Copying videos straight from an external drive to an iPad?

[kat.hayes]

Is there a way to transfer lots of videos to my iPad from an external hard drive without copying them first to my iMac. Can I somehow just transfer the files straight from an external drive to the iPad without copying them into iTunes or maybe VLC? I'm trying to avoid taking storage space on my SSD in my iMac.

Thanks.

 

[rui no onna]

You can add videos to iTunes without storing them on your iMac's SSD (at least it's a possibility on iTunes for Windows so I'm going to assume the same option is available for OS X). In iTunes > Edit > Preferences > Advanced, there's an option for "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". Just make sure that option is unchecked.

 

[SurFaceMac]

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[ZBoater]

No, there isn't. Not unless you use a 3rd party app.

 

[whtrbt7]

if you use a device called a Filehub, you can connect a 3.5 inch hard drive to it and copy the movie over to the iPad via its 3rd party app. It also accepts SD cards and works via WiFi. The other solution for syncing movies wirelessly from an NAS is to use Plex with a Plexpass account and then you can stream or sync your content to your iPad at any point without any computer. You just hit the down button on whatever is in your library and in it comes. I have both methods right now but the one I use more readily is from the Plex app since it is stupid simple to sync content.

 

[joshi3joshi]

If the files are named correctly, the Lightning to SD adapter can work. Not sure what model iPad you have.

Could you elaborate on this more? I would like to know about this also. I have an iPad Pro 12.9 "

 

[Night Spring]

Is there a way to transfer lots of videos to my iPad from an external hard drive without copying them first to my iMac. Can I somehow just transfer the files straight from an external drive to the iPad without copying them into iTunes or maybe VLC? I'm trying to avoid taking storage space on my SSD in my iMac.

As rui no onna said, you can put them into the iTunes database without copying the files into the internal drive. Or if your iPad is set to manually manage files, you can drag from the external hard drive directly onto the iPad. Or you can get a third party media player app, and copy the videos into that.