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iPad Pro Question about iTunes movies on external storage and iPad Pro

I

imnotkleenex

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 17, 2014
37
26
I'm currently looking at the iPad Pro but I find the extra 200$ here in Canada expensive to go from 64GB to 256GB. I have a lot of purchased movies on iTunes (mostly from redeeming codes with blu-rays) and because of their large size you can't really fit that many on an iPad Pro 64GB with all of the apps.

So my question is: Is there a way to have them transferred to external storage and then back unto the iPad for watching with the new iPad OS? I already have tons of external storage options, so that would save me a lot of money. I'm only talking about Apple DRMed movies, for everything else I know it's super easy, but the quality of iTunes movies is really great so I'd prefer watching those!
 
imnotkleenex said:
I'm currently looking at the iPad Pro but I find the extra 200$ here in Canada expensive to go from 64GB to 256GB. I have a lot of purchased movies on iTunes (mostly from redeeming codes with blu-rays) and because of their large size you can't really fit that many on an iPad Pro 64GB with all of the apps.

So my question is: Is there a way to have them transferred to external storage and then back unto the iPad for watching with the new iPad OS? I already have tons of external storage options, so that would save me a lot of money. I'm only talking about Apple DRMed movies, for everything else I know it's super easy, but the quality of iTunes movies is really great so I'd prefer watching those!
Click to expand...
They can just be deleted and redownloaded later.
 
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Yep ! Second that ! Once you buy a Movie in iTunes it can be downloaded anytime again and again, as long as you are using the same Apple Id that you used while purchasing it.
 
augustya said:
Yep ! Second that ! Once you buy a Movie in iTunes it can be downloaded anytime again and again, as long as you are using the same Apple Id that you used while purchasing it.
Click to expand...
Problem is I’m often in places where I don’t have Internet access. I know I can download the movies again, but what happens if you don’t have access to LTE or wifi for long periods of time? Is there a way to still carry them externally?
 
imnotkleenex said:
Problem is I’m often in places where I don’t have Internet access. I know I can download the movies again, but what happens if you don’t have access to LTE or wifi for long periods of time? Is there a way to still carry them externally?
Click to expand...
Where are you going?

I will download a limited number of files For a trip and then download new ones a few days later using the hotel WiFi or whatever.

I will have to try external storage but until iPadOS, it was never even an option.
 
EugW said:
Where are you going?

I will download a limited number of files For a trip and then download new ones a few days later using the hotel WiFi or whatever.

I will have to try external storage but until iPadOS, it was never even an option.
Click to expand...
Military, like where I’m at right now with a barely 0.5Mbits connection downloading movies that are several GBs in size is not really an option. I’m using a laptop but I’ve been craving an iPad for a while. iPad Air with more storage space would cost less but I’d really love to get the more power iPad Pro with the 120hz screen to be honest as I have a feeling it’ll last me longer.
 
From what I read on this forum so far there is no option to save iTunes movies externally with an iPad.
 
Go to Settings -> TV -> iTunes Video -> Use Cellular Data for playback. At this moment there is no need to download an iTunes Movies or anything. Everything Apple offers (Music, TV, Movies, Podcasts) can be streamed on Wi-Fi or Cellular.
 
So I loaded the DRM'd iTunes short Bao from a Mac onto a USB flash drive. iOS sees it just fine and shows the cover art. However, I have no way to play it.
 
EugW said:
So I loaded the DRM'd iTunes short Bao from a Mac onto a USB flash drive. iOS sees it just fine and shows the cover art. However, I have no way to play it.
Click to expand...
Interesting! Wonder if this is something they are working on? I might still go for the 256GB version in the end, i just feel like I am overpaying a little though.

Thanks for trying this out though, you are really helpful!
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Go to Settings -> TV -> iTunes Video -> Use Cellular Data for playback. At this moment there is no need to download an iTunes Movies or anything. Everything Apple offers (Music, TV, Movies, Podcasts) can be streamed on Wi-Fi or Cellular.
Click to expand...

OP is in the Military and doesn’t always have access to LTE and only 0.5 mbs. As stated above on the thread, they know about/how to re-download or streaming but they need to other options when deployed.
 
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EugW said:
So I loaded the DRM'd iTunes short Bao from a Mac onto a USB flash drive. iOS sees it just fine and shows the cover art. However, I have no way to play it.
Click to expand...

very interesting. (and nice to see someone is actually offering a solution that considers the needs of the OP)

I'm curious, can you copy the movie from USB flash drive to your iPad and then play it? If so, that would be a solution. Just keep all the movie files on an external drive and copy them over to iPad when you want to watch something.
 
Hym tix said:
very interesting. (and nice to see someone is actually offering a solution that considers the needs of the OP)

I'm curious, can you copy the movie from USB flash drive to your iPad and then play it? If so, that would be a solution. Just keep all the movie files on an external drive and copy them over to iPad when you want to watch something.
Click to expand...
I don't know where to copy it, and I did look.

I don't think I can copy it to the directory that Apple's video player uses on the iPad. It looks to me that they still keep that siloed on the iPad. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
 
EugW said:
I don't know where to copy it, and I did look.
Click to expand...

I don't know either (I don't have the beta). Can you just copy it to any where in the "on my iPad" section? and see if the file is accessible that way? ...might be worth a try.
 
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