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Play video files

What’s the best way to play video files on an iPad? Like QuickTime for the Mac.

iPad, iPadOS 14

Posted on May 19, 2021 6:19 PM

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Posted on May 20, 2021 2:07 AM

Your iPad will natively play mp4 video from the Files App. Streamed or other purchased content from Apple can be accessed from the AppleTV App.


Other video formats will need an appropriate App from the App Store. VLC for Mobile, by VideoLAN, can play most video formats without additional transcoding:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/vlc-for-mobile/id650377962

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Question marked as Best reply

May 20, 2021 2:07 AM in response to Beepull

Your iPad will natively play mp4 video from the Files App. Streamed or other purchased content from Apple can be accessed from the AppleTV App.


Other video formats will need an appropriate App from the App Store. VLC for Mobile, by VideoLAN, can play most video formats without additional transcoding:

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/vlc-for-mobile/id650377962

May 25, 2021 4:49 PM in response to MichelPM

Thanks for your response. Not being very technically savvy I didn't quite follow your explanation. I did, however stumble on the solution myself: I installed a third party video player app. Then I "opened" the video file in the Files App and clicked on the "share" option. One of the share destinations was the video player I had installed. I clicked on it and, WAH-LAH! the video started playing. Thanks again.

P.S. Another replier to my question explained the the Files App will play an mp4 format natively. My file is an "mpg" so I did need the third party app after all.

Play video files

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