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jwolf6589

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
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Colorado
My mom texted me a 3.5 min video which iPhone, iPad, and Mac all could view. However with Apple Watch I saw a icon that said download and clicked on it and it took so long I rebooted the watch and was unable to play the video. Usually I can play videos on my watch but maybe there is a limit to how big the file can be. Is there?
 
My mom texted me a 3.5 min video which iPhone, iPad, and Mac all could view. However with Apple Watch I saw a icon that said download and clicked on it and it took so long I rebooted the watch and was unable to play the video. Usually I can play videos on my watch but maybe there is a limit to how big the file can be. Is there?
Never tried. I didn’t know you could watch video on it. Probably a bit small for my old eyes.
 
My mom texted me a 3.5 min video which iPhone, iPad, and Mac all could view. However with Apple Watch I saw a icon that said download and clicked on it and it took so long I rebooted the watch and was unable to play the video. Usually I can play videos on my watch but maybe there is a limit to how big the file can be. Is there?
I have never been able to view a video on any of my Apple Watches (though I generally don't try much). My kids have sent me via Message and WhatsApp and none have opened. Not sure if it is possible.
 
I have never been able to view a video on any of my Apple Watches (though I generally don't try much). My kids have sent me via Message and WhatsApp and none have opened. Not sure if it is possible.
I can watch videos normally.
 
I can watch videos normally.
It is likely the size in data of the video has exceeded the maximum size that the Apple Watch can buffer. If that happened only on a specific video and you already tried a couple of times to download and play it, most likely the video requires more memory than the Apple watch can offer.
 
It is likely the size in data of the video has exceeded the maximum size that the Apple Watch can buffer. If that happened only on a specific video and you already tried a couple of times to download and play it, most likely the video requires more memory than the Apple watch can offer.
This sounds logical. Yeah most of the time videos are really short (under 30 seconds).
 
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I have never been able to view a video on any of my Apple Watches (though I generally don't try much). My kids have sent me via Message and WhatsApp and none have opened. Not sure if it is possible.
I don't use whatsupapp.
 
My mom texted me a 3.5 min video which iPhone, iPad, and Mac all could view. However with Apple Watch I saw a icon that said download and clicked on it and it took so long I rebooted the watch and was unable to play the video. Usually I can play videos on my watch but maybe there is a limit to how big the file can be. Is there?
Why on earth would anyone even want to bother with trying to view a video on their Apple watch???!!! If the video is available on other larger mobile devices and one's computer, why not just view it there in the first place?
 
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Why on earth would anyone even want to bother with trying to view a video on their Apple watch???!!! If the video is available on other larger mobile devices and one's computer, why not just view it there in the first place?
Reread my post. I said all my devices could view the video but the watch.
 
I DID read your post and even alluded to the mention of (presumably your) other devices. So why didn't you just watch the video on one of those devices rather than trying to do it on the watch, which really isn't exactly designed for that purpose in the first place?
 
This sounds logical. Yeah most of the time videos are really short (under 30 seconds).
I've done some digging and the watchOS SDK guide suggest videos to be up to 30" long and keep the video bit rate up to 160 kbps and up to 30 fps. I'm not sure if the Apple Watch can downsample "heavier" videos (unlikely) but I feel the more likely explanation is that it will not play videos with significant memory requirements.
 
I've done some digging and the watchOS SDK guide suggest videos to be up to 30" long and keep the video bit rate up to 160 kbps and up to 30 fps. I'm not sure if the Apple Watch can downsample "heavier" videos (unlikely) but I feel the more likely explanation is that it will not play videos with significant memory requirements.
This sounds logical. Thanks for your input.
 
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I DID read your post and even alluded to the mention of (presumably your) other devices. So why didn't you just watch the video on one of those devices rather than trying to do it on the watch, which really isn't exactly designed for that purpose in the first place?
Are you here to criticize or to help? Sometimes I cant always pull my phone out of my pocket and why the watch is good. I view photos all the time on my watch at work when my phone is in my pocket and my watch is on me.
 
Yes, I use the custom settings thingy for setting up a folder of my favorite photographic images to use as my cycling watch face and truly enjoy it. If someone sends me a text with video or even more than one photo I just skip trying to look at that right then and wait until I'm on my phone or iPad or near my computer. Usually it's not something all that important and often some junk about which I really don't care anyway. Someone sending me a stupid cat video isn't worth even three seconds of my attention and I'm sure not going to try and watch that on my Apple Watch! It doesn't get watched on any of my other devices either.

I agree that the watch is great when I'm driving somewhere and my iPhone is in my purse, out of reach and someone sends me an email. I can quickly glance at my watch on my wrist and determine if it is something important or just some casual message or possibly a default standard one from one of my banks. If it's important, I pull over at a safe place and then attend to the message and if need be, respond to it. if it's clearly not important, I simply keep on driving and at least I'm not wondering about who or what entity sent me an email.....
 
Yes, I use the custom settings thingy for setting up a folder of my favorite photographic images to use as my cycling watch face and truly enjoy it. If someone sends me a text with video or even more than one photo I just skip trying to look at that right then and wait until I'm on my phone or iPad or near my computer. Usually it's not something all that important and often some junk about which I really don't care anyway. Someone sending me a stupid cat video isn't worth even three seconds of my attention and I'm sure not going to try and watch that on my Apple Watch! It doesn't get watched on any of my other devices either.

I agree that the watch is great when I'm driving somewhere and my iPhone is in my purse, out of reach and someone sends me an email. I can quickly glance at my watch on my wrist and determine if it is something important or just some casual message or possibly a default standard one from one of my banks. If it's important, I pull over at a safe place and then attend to the message and if need be, respond to it. if it's clearly not important, I simply keep on driving and at least I'm not wondering about who or what entity sent me an email.....

Apple Watch is a useful tool. So often I am so busy at work I do not have time to pull the phone out of my pocket to view a texted image or video. This is why the watch is great because I can view images and video on my watch.
 
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