How to play local media files on an iPhone or iPad

How to play local media files on an iPhone or iPad on iOS

When starting your iPhone or iPad for the first time you cannot play local video or audio files after you transferred them from another computer. I just figured that out myself on a factory reset iPad Air 2, and a subsequent web search how to get local files over to the iOS device.

Although many search results mention to use iTunes or other cloud solutions, others recommend third party media players. Often their own, from which they can generate revenue if installed. Thus it might not even really matter, if you use Apple's iTunes or a third party player, bugged with ads or in-store purchases. But why does Apple pose these limits on their customers?

Apple restricts you to take money from you

The reason you cannot directly and convenient play local files transferred to your iOS seems to be that Apple devices are from Apple, as banal as it might sound. Apple wants you to pay for their iTunes service. If you could directly play your legally purchased local files they couldn't squeeze more money out of you.

Because you only can buy iPhones or iPads directly from Apple the company has full and tight control over their products. Not like with Android devices, which come from a variety of different manufacturers. The most successful of those are probably Samsung with their Galaxy line, or Google's Pixel devices. Hundreds or thousands of other manufacturers use Android as core on their products and fit their apps into them. Most of these, if not all, will have a generic media player for playing video and audio files preinstalled on their devices. Thus after starting those for the very first time and after transferring local media files from a different computer to them, you can directly play those local files. Because although Android is manufactured by a large multinational company (Google), companies furnishing their smartphones and tablets with it are free to put whatever app they think on their devices. Those companies are not restricted by Google. While — as mentioned — Apple is Apple. No third party manufacturer can sell a device with iOS on it.

The simple solution

The solution (I almost want to write ultimate, but that might sound scammy, although it really is the solution) is to install a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) media player. Being Open Source, it's developed by volunteers with no financial interest. Thus this player neither costs you a cent, nor is it restricted in their functions, has in-store purchases, or bugs you with advertisements. The media player I talk about is called VLC (Video LAN Client). VLC is all you need to play your local files.

Transferring local files to an iPad or iPhone with Bluetooth

Although to copy files from a computer to an iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad, via Bluetooth is an ordeal in itself, because Apple doesn't allow files transfer (the OBEX module is missing on iOS devices), it's worth putting some effort in to jump over this hurdle.

Make sure both devices (a computer running any OS, not just Mac OS or Windows, but also Linux and others, and your Apple smartphone or tablet) are connected to the same WiFi source. You need a file server installed on the host (the computer the files come from). That can be a "Windows Share" (CIFS, also known as Samba in the Linux world), ordinary web server (like Apache), or — drum roll — VLC itself! For my Apple iPad I used the VLC option on Linux. Go to the setup. You'll find an option Sharing via WiFi. After activating it you will be presented with the local IP of your home network. That is the server address you type in on the web browser of your iOS device; Safari is preinstalled, but you can use any other web browser you might have installed. There you'll see the local files of the host computer. Download them one by one to your iPad or iPhone. Then use the Apple app Files to move them from Safari's (or browser you fancy) to the VLC folder. Done! Enjoy playing your local files on your iPhones and iPads.