How to Transfer/Copy videos to iPad mini from Computer using Itunes 11.3.1.2

Posted by Felix Okoli on Monday August 25, 2014 at 9:11:17:

I'm not really an Apple iPad mini geek as I only have an Amazon Kindle Fire and could easily write tutorials on the latter. However, that was until a friend of mine recently lent me his iPad for 48 hrs to use. He didn't actually really give it to me so that I could use for free but because he wanted me to help copy video and music to his iPad, since he was having trouble downloading videos directly to his iPad. This was so that he could keep himself entertained even without the need for subscribing to a mobile data plan or using a Wifi internet hotspot.

I have to admit, copying videos to the iPad mini is not as easy as copying to a flash drive or even the Kindle Fire HD because it requires one to install some additional software just accomplish that process.

I initially thought that copying videos to an iPad mini was as simple as copying videos to a Kindle but it wasn't. I tried many times and after connecting the iPAD mini to my laptop and was only able to open the iPad's internal storage but that was in read only mode. You can's just copy files from your computer to an iPad since it would show in read only mode. I only later found out that I could only do that by first installing iTunes. Even after installing iTunes on my laptop, it wasn't still possible to copy videos files to the iPad and this was because I didn't have Quicktime installed. It seems iTunes requires Quicktime installed before it can deal with video files such as for transferring it to your iPad or for playing the video.

Anyway, my first impression on the Apple iPad mini was that it's really sleek and a bit thinner than my Kindle Fire HD however my friend's mini had a lot of grease marks and a slight scratch on it and this was because he wasn't using a screen protector. I have to advise anyone getting a delicate touch screen tablet such as the ipad to also get a screen protector so as to prevent your tablet's screen from having grease marks, finger prints or get scratched. One could easily change things like a transparent screen protector but it can be expensive to change a tablet's screen most especially if it was that of an iPad mini.

This is basically a tutorial on copying/transferring video files from a Windows 7 computer to an iPad mini using the iTunes 11.3.1.2 program.

How to transfer videos to iPad mini
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So, let me get to the basics on how to really do this.

Things you'd need
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- Quicktime
- Apple iTunes
- USB connecting cable
- iPad supported videos e.g. mp4, 3gp,mov
- Internal storage space
- iPad mini tablet

Steps to be taken
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1. Ensure you have already installed Quicktime on your computer if not, you should do so. You can download it from www.apple.com/quicktime/download/

2. Download and install Apple's iTunes software too on your computer

3. Connect your iPad mini to your computer by plugging the USB cable provided to the USB port of your computer. It would lead to a pop up box showing iPad is connected

4. Open up the Apple iTunes program and ensure that your iPad is detected and shows on the platform

5. Under the Library menu, select "Movies"

6. Select File from the menu and click on "Add File to the Library"

7. Go to the video folder from the pop up box that shows and select the video you want to add and click the open button and the video file will be added to your Movie library. If it's a non supported video, it will not be added.

8. Under your Movie library, Select the video file you want to add to your iPad, ensure that your iPad is still connected and then click on the Arrow > Add To > Devices > iPad

9. Allow the file to be copied to your iPad's video section

You will now be able to watch the copied videos on your iPad anytime you want by going to Videos > Home videos

The good thing about this is that you don't need to limit your videos to just the Apple iTune's store since you can now get your videos anywhere and just copy them to your iPad as long as there are in the required format.