approach is to upload all those videos to YouTube as private or unlisted videos. Viewing imo is best with YouTube since it handles the streaming like a champ. And you can easily share the videos with other people easily as everybody is familiar with YouTube. Plus it’s free.

Yes that’s the goal. The file size wasn’t the problem really it was more about accessing them with the same level of convenience as I do with my purchased movies.

IMovie also used to have a Theater which had la also been removed.

 

[ColdCase]

I have over 100 Home Videos that I have made. How on earth am I meant to view them on my iPhone? Has anyone solved this lack of functionality yet?

Are you wanting to watch these on your home network or also away from home?

I've solved the issue for a 500 movie library, but I have a mini server running itunes. That may be more work than you want to do. You may be able to work around by naming your video files something descriptive and add tags.

 

[ForkHandles]

Are you wanting to watch these on your home network or also away from home?

I've solved the issue for a 500 movie library, but I have a mini server running itunes. That may be more work than you want to do. You may be able to work around by naming your video files something descriptive and add tags.

Mobile is the goal really.
The home sharing from the Mac works reasonably ok but it relies on the Mac being switched on and on the same network.

Having fine a little further digging I think it might be time just to write my own app that interrogates the file system and displays the options nicely.

 

[lin2log]

I’m more annoyed that the functionality go removed from AppleTv

Nothing has been removed. It has always worked the way it does or, if anything, used to be worse.
But sure, I totally misunderstood, right? Hitting ⇧⌘T doesn't do what you want nor does simply getting the necessary iCloud space and setting up ALBUMS solve anything. Got it. 👍🏼

 

[ForkHandles]

Nothing has been removed. It has always worked the way it does or, if anything, used to be worse.
But sure, I totally misunderstood, right? Hitting ⇧⌘T doesn't do what you want nor does simply getting the necessary iCloud space and setting up ALBUMS solve anything. Got it. 👍🏼

I feel you are keen to help but I fear you are trying to solve a problem I don't have!
My issue is that I want to be able to view my home videos in IOS, so advice like using ⇧⌘T is of absolutely no use as my iPhone doesn't have a Command Key (⌘) let alone a multi key combination option.
I don't need to use Photos to store my videos on my Mac, they store perfectly well in the AppleTV App.

As detailed in this post the IOS App used to sync with the MacOS app and all was perfectly brilliant, both happily reading my movie files from the same large iCloud account. It no longer works on iOS but it does work on iPadOS!!!!

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-tv-app-cloud-storage-brilliant.2288911/

Yes I could put them into photos but that has limitations such as original file permanence.

If you have any other options then that's what I am here for.

 

[ColdCase]

Do you think this is an iOS bug that will be fixed, eventually?

 

[ForkHandles]

@ColdCase Its hard to know.

In the world of programming nothing happens unless there are lines of code to make it so. However as @lin2log intimated the code may have had another purpose and that functionality was an unintended consequence.

I guess demand for what I want must be quite low, mirroring the number of responders to this thread, otherwise I am sure it would be reinstated.

 

[ColdCase]

It may be discussed in the Home Theater special interest section. This is more of a video editing special interest section.

Apple TV and Home Theater

Apple's TV-iTunes bridge and other home theater discussion

forums.macrumors.com