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Quick Time and .mov video

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When I record something on my iPhone it is in .mov format (at least that is what it shows on my computer).
How do I enable it to play on my iMac? I swear some of them have but now they will not on my old iMac running snow leopard. Sometimes I can export them to the desktop and they will play.

But, I have a 2017 iMac and transferred all my videos to it. They are in a folder on my desktop. Could it be that they are really just in iCloud? When I open a video, it simply shows as a still frame. I have the free app that converts them to the correct format but it simply says there is zero footage and shows a photo.

Thanks so much.
 

Raz0rEdge

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You should be able to play the videos in Quicktime Player or VLC. You should also be able to just hit SPACE on the video and play it in preview mode.
 
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I do understand that. But it shows "zero" as the length of every video.
 

Raz0rEdge

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How big are the files and do they play on the iPhone?
 
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I went into iCloud and most of my videos are there and play just fine. But this particular video I wanted (and others) was transferred from my phone to the old iMac which was not connected to iCloud. I'll have to go back to it and see if I can figure out what is going on. It is bound to be something I am not doing right.
 

Raz0rEdge

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How did you transfer the videos?
 
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Went back to my old iMac. I don't quite understand it, but when I drag and drop the videos to the desktop they play just fine. If I use the export button and export them to the desktop they do not play and show they are zero in length. So when I transferred them via USB stick that is what transferred. They will not open in iPhotos at all on my old computer (but I think I knew that would happen). So they are there--I'm just not transferring them properly.
 
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Update--dragged them all onto old iMac desktop and each one played properly. Thanks for helping me.
 

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Glad you got it sorted..
 
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Thank you. I like to know what makes something do what it does but in the great scheme of things I guess it doesn't matter here! I'm retiring the 2008 iMac very soon. It has paid its dues and more.

Glad you got it sorted..
 
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How did you transfer the videos?

Sorry I did not answer this question. I did not want to do migration assistant to my new iMac so simply transferred what I wanted on my new computer via USB stick. I put the photos and videos in a folder and then transferred that folder.

All the videos were successfully transferred once I moved them from iPhoto to the desktop by drag/drop, played them, and then put them in a folder and then transferred them via USB stick.

Then I had this bright idea that I could just move everything in iPhoto to iCloud. Well no that isn't possible with Snow Leopard. But it is all done now. I am so glad I have a technologically up to date computer now!
 

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