How to view uploaded video attachments on iPad and iPhone?

Do you access the site using the web browser, or an app? If it's an app, then the app needs work to handle these objects. If it's the browser, the video should open in the standard player, which is pretty universal. The idea of these videos being "attachments" is purely internal to the database you're accessing, and has nothing to do with the HTTP web interface. You say the screen goes black. I hope that's only on iPhone, not on iPad. On iPad, the browser should present a player window inside the page. Please give more details, with an example, if possible.

Unfortunately I don't have permission to access the video link. All I get is an error message.

I think the problem is that this is being served as a bare video file, and iPad Safari is trying to access it using HTTP. iPad Safari is not as clever as the computer browser; it cannot handoff links to other programs. Instead, it tries to handle it by itself, using the resources built into the iOS. I see that the video link is actually a php script. It may require some minor modification to handle mobile devices better.

Have you tried another browser on iPad? It might be able to handle it better.

Before I try your new links, let me explain that, when I click on the video link in the page you posted before, I get a web page with the message "The page you are trying to access is not available for your account". The same symptom applies to the new posts. I get the feeling that I need to be logged in to view video. The bottom of the error message page gives me a chance to login.

Let me just say that I've never seen a video without a web page wrapper. For example, if you go to vimeo.com and pick a video, it loads a web page containing the player. I don't know how they do this, but it works. Apparently, your server just supplies the video, so you get the full page player you posted, but apparently Safari hasn't actually requested the video stream. As I mentioned before, those innocent-looking video links on your pages are actually php script invocations, so the problem may be in the script.

OK. I get the same symptom as you using Chrome on iPad air.

But, I was able to beat the system using GoodReader. It's a pdf reader with a file system, but it includes a simple browser. I was able to go to the page, login, click the link. GoodReader offers the option to save the file, which I did. I recognizes it as MOV and I could play it right there. Note that the link was a php script, but all that came back was your video. I could also transfer it from there to Photos and play it there. Cute dog, by the way. Obviously, this is no solution, but it proves that iOS can handle this data.

As I've said, I think a mobile browser would need a minimal HTML wrapper, with the video as an img link or whatever's appropriate.

If the login still works, I'll try an Android tablet tomorrow.

I applied the same procedure to your original link to the mp4 file, plays fine both in GoodReader and in Photos. This is iOS 9.3.2, and mp4 is clearly not a problem.

Hi, GoodReader is a great app for viewing files. I have lots of tech papers, journal articles, appliance manuals, you name it, on mine. But it's not really of use to you, unless you want to take the kludgey work-around I described. I just wanted to see if it was possible to access these files by any means. No harm in trying the free version; I don't know what the limitations are, but it'll likely do what I did.

Like I said, the iOS browser can't download videos and hand them to other apps like computer browsers. So the video needs an HTML wrapper so the browser can load it as a web page.

OK, look like you're good on Android. Using Chrome 51.0 on Android Lollipop 5.0.2, when I click on the mp4 link, it says "downloading". Once done, it gives an "open in" popup of choices, I pick Video Player, and it plays gracefully.

So, iOS browsers, including Chrome, are somehow confused when presented with a bare video file. It looks like they're not built to download a file they cannot directly display, and then select a display method after. This may have to do with Apple's segmented filesystem, or we may have goofed on the settings somewhere. There may be some wrapping that could be sent surrounding the linked file that would make it work. Someone would need to look into web programming techniques for mobile devices to discover that. Do you know someone who could research that?

Incidentally, normally when we view videos in Safari, they're streamed to the player window. The "file" is not actually downloaded and stored on the device. I think the mechanism you're using may be suitable for photos, but is not really ideal for video, because it does involve downloading the whole file before viewing.

It may be as simple as using the correct MIME type for the video, see https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/AppleApplications/Referenc e/SafariWebContent/CreatingContentforSaf….

Do you know what type the php script is sending? Apparently, it should be video/mp4 or video/quicktime. Our other browsers probably figure this out from the filename extension. But maybe not iOS Safari.

You should also look at this Re: HTML5 Video won't play on my ipad or iphone. and the posts following it. Does that have any relation to your environment?

It's right on the edge on my expertise as well. It might be simple as revising that script, attachment.php I think, to use the correct MIME type. It should not be difficult for the provider to do, in any case.

Cheers, Di