how to add .mov to flash drives

Hi all, having trouble adding .mov from my mac to a flash drive. All my pics and .mov's add to my Mac from my iPhone perfectly and I can add all the .jpg pics to a flash but when I try to add .mov by commC commV I am told "it already exists, want to replace?" and the replacement is a .jpg not the .mov clip.Thanks .

Hi firensteel, .mov files are the format used by Quicktime I would not normally use the "commC commV" method to T/F to a flash drive. In doing it that way you are attempting to put the .mov file onto the clip board first. Try just dragging and dropping the file to the flash drive. That works for me.

Drag /Drop didn't work because I could not have both screens open.
I did the Export video route and that worked but the .mov will not play in Windows as it becomes a .m4v so I am still stuck because my parents have windows and I thought I was being smart changing to mac but apparently no crossover so they don't get grandparent videos after all. Unless there is a way to transfer .mov to windows?

What do you mean by "both screens" ? I had assumed you had a flash drive plugged into your Mac, you dont need a screen view to D&D just drag the file to the icon.
If you dont see the icon for your flash drive on your desktop check your Finder preferences and ensure they look like this.

Did get the videos onto the flash drive by export method easily but the files become .m4v in windows and will not open any help there? btw did you watch your Melbourne beat Juventus today? :>

Sadly no, I am in Indonesia. But I did see the news.;D
OK, so how about exporting them to the desktop and converting them to a more suitable codec? Say DivX. Then drag to your flash drive, I do this regularly with downloaded video and have found that a DVD player with a USB input port will play the files directly from a thumb drive formatted for FAT32.
I use Smart Converter available free from the App Store to convert, it will handle almost any format.

I use vlc for all my videos, it works on both mac and windows and will play 99% types of video.

ok got my sample video clip in vlc, how do I change its format from .m4v to something playable on a pc and how do I get it onto the flash drive? Thanks.

If you install vlc on the windows pc, you should have no problem playing the file. I use Handbrake to convert files, very easy. I usually drag and drop onto flash drives, how is the drive formatted? And how big is it?

I have vlc on my mac I don't know how the flash is formatted, it is 128gb

loaded handbrake but it won't open. Is there an easy way to take a .M4V from the phone or mac and make it visible to pc's from a flash drive or not?
Allright, its been 2 days, lets make this question simple.
I have a .m4v video in photos that I want to put on a flash drive so that it can be seen on a pc, how to.

firensteel said:

I have vlc on my mac I don't know how the flash is formatted, it is 128gb

Click to expand...

Since that is a large size (GB) flash drive, it may be formatted NTFS, you should be able to format it in your mac as either FAT or exFAT. exFAT can handle file sizes larger than 4gb, if that matters. Go into Disk Utility, which is in your Utilities folder. Select the flash drive in the sidebar and select Erase. look at the options in the window that comes up and select either FAT or exFAT.

firensteel said:

loaded handbrake but it won't open. Is there an easy way to take a .M4V from the phone or mac and make it visible to pc's from a flash drive or not?
Allright, its been 2 days, lets make this question simple.
I have a .m4v video in photos that I want to put on a flash drive so that it can be seen on a pc, how to.

Click to expand...

Did you install Handbrake or only download it? You may need to right-click on it and select open.

never mind Ill take a class at the apple store, thanks

firensteel, don't give up! The directions are simple. The challenge is that the USB Stick is formatted for Windows, not Mac, and OS X cannot WRITE to that stick by itself. So you either format it, as ferrarr said, or you get a utility called ParagonNTFS that lets OS X write to that stick. Formatting is free, Paragon is not.

And the suggestion from Bob was that from your description Handbrake wasn't installed because a function called Gatekeeper blocked it because you got it from what it thinks is a dodgy source. If you know it's good then as he said, simply right-click on it and then select Open and it will either install or run. If it installs, you may need to right click on the newly installed program again to Open it.

Neither of those needs a class (assuming Apple still has classes anymore, I thought they had done away with them).

OK, I'm willing to have another go.
After you download your movie to iPhoto in the All Photos view you can just drag the movie from the iPhoto viewing screen to your desktop. It may take a while dependent on size to T/F.


Now you need to convert it to a format the pc can read.
There are numerous apps to do that but I use Smart Converter (available free from the App Store)
Open the app, select desktop, choose the m4v movie (or just drag it to the window). Once loaded choose format from the More Button bottom right, in your case Microsoft Windows. You can also change one of the default buttons to Microsoft Windows in preferences > conversions later if you do this a lot. (in the picture I have already done that)
Click convert. The converted movie will be by default in a folder called Smart Converter but you can choose a destination (Including your Thumb Drive) with the lower left button. Or just drag the converted file from the Smart Converter folder to your thumb drive icon on the desktop.



I do this two or three times a week and I invested in Smart Converter Pro but the principal is the same with the free version. I download movies in .mkv or .avi and convert them to DivX, drag them to a thumb drive formatted for FAT32 and plug an play them on a DVD player with USB input.

Not giving up, after nearly 30 years on a pc, putting myself in front of a mac is a little different, the once obvious is now not so.
My local apple store has classes I looked up their schedule, still has to be a good idea to do that I think.
Thanks will try all suggestions, I did download handbrake. Will have to install it. Never had to format a flash before, seems to take pics no prob. But ok. Thanks all.

firensteel said:

Never had to format a flash before, seems to take pics no prob. But ok. Thanks all.

Click to expand...

Were the previous drives smaller ca[acoty and working with smaller files. Smaller capacity drives are often formatted as FAT 32 which the Mac can both read and write to. Larger capacity drives are formatted as NTFS which the Mac cannot write to without third party software.

firensteel said:

Not giving up, after nearly 30 years on a pc, putting myself in front of a mac is a little different, the once obvious is now not so.
My local apple store has classes I looked up their schedule, still has to be a good idea to do that I think.
Thanks will try all suggestions, I did download handbrake. Will have to install it. Never had to format a flash before, seems to take pics no prob. But ok. Thanks all.

Click to expand...

If you install VLC to the windows pc, you will not need to convert, just bring the file to the machine and open it using VLC.

All good. Removed vlc and Handbrake. Installed Smart Converter. Worked first try. My initial problems where getting a vid clip from Photos to the desktop. Photos is full page and so I had to drag it partway off the screen to expose the desktop. Now I can drag to desktop. I was trying C-C and C-V but that turned dropped items into jpegs! All sorted now. S-C worked good first time too. Thumb drive appears formatted as is.(Its a SanDisk and I have never had problems with these drives) I played these clips back on my sons pc with no problems.
Thanks for the help and hanging with me until done.