Luma Touch Support Forums

I have made over 150 short video memories over recent years. Because they took up to much memory I had to use optimised storage in Photos but I hated wanting to show one to someone and then having to wait for it to slowly download.

I used the Shortcuts app to recode each video to HEVC. This roughly halves the file size compared to H264 with no apparent difference in quality. I could now potentially store all my videos on my iPad and I would still have the originals in iCloud. I decided to keep the new versions in Apple's Files app in the On My Device section. Files plays them well (also mirrored to Apple TV) and if you name them you can use search which is brilliant.

Unfortunately doing this isn't easy. For example you can't just create a stand alone folder in the OMD section of Files. It has to be created by a specific app. I decided to put my videos into a Keynote folder. The folder can't be created in the Files app but it will be created if you try sharing a photo to Files/OMD/Keynote from the Photos app. Once it exists Files also lets you create any sub-folders you might like.

Automating the copy process: In the Shortcuts app I made a Shortcut to select and re-encode videos and save them to Files with a descriptive file names. I included the date at the start of the name to compensate for the loss of the original file date.

Unfortunately Apple only lets you save from Shortcuts to the Shortcuts iCloud folder but once they are there you can use the Files app to select and "move" the videos to your Keynote OMD folder. Note that despite being called move this doesn't really move them, it copies them. You then need to go back and delete the originals.

I also wanted the new videos on my iPhone but you can't just share from one device to another because any video will automatically be put into Photos! To get around this I added an extra step at the end of my shortcut. It also creates an archive of the videos. This is then shared via Airdrop to the other device and with an archive file a menu will appear asking which app you want to use. Ideally you would choose the Files app but sadly Files can't unzip an archive. Instead I used the Documents app. Documents can unzip it, and you can then select the videos and share them directly into your OMD folder in Files.

Finally: You need to be careful to delete all temporary files from your devices as you go including from the deleted folders in Files and Documents apps. If you don't iOS will attempt to back them up with an enormously big backup. Also I wouldn't recommend trying to do all your videos at once because your device will probably grind to a halt from lack of memory.

Definitely not for everyone and I'd love to know if there was an easier way (or maybe at this point I wouldn't) but it sure is great having all my videos available instantly.

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Mark

Hi Mark!

You can create folders in the Files app, just not in the root folder.

Enter any application folder and you will get the ‘CreateFolder’ icon on the top left when pulling down the list of the collection view. But of course every application itself has to first register its root folder from within the application itself, if that’s what you mean by sharing a photo etc.

About ‘moving’ files - well, as long as you move them in the same iCloudDrive application folder they will be ‘moved’ (copy-delete). But remember that iCloudDrive has nothing to do with the OMD facility which is public. The iCloudDrive technology predates OMD and is just a private sandboxed folder where there is no inter-app access available. So going off the reservation changes your ‘move’ operation automatically into a copy operation and is clearly indicated by changing the button label from ‘move’ to ‘copy’...

And maybe Christmas comes early this year and 1.7 will solve your unzip problem within Luma

Hi Mark,

Here’s what I do.

I put my all my media in the LumaFusion UserMedia folder. In the example below, I have a big project that I am currently working on so I put this media in a subfolder named Vacation. Then I created numerous sub-subfolders for all my various destinations. With this media in the UserMedia folder, it is immediately available to me in SOURCES (rather than having to use IMPORT).

Happy Editing,
CappyLee

You might find this link helpful also.

Thanks CappyLee. That’s great stuff there but my aim was to force iOS to store all the videos I have made with LumaFusion permanently on my device to have them always available, not to get clips into LumaFusion.

And thanks for the additional explanation mramosch. Apple’s Files restrictions are confusing. You don’t know perhaps if it is possible to “re-date” a file. I could probably use a metadata editor but would have to do each one manually.

Thanks

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Mark

I know your objective is to store everything on your iPad but here’s something to think about.

I don’t have as many home videos as you do but I solved by storage and sharing problems by uploading my videos to YouTube as unlisted videos.

This works for me because I can

1. Store unlimited large high quality videos on the YouTube server at no cost to me.
2. I can quickly stream these videos on any mobile device, Apple TV, computer, etc.
3. And I can send someone a link to a single video or a playlist that contains multiple videos. Without the link, no one can access your videos.

More Information

Happy Editing,
CappyLee

Yes really I want them all on device for when we go to a friends place and want to show a video immediately in the conversation. You know how it is - take more than a few seconds and the subject has moved on!

Interesting your point though. I hadn’t thought of saving videos privately to YT. Question: can you later cancel a link after you have sent it to someone?

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Mark

No. You can’t cancel a link. It’s a permanent URL address.

Just get yourself a little CardReader with a lightning port or a lightning port USB stick.

There’s one from RAV-power with 64GB internal storage and the card reader accepts cards up to 256GB.

It has a USB port on one side and the lightning port on the other side which makes cross-platform sharing or re-filling really easy and the playbacks stream right away from the dongle. Well, I know it’s another piece of gear to think of, but for all the above mentioned reasons I never leave the house without it.

Got my whole music library on a 256GB card so it serves also as an additional backup for my music.

When you’re running out of space on your iPad just move two or three 4k files over to the stick and you got yourself some GB of storage available in a minute

IIRC it was about 40€ (without a card obviously) but 64GB internal storage. It’s not cheap seen from a GB/buck ratio but as iDevice users we have to deal with all these hurdles. That’s just one more hack

That's a great idea. I’ve had my eye the Sandisk Flash Drive for awhile now. I think I’ll put it on my list to Santa.

Yes I have one but let me give you an example. Today we had friends over and the conversation moved to orienteering in Zermatt (as it does you know). It took me about 5 secs to find and play my Zermatt video. No plugging in necessary.

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Mark