How can I explore my whole iPhone file system from my mac

I am trying to move a file from my mac to the camera roll on my iphone so I can upload it to instagram. How do I do this?

If you can use Airdrop, having to correct iOS and OS X, use that, if not, the easiest way is to use something like Dropbox, upload the file on your Mac, and then 'open in' on your iPhone Dropbox. There is also MS OneDrive, Google Drive too.
If you have a server you can use that, as well, or if you have a App, like Goodreader, you can use Apple Bonjour by opening Safari and using the Address that the App says to.
There are so many options out there, but the first 2, AirDrop or Dropbox will probably be the easiest way for you, if you are asking how to do it.

Hey Brent, you're not around much anymore mate. Your other duties as moderator must be keeping you busy. Stay in touch, we miss you.

File from Mac to iphone

Thank you for the info. I can see now how to get a file onto my iphone with dropbox. But that goes to the dropbox server and back right?

Is there a way to move a huge video file form my mac to my iphone through the lightening cable?

-Jacob

Is there a way to move a huge video file form my mac to my iphone through the lightening cable?

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You should be able to sync a video using iTunes to your iPhone. Just make sure you have enough free space on the phone for the video.

The video is in my itunes "Home Movie" folder

I put the movie in my iTunes "Home Movie" folder and pressed the sync button and it uploaded something onto my phone but I cant find a "home movie" section or anything about movies on the itunes on my phone. Where did the movie file go?

Is there a way I can explore the whole file system on my iPhone from my mac? I would like to be able to read and write to anywhere on my iPhone from my mac.

I have a new macbook pro and a new iPhone 6 plus

This is specifically not provided by default and not recommended. It is better when you look at the phone as a black box that manages this for you.

There are, however, apps like Phone Explorer that allow you carte blanche access to certain things, but I don't believe they allow you to randomly walk through the directory contents..

Thank you for the answer Raz0rEdge

I am trying to place a video from my mac onto the camera roll of my iphone. This would allow me to upload the video to instagram. Do you know of a way I could do this?

Noblenutria said:

Is there a way I can explore the whole file system on my iPhone from my mac? I would like to be able to read and write to anywhere on my iPhone from my mac.

I have a new macbook pro and a new iPhone 6 plus

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Hello and welcome to the forum! You must be a recent migrant from the Windows world to Apple?

iOS is a 'app-centric' operating system vs. the 'file-centric' structure of Windows - there is no 'Windows Explorer' application that is available for a 'stock' iDevice (now if you want to explore 'jail breaking', then another matter). Apps in iOS are basically 'sandboxed' with their data - if you want to share/move information between apps, then the controls w/i these apps must be used and may be limited.

When your iPhone is attached to the MBPro, iTunes will provide a lot of information, so learn to use that program, e.g. the screen capture below is w/ my iPad Air 2 cabled to my laptop and iTunes opened - you can explore your device in multiple ways, such as looking at content in specific areas (Movies - blue arrow); scrolling down the middle panel will bring up 'File Sharing' and clicking on the apps MAY show data content. Image Capture in the Other folder of Applications will show your pictures.

Now there may be some third party apps that may be of use, e.g. I use iFunBox to view and transfer some files (mainly for backup purposes - works well w/ one of my photo managing programs) (bottom image) - so do some searching in the App Store - good luck. Dave
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Thank you very much for that detailed answer Radave. Now I can see the file I put onto my iPhone from my mac. I still don't see how to see the file from my iPhone. Its not in the camera roll and I dont see it anywhere in iPhoto. Do you know where i can find it?

Noblenutria said:

Thank you very much for that detailed answer Radave. Now I can see the file I put onto my iPhone from my mac. I still don't see how to see the file from my iPhone. Its not in the camera roll and I dont see it anywhere in iPhoto. Do you know where i can find it?

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Hi again - places to check on the iPhone would be in the Videos app or in the Photo app folder 'Videos' - if not helpful, please provide the video format of the file transferred - quoted below from the Apple website are the video formats supported - I put the ones to look for in bold. Dave

Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 60 frames per second, High Profile level 4.2 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

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Sweet! Thanks! I found it. I am getting closer to being able to do what I want now. I am trying to upload this video to instagram. The problem is Instagram only lets me choose video from the camera roll. I either need to transfer the video from "home videos" to the camera roll or I need a way to open "home movie" videos from instagram. Do you know if this is possible?

GREAT! Glad to help - however, I do little w/ videos on my iPad and don't use 'Instagram', so cannot be of much help, sorry - hopefully, others will come along w/ experience in performing these transfers - good luck. Dave

Only pictures/videos taken with the camera on the device end up in the Camera Roll. Any pictures/videos sycn'ed from the computer to the iDevice will end up in the folder from which the media was copied, it will not end up in the Camera Roll.

And, as you have figured out, most application that support only grabbing images from the Camera Roll, so you're out of luck there. If iOS supported Instagram integration, then you could've send the video from the sync'ed folder but that isn't the case..

This is a double thread with one in the iPhone forum.

Threads merged together here in the correct forum.