PC -> Mac and back

[OneWorld]

I am a PC user but have a trusty old iPad Air 2 that is a great little gizmo - battery lasts a week! I use it for on the go browsing etc

I often watch MP4 videos on a small Samsung tablet but it has a smaller screen. I would like to transfer the MP4s to the iPad but I simply cannot find a way. Is there no equivalent of Explorer on an iPad, I can't find one.

I have a little gizmo that allows me to plug a USB stick into the iPad (which has a lightning connector, but when I plug a USB key in a message comes up saying 'not enough power to run this device'

[BigRedX]

The problem you are having is that iPads are simply not designed to work like this. They are closed systems for interacting with stuff on line.

If you have iTunes installed on your Windows machine you might be able to use that to transfer the files. You may also need to ensure that its the right kind MP4 file for the iPad to be able to play it. It's a while since I've done this so it might not be possible with the latest versions of iTunes and iOS, also my desktop computer is a Mac.

However, you'll probably find the easiest way to get the file(s) onto your iPad is to use an on-line transfer system like iCloud, DropBox or WeTransfer. Convoluted I know but at least you'll get there.

[muzines]

If you're not wholly in the Apple ecosystem, most good video players, like Infuse, have an inbuilt FTP server, so you can literally upload video files over your network from a browser to the iPad, and then you can play them in that player...

[resistorman]

An informative thread here:

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... ad#p832470

[sonics]

I have a little gizmo that allows me to plug a USB stick into the iPad (which has a lightning connector, but when I plug a USB key in a message comes up saying 'not enough power to run this device'

This should work. It sounds like you may have an incompatible adapter. Perhaps try another (Apple certified) one? Online transfer is probably the easiest if you have good Internet, as others have suggested.