Shooting videos on your iPhone is a great experience. iPhones are pretty much celebrated by users for the unparalleled camera quality, even if they don’t like to have one in their pocket.
Now, while you may eulogize the video shooting quality at 4K resolution, it’s going to be a headache later when you have to solve a maze of managing storage on your phone.
Yep, some videos may turn out to be biting over 500 to 600-mb from your storage that will make you feel like ‘Whaaaaat??’, but yeah, that’s what we all are struggling with. Now, what makes it even more challenging is sharing the file with someone else.
Sending huge video files from iPhone to any other device is a hard nut to crack, and you need to know the hacks you can exercise to succeed.
In this piece today, we are going to find out a few ways of how to send large video files from an iPhone! Grab your phone, and here we go!
Why Sending Large Video File A Challenge?
There are two basic ways you can share files from iPhone – the iMessage and the Mail. Now, the iMessage will allow you to attach up to 100-mb files, and the mail gives you even less space – only 20-mb of files.
This makes it a real challenge to send files that come with more than 100 mb of size, especially videos. Desperate users will try every possible way to send the file, but very few seem to work, and most of them involve using third-party applications. This may mean you need to spend bucks to get your files floating.
How To Send Large Video Files from iPhone?
So, is there a simple way? Well, there is more than one simple way to send large files from an iPhone. Adopting these ways, you can send files to your MacBook, iMac, or even Android phones and devices. So, let’s find out what we can do to send large files from iPhone.
Option 1: Use AirDrop
AirDrop is, hands down, an amazing technology that Apple uses to share files between Apple devices. You can share many files instantly using AirDrop between iPhone and MacBook, iPad, iMac, and literally all devices that run iOS.
This works like magic and takes a very short time to share files between devices. To use AirDrop, first, you need to enable the option on your iPhone. To enable AirDrop, you can take two routes on your phone.
Firstly, you can go to Settings > General > AirDrop.
Now, select Everyone from the three options. This will enable your iPhone to share files from the iPhone with everyone around who has AirDrop enabled on his device. This also means that your phone can receive files through AirDrop from other devices.
Secondly, you can enable AirDrop from the control center. Gently Drag the Control Center down from the top of the phone’s screen. On the top left area, you may not see the AirDrop icon, but if you press and hold the square group, you will find a few more options pop up.
From the list, select AirDrop, and it will allow you to pick Everyone from three options.
Now, you need to open your MacBook or iMac and go to finder. On the left panel, you will find AirDrop listed. Simply click on the AirDrop name, and it will show you the AirDrop area. Click on the ‘Allow me to be discovered by’ option below.
This will prompt a dropdown menu, and you have to select Everyone from here, as well. This works similarly as it works for your iPhone. It will allow the MacBook AirDrop to send and receive a file from anyone nearby.
At this point, both the devices are ready to share files through AirDrop. Now it’s time to actually send the files from your iPhone to the MacBook/iMac.
Pick up your iPhone and go to Photos. Select the video file that you need to share. Tap and hold the video, and you will see a Share option pop up above Favorite and Delete from Library options. Click on Share.
Now, you will be shown a pool of ways to send the file. The options include Mail, Facebook, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc. However, the very first option here will be AirDrop. Now Click on the AirDrop icon, and you will see that it will show the nearby AirDrop device. In this case, my iPhone is showing my MacBook option as an available AirDrop device.
Tap on the AirDrop device, and it will start to send the file right away. At the same time, on the laptop, you will see that the file is being received in the following manner.
Once done, the file will be available in the Downloads folder of your MacBook/iMac. That’s it! That’s how you send large video files through AirDrop! Depending on the file size, the transfer rate will vary, and so will the time.
Option 2: Send Via iCloud Using Mail Drop
The second option you have is iCloud. But before you begin, you need to log in to your iCloud mail first for a little change. Go to your iCloud ID and open Mail. Now go to the Settings icon on the bottom left and select Preference > Composing.
Here, you will find a number of different options to enable and disable. Simply select the ‘Use Mail Drop when sending large attachments’ option. This way, it will enable the iCloud mail service to share large files between devices.
Okay, so you are now ready to send large video files using iCloud. So, pick up your iPhone and go to Photos. As usual, select the video file and tap and hold. It will pop up the Share option. Click on Share.
This will bring the pool of sharing options that we have seen already. Now select the Mail icon, and it will take a while to load the file for the email.
Once done, you will need to fill up the required information, like the receiver’s email address and subject, etc. Now, when you are ready to send, click the blue icon on the top right corner to send the file.
Now, a pop-up will show you that the file is too large, and you need to use Mail Drop for the file to share. Click it, and the file will be sent as a downloadable attachment to the receiver, and he will be able to download it from the link.
By the way, if the file is not already uploaded to the iCloud, it will upload it to the iCloud first and then send it.
Option 3: Use Google Drive
Another easy option you have is sharing the file through Google Drive. Although it takes a bit of extra work to do, it does work pretty well. But first, you need to have a Gmail account logged in to your iPhone.
Now, go to Apps and find Drive. Open it, and you will see a Plus (+) sign on the bottom right corner. Clicking it will show a few options including and Upload option. Clicking Upload will give you another option to select Photos and Videos.
Once you click Photos and Video, you will be able to pick the video that you would like to share. So, scroll and find the file. Click on it and tap done on the top right corner. Now, you will see that the file is being uploaded to your Google Drive.
It may take a while to upload, depending on the size of the file.
Once the file is uploaded, click on the three dots on its right, and there will show up a number of options to select from. Select ‘Manage people and links’ from the options.
Here, you will find something as Link settings. This is where you need to select ‘Anyone with the link’. If it’s not there by default, click on Change and select Anyone with the link instead of Restricted (Only people added can open).
Now get back and find the copy option for the link on the right side of the Link settings. This will immediately copy the link to your phone’s clipboard.
Now, you can share the link with anyone you want through iMessage, Messenger, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, Email, you name it. For example, here, I am sending the link to a friend of mine via iMessage.
This way, you can share your files from an iPhone to anyone using Google Drive.
Is It Only Google Drive That Should Be Used?
Of course not! There are multiple options you can pick. Today, there are more file-sharing sites than you can probably keep count off. You can use DropBox, Mega, MediaFire, Microsoft One Drive, Critix Share File, etc.
You can choose any of the sites that you feel comfortable with. We have shown Google Drive just as an example.
Option 4: Use iCloud Directly
Let’s find out another way to share large files between devices. If you are using both the devices, for example, the iPhone and the MacBook/iMac or PC, this is going to work for you pretty well.
What you need to make sure of is that you have logged in to the iCloud on your iPhone. This basically means that you need to log in to your Apple ID on your iPhone, which you already do.
Then, go to Settings > Shortcut. Here, you will find the iCloud Sync option. Toggle it On if it’s turned off.
Next go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud. Here, make sure that the Photo option is turned on. If not, then open Photo and toggle on iCloud Photos.
This will enable you to share your photos and videos shot on your iPhone to any device that logs in to the same Apple ID.
For example, if you are using a MacBook or iMac with the same Apple ID, go to the Launchpad and find Photos. When you open Photos, you will find the video that you have shot on your iPhone is already synced, and you can easily copy it to your laptop storage. It’s as simple as that.
Again, if you are using Windows PC, you need to log in to your iCloud storage from the browser. It will show the exact files as it showed on your iMac,
Option 5: Use Connecting USB Cable
Finally, the old school option. You can share the files using a cable. To share files from iPhone to your MacBook/iMac, you need to use a Lightning to USB cable, something that you already have with you for charging purposes.
Set the USB cable to your MacBook/iMac and connect the Lightning cable to your iPhone Lightning port. Open finder, and you will see the iPhone is visible on the left panel. Click on it, and you can browse the files saved in the iPhone storage.
Now pick the file from the phone and simply drag it to your MacBook/iMac folder. It will start copying from the iPhone. However, this will not show the video files that you have recorded with your iPhone.
It will only show the video files that you have downloaded or received from elsewhere.
Final Words
Being an iPhone user, I can feel the struggle every iPhone user goes through while sharing large video files. Sometimes it feels like uploading on YouTube and sharing the link is an easier option!
However, things are not that much difficult either. If you are using the Apple ecosystem, sharing files, no matter how large, between Apple devices, is quite fast and wireless.
However, if you are not using the Apple ecosystem, you may face a bit of challenge, but it’s not going to be the end of the world for you, either. Using these methods that we have shown here, you can easily share large files from iPhone to Android device or to any PC.
Best of luck sharing!