Can't copy large video files FROM iPhone to PC

I've searched high and low for a solution to this one. Every google hit on this search finds no resolution. Does the Apple community know how to get around this problem?

I used my 32GB iPhone 3Gs to shoot a video which turned out to be 48 minutes long, and approximately 1.2GB in file size. It plays OK on the iPhone itself.

However, when attempting to transfer or copy the large video file from the iPhone to PC, it FAILS. The photos and small-under-7gb-videos copy to PC just fine. The PC shows it's copying the file for a few minutes, however when done, the file copied to PC won't open, and shows a file size of zero. In some attempts, an error 80004005 shows.

Seriously, why use the iPhone to shoot a long video, if it can't be transferred to your PC? Any help on this matter is much appreciated.

I'm a PC, Windows XP

Posted on May 18, 2010 7:50 AM

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166 replies

Jul 11, 2010 8:40 PM in response to modocsot

When you open my computer there will be two icons for the iphone.
One looks like a camera and one has a + to indicated subfolders.
*Ignore the one which looks like a camera* (strange but true).
Click on the plus sign; then on DCIM.
DCIM may have folders (ie 100Apple, 101Apple).
Open one of the folders and you will see your .jpgs and .movs.
Right click on the item you want to transfer, and a menu will pop up.
Select Export File and a dialog box will popup.
Select a folder on your PC to save the files.
That will do it. Naturally you can select several files at one time to export.

You can copy jpgs from the iPhone icon that looks like a camera, but not video.

It took some trial and error for me, but finally I figured it out. Unfortunately this is not located in any documentation I could find.

Hope that helps.

Aug 4, 2010 2:20 PM in response to bkim028

The backup feature workaround worked for me. Apple needs to address this.

I have an iPhone 4 with a 9min video that I shot (1GB)...if I connect the iPhone to my Windows XP machine (like I always do) and attempt to copy the file, it tries for about 3 minutes and then without any error messages fails...it writes a 0k file to the drive. I tried rebooting XP and also the iPhone...no luck. I plugged the phone into my Mac and iPhoto recognized everything but ALSO FAILED to copy the movie.

This is a bug, Apple. Fix this. There is no point in my shooting 9+ minute videos if I can't get them off my iPhone! Yes, there is this absurd workaround that Apple doesn't even promote/advertise on their Support website...but that's too many hoops to jump through and folks who are not technical will have no idea why they can't copy their movie.

-Eric

Aug 11, 2010 6:06 AM in response to jasonb b

Hi. Please let us know exactly what steps & approaches you have taken besides the Backup "workaround". Do you have Quicktime installed on XP? What version of XP do you have (Pro vs. Home...SP1, Sp2, SP3)? Have you rebooted? Can you double click the movie file on your iPhone directly from Windows Explorer and make it play?

The more feedback you give us, the more stuff we can rule out. 🙂

-Eric

Nov 17, 2010 4:54 PM in response to modocsot

I've had the same problem for a while, and not just with super-large videos. I use my iPhone to take short videos of my kids, and the longest I've shot was only five minutes (139 megs). I couldn't get it off my phone.

Picasa freezes up, XP's very simple phone/image downloaded doesn't work. I was able to get it to my Dropbox file, but it automatically compresses the file which I didn't want. I finally found success with a program called iPhone Explorer, once I found where the image/video files are stored.

Otherwise that one file was preventing me getting at the rest of my photos (normally I use Picasa, and it was always getting stuck on this one video). But Picasa has frequently frozen up even on downloading 1-2 minute videos. After copying the file from iPhone Explorer I delete it from the iPhone and remove the blockage.

Message was edited by: RC-DC

Nov 18, 2010 7:43 AM in response to jasonb b

Not too sure if this will help but I've been copying photo's and video's from my iPhone onto my iMac using Google Picasa http://picasa.google.com/mac/

There is also a Windows version which I assume is without the /mac/ on the end of the URL string.

I don't actually have that much experience with using the inbuilt Apple iPhoto software so can't comment on it's abilities to transfer large videos, but I do know that Picasa works fine - And it's free!

EDIT: Am sure the previous posts about Picasa weren't there when I typed out my reply!!! sorry for that???

Message was edited by: richvid 18th Nov 2010 15:43

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Can't copy large video files FROM iPhone to PC

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