Unable to load specific home videos onto my iPhone/iPad after upgrading to macOS 27

There seems to be some confusion between Home Sharing and syncing movies or TV shows from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad using Finder. These are two different processes, and understanding the distinction is important

1. Home Sharing – Streaming videos from your Mac

When you import your personal video files into the Home Videos category in the Apple TV app on your Mac, you can access and play those videos on your iPhone or iPad using Home Sharing, provided the required settings are configured and all devices are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

In this arrangement, your iPhone or iPad streams the videos from your Mac. The videos are not automatically copied to your iPhone or iPad for offline viewing. Your Mac must be switched on, awake, and available on the network for streaming to work.

Therefore, Home Sharing allows you to access and watch your Mac's video library without having to store another copy of every video on your iPhone or iPad. However, you cannot rely on this method to watch those videos when your Mac or network is unavailable.

2. Finder – Syncing selected movies and TV shows to your iPhone or iPad

On the other hand, you can still sync movies and TV shows from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad using Finder. This allows you to keep selected videos on your device for offline viewing.

Apple's documentation explicitly states that you can select individual movies and TV shows to sync rather than syncing the entire collection. You can also configure automatic inclusion of recent or unwatched content, where those options are available.

Consequently, the statement that you must transfer all your movies and TV shows or none of them does not describe the full range of Finder's syncing capabilities.

If you are no longer seeing the option to select individual movies or TV shows, you should investigate the available syncing settings rather than assume that Apple has removed this capability.

3. Read Apple's official documentation

Please read the following Apple Support articles carefully to understand the procedures, requirements, and limitations:

• Sync content between your Mac and iPhone or iPad
• Use the Finder to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with your Mac - Apple Support (AE)
• Use Home Sharing to share media from a computer to other devices - Apple Support (IN)

These articles explain the difference between streaming media from your Mac and actually syncing media to your device. They also describe how to configure syncing over Wi-Fi after the initial setup.

In summary: Home Sharing lets you stream videos from your Mac, whereas Finder lets you sync selected videos to your iPhone or iPad for offline playback. If your concern is that Finder no longer displays the option to select individual movies or TV shows, please explain which macOS version you are using and what you see under the Movies and TV Shows tabs when your iPhone or iPad is selected in Finder. That will help identify the specific issue.

I agree with Ingo2711 and LD150

The accompanying illustration depicts Finder Sync and Home Videos on Apple TV.

Videos and audio files synchronised from your Mac to an iPhone or iPad using Finder are generally not included in the device's backup. However, there is an important distinction between the media files themselves and other data associated with them.

Videos and audio synchronised through Finder

When you connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac, open Finder, select your device, and synchronise movies, TV shows, music, or other audio files:

• The synchronised media files are not included in the iPhone or iPad backup.
• This applies whether you back up your device to your Mac using Finder or to iCloud.
• If you restore your iPhone or iPad from a backup, these media files are not restored from that backup.
• To get these files back, you must synchronise them again from your Mac.

Therefore, if you delete the original media files from your Mac, you could lose your ability to restore them to your iPhone or iPad unless you have another copy.

Thanks for all the info.

However, not sure it all applies to me.

I do not know what Home Sharing is so I guess I don't use it.

And (at least for the last 10 years prior to MAC OS 27), the media files are transferred to the iPhone/ipad using the FINDER sync/backup.

The decrease in available storage on the devices after the FINDER sync matches the amount of videos I transferred to the device.

And yes, it is my intent to have standalone access to all my media without having anything to do with INTERNET and do keep all my media files on both the MACBOOKPRO and on my IMAC.

I will revisit the "selecting individual movies/TV shows" you cited:

"Apple's documentation explicitly states that you can select individual movies and TV shows to sync rather than syncing the entire collection. You can also configure automatic inclusion of recent or unwatched content, where those options are available."

This was not all my experience yesterday and not at all like the last 10 years but I will try it again and let you know how it turns out.

Again, thank you

And please don't type words in all capital letters, this makes it very hard to read your post.

My ears are still ringing from all the shouting!

Will do, sorry