How do I save videos to photos library on iPhone 15?

Question

Level 1

19 points

How do I save videos to photos library on iPhone 15?

Hey there,

I am having trouble saving a video to my photos library.

I have this video saved on my iCloud Drive, but I need it in my photos library because I want to upload this to social media.

Whenever I tap and hold on the video in the Files app and click the "save video" button, I check my photos library only to see that it isn't there. I made sure that this video is recent and I am checking near the end of my photos library, but I don't see it.

I also tried saving this video via a USB drive, but same issue.

I also made sure I had enough space on my iPhone and it says I have around 70GB free (the video is only 550MB).

May someone help me with this?

Thanks.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Saving Videos to Photos Library

iPhone 15, iOS 18

Posted on Aug 22, 2025 03:43 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 22, 2025 10:11 PM in response to Matti Haveri

Make sure the movies you are trying to save to Photos use supported codecs and wrappers such as H.264, H.265 (hvc1) video and AAC audio wrapped as .mp4, .m4v or .mov.

I just tested this by putting some movies to iCloud Drive: iPadOS 18.6 Photos silently fails to save VP9, H.265 (hev1) video codecs as well as .webm wrapper, for example. On the other hand, H.264 AAC movie was readily saved to iPad Photos.

You can check those pesky codecs with 3rd party MediaInfo or Invisor.

BTW while testing I noticed that Sequoia 15.6.1 Photos.app silently fails to import ALL movies in a folder if there is some unsupported movie among them. As an old issue <cough> bug <cough> Photos also silently fails to import movies if they happen to have a sidecar .xmp.

p.s. sorry for the double post which the forum automatically created when I was editing some typos.

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Answer 2

Ian_tech Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 22, 2025 04:38 PM in response to muguy

I am trying to upload a YouTube Short video and the only way to do that via iPhone is to upload the video from the photos library. Is there any other way?

I don't want to upload the video on PC because there are much less features such as music and auto captions.

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Answer 3

insinast

Level 1

12 points

Aug 22, 2025 05:02 PM in response to Ian_tech

In the Files app, hold your finger on the video you want to Save, and a window will open where you must select the “share” icon from the options. [That icon looks like an upward arrow ( ⬆️ ).]

Usually, there are icons in the third row, one of which shows a downward arrow ( ⬇️ ) with the words “Save Video” below it. When you tap on it, it will be downloaded and saved to your Photos album.

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Answer 4

Aug 22, 2025 10:05 PM in response to Ian_tech

Make sure the movies you are trying to save to Photos use supported codecs and wrappers such as H.264, 265 (hvc1) video and AAC audio wrapped as .mp4, .m4v or .mov.

I just tested this by putting some movies to iCloud Drive: iPadOS 18.6 Photos silently fails to save VP9, H.265 (hev1) video codecs as well as .webm wrapper, for example. On the other hand, H.264 AAC movie was readily save to iPad Photos.

You can check those pesky codes with 3rd party MediaInfo or Invisor.

BTW while testing I noticed that Sequoia 15.6.1 Photos.app silently fails to import ALL movies in a folder if there is some unsupported movies among the movies. As an old issue <cough> bug <cough> Phostos also silently fails to import movies if they happed to have a sidecar .xmp.

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Answer 5

muguy

Level 10

90,254 points

Aug 22, 2025 04:17 PM in response to Ian_tech

iCloud Photos videos are limited to 100 mb. You can upload the video into iCloud Drive instead.

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