How to Transfer Large Videos from iPhone to Mac

There are five common ways for you to transfer large video from iPhone to Mac. If you need to send long videos from iPhone to your Mac with ease, read this guide, and you will know how to do it with a few simple clicks.

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Myra

Updated on Feb 27, 2024

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Five proven ways for you to transfer large videos from iPhone to Mac.

When you tidy up your iPhone content, you may find there are large videos that eat up your iPhone storage and make your iPhone run slow. To free up your device space or make a backup of these large files, it's a good choice for you to transfer the large videos from your iPhone to a computer, be it a Mac or PC.

In the previous guide, I have detailed four ways to transfer large videos from iPhone to PC for Windows users. Here I'd like to continue introducing the ways to import videos from iPhone to Mac for you who are using a computer running macOS.

Method Effectiveness Difficulty
EaseUS MobiMover With it, you will be able to transfer files, including large videos, from your iPhone to your Mac or vice versa. Easy
Image Capture Image Capture is a built-in app on Mac that enables you to transfer photos and videos from a camera or other devices that have a camera. Easy
AirDrop If your iPhone and Mac are within the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range, you can use AirDrop to get a large video from iPhone to Mac. Easy
iCloud iCloud Drive helps you to do wireless video transfer. It stores any type of file as long as the file is less than 50GB and within your storage limit. Moderate
VLC With the VLC app for iOS, you can share videos between your Mac and iPhone over Wi-Fi, as long as your devices are under the same network connection. Moderate

Method 1. How to Transfer Large Videos from iPhone to Mac Without iTunes/iCloud

With the iPhone transfer software - EaseUS MobiMover, you will be able to transfer files, including large videos, from your iPhone to your Mac or vice versa. You can also sync data from one iPhone to another with it if you need to.

Other than videos, other types of content (photos, music, ringtones, contacts, messages, books, and more) are also supported.

If you enjoy videos often, you may like the video download feature in EaseUS MobiMover, which will help you download videos from YouTube and many other sites to your computer or iPhone/iPad.

To transfer large videos files from iPhone to Mac:

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your Mac and tap "Trust" on your iPhone screen to continue. Run EaseUS MobiMover for Mac on your computer and choose "Phone to Mac" > "Next".

how to transfer videos from iPhone to Mac - step 1

Step 2. Select "Videos" among the options and click the default path to set a custom storage path if you need to. Afterward, click "Transfer".

how to transfer videos from iPhone to Mac - step 2

Step 3. When the transfer process has finished, you can go to view the videos on your computer.

how to transfer videos from iPhone to Mac - step 3

Easy? EaseUS MobiMover allows you to import videos from iPhone to Mac regardless of the length of the video. Get it now and transfer the video files, be it the videos taken by your iPhone camera roll, movies, or TV shows, from your iOS device to the computer within minutes.

Method 2. How to Import Videos from iPhone to Mac via Image Capture

Image Capture is a built-in app on Mac that enables you to transfer photos and videos from a camera, iPhone/iPad, and other devices that have a camera. Like using EaseUS MobiMover, Image Capture transfers video files using a USB cable. That is quite helpful when you don't have a network connection on your devices.

To move videos from iPhone to Mac:

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your computer.

Step 2. Open "Launchpad," search for "Image Capture," and then launch the program.

Step 3. Unlock your iPhone and wait for the app to load the photos and videos on your iPhone.

Step 4. Select the videos you'd like to upload from your iPhone to your computer and select the folder you want to import the videos to.

Step 5. Click "Import" to start transferring videos from your iPhone to Mac.

How to import videos from iPhone to Mac via Image Capture

Method 3. How to Send Large Video Files from iPhone to Mac via AirDrop

If your iPhone and Mac are within the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi range, you can use AirDrop to get a large video from iPhone to Mac. AirDrop is the built-in file-sharing service on Apple devices like iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac. With AirDrop enabled, you are capable of sharing photos, videos, contacts, documents, and more between two of the supported devices. Whether you want to AirDrop long videos from iPhone to Mac or from Mac to iPhone, it will work.

To send large videos from iPhone to Mac using AirDrop:

Step 1. Turn on AirDrop on your iPhone and Mac.

Step 2. Go to the Photos app on your iPhone and click the video you'd like to transfer.

Step 3. Tap the "Share" button and choose "AirDrop" > [your Mac's name].

Step 4. On your Mac, the AirDrop window will pop up. Choose "Accept" in the prompt to receive the video from your mobile device.

Step 5. When the data transfer has finished, go to the "Downloads" folder to check the video files.

How to send videos from iPhone to Mac using AirDrop

Method 4. How to Transfer Long Videos from iPhone to Mac via iCloud

Other than AirDrop, iCloud also helps you to transfer videos from iPhone to Mac wirelessly. To transfer large videos from iPhone to Mac, you should use iCloud Drive rather than iCloud Photos. That's because the videos stored in iCloud Photos should be within 5 minutes, which, of course, is not the common length of a large video. Luckily, iCloud Drive is here to help. It stores any type of file as long as the file is less than 50GB and doesn't exceed your iCloud storage limit. Thus, when you need to download videos from iPhone to Mac, iCloud Drive is one of the options.

Make sure you are using the same Apple ID account on the devices, and there is enough iCloud storage for you to save the large files, then follow the steps below to get large videos from iPhone to Mac.

To send long videos from iPhone to Mac:

Step 1. On your iPhone, go to "Settings" > [your name] > "iCloud" and scroll down to enable "iCloud Drive."

Step 2. Go to the Photos app on your iPhone and choose "Album" > "Videos."

Step 3. Select the videos you want to copy and click the "Share" button.

Step 4. Scroll down to choose "Save to Files" > "iCloud Drive" > "Save."

Step 5. On your Mac, click the Apple menu and choose "System Preferences" > "iCloud" > "iCloud Drive."

Step 6. Wait for the videos to be synced to your Mac automatically. When it has been done, go to "Finder" > "iCloud Drive" to check the items.

How to tranfer videos from iPhone to Mac via iCloud Drive

It happens that iCloud Drive may not sync on your Mac. If you encounter this issue, learn how to solve the problem from the troubleshooting guide.

Do you find this guide helpful? If your answer is yes, please share these methods within this guide with more friends in need.

 

Method 5. How to Send Long Videos from iPhone to Mac via VLC

Other workable ways to import long videos from iPhone to Mac include using the VLC media player. With the VLC app for iOS, you can share videos between your Mac and iPhone over Wi-Fi, as long as your devices are under the same network connection.

To get a large video from iPhone to Mac:

Step 1. Download and install VLC for iOS on your iPhone.

Step 2. Go to the "Photos" app and select the video you want to send.

Step 3. Click the share icon and choose "Save to Files" > "On My iPhone" > "VLC". (This step imports your iPhone videos to the VLC app.)

Step 4. Open the VLC app and click the icon in the top-left corner. Afterward, turn on the option "Sharing via WiFi" and take notes of the IP address under the option.

Step 5. On your Mac computer, open a browser and enter the IP address.

Step 6. Now you can see the videos shared from your iPhone. Play the video, right-click the window, and select "Save Video as" to download the videos to your computer.

How to move videos from iPhone to Mac via VLC

Then Bottom Line

Now you know how to transfer large videos from iPhone to Mac in different ways. Among them, EaseUS MobiMover, AirDrop, and iCloud Drive are also helpful for transferring other large files from an iPhone to a computer. Carry out the way best suited to your needs to send videos from iPhone to Mac with ease.

FAQs on How to Transfer Large Videos from iPhone to Mac

1. How do I send a 45 minutes video from my iPhone?

You can send a large video by iCloud Link:

  • Select the video from your photo library, and tap the share icon.
  • From the share options, choose iCloud Link and tap Done.
  • You can send the link via Message or Mail, then choose one of them. Enter the recipient that you want to send the video to, and tap Send.

Your recipient has 30 days to download the video.

2. What is the file size limit for AirDrop?

No file size limit, but there is a distance limit. Since AirDrop requires Bluetooth turned on, your devices should be within about 10 meters (or 30 feet), which is the distance limit for Bluetooth connectivity.

3. Why can't I send a video that is too large?

Most email or message services have attachment file size limitations (usually 25MB) for performance and security reasons. Therefore, if you use email to transfer the video files, it might fail, especially when the video is of high quality, which means its file size will be too large and big for sending over an email or instant message.

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Updated by Myra

Myra joined EaseUS in 2017. As a big fan of Apple products, she mainly focuses on iOS data transfer and iOS troubleshooting tips. Meanwhile, she is expanding her knowledge and skills in other fields like data recovery and disk management.

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