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Help Transferring an .mkv file to my phone

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PhoneMatt

Member
Last night, I tried to copy an .mkv file to my telephone. I generally plug my phone into my computer, look for it, open my SD card and copy the file directly. When I tried to copy the video file, a box popped up saying that my phone could not play this file. I had two choices, skip the file or cancel.
I have VLC on my phone which is supposed to play .mkv files, but I can't even get the file onto my phone. Is there any way to get this type of file on my phone?
 
If that mkv file is under 10 MB in file size, a secure way to send yourself is a file sharing service like:
https://securesh.re
Just upload the file using your computer, you'll get a link, and then type that link into your phone's browser to download it.

Or you could just send the file to yourself as an email attachment, but again depending on that mkv's file size that depends on what email service you use. Gmail and Yahoo Mail allow up to 25 MB per file, other services may vary.

Or if that mkv is relatively large in file size, you can use Google Drive or any other similar service like Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.
 
I don't really know the ins and outs but as I understand it, the Codecs aren't always quite packaged quite that simple. Although I would imagine VLC would have been your best bet for playing different video packages. Does the video play on PC fine? How big is the file, would it be an option to try and convert it?
 
Could be size related, if the MKV is larger than about 4GB and the micro-SD is FAT32, it won't be able to store it. If it is, format the micro-SD as exFAT and it should be OK then.
 
mikedt said:
Could be size related, if the MKV is larger than about 4GB and the micro-SD is FAT32, it won't be able to store it. If it is, format the micro-SD as exFAT and it should be OK then.
Click to expand...
That's true, forgot about that, check the formatting of SD
 
1. Check how big is your file. Mkv, means a very big file usually and is difficult to be played by mobiles. Also check if you can play it with Mx Player+codecs from playstore.
 
You know, it is always the small details that bite you in the butt. The file is indeed 4.02G. I keep forgetting about the 4k limit on FAT 32. And, I've got a new SD card in the phone, formatted in FAT 32. Time to reformat as exFAT.
Thanks for the help.
 
If that mkv was a file you created, you might want to re-rip it at a slightly lower resolution, or using a video codec like h.264 and audio codec like lame (mp3).
 
Go to the properties and change the name of the file from .mkv to .mp4. Your phone doesn't know what an mkv file is so it can't find it but it can play it
 
I would recommend NOT renaming file types, they have specified designations that correspond to what they are. Once you start renaming file types you'll create a problem where default settings matching apps and files are no longer valid. If there is a matter where a file is incompatible, it's better to recreate or convert that file so it is.

As for mkv files, my S3 has no problem seeing them and they play in both the default video player and MX Player. The files show in a file manager and can be opened by either tapping on them through the file manager or using the navigation window on the media player itself.
 
PhoneMatt said:
Last night, I tried to copy an .mkv file to my telephone. I generally plug my phone into my computer, look for it, open my SD card and copy the file directly. When I tried to copy the video file, a box popped up saying that my phone could not play this file. I had two choices, skip the file or cancel.
I have VLC on my phone which is supposed to play .mkv files, but I can't even get the file onto my phone. Is there any way to get this type of file on my phone?
Click to expand...
 
Hi, I just wanted to give a very simple approach to solving this issue. Just compress the file into a ZIP version. Once that is done you can easily transfer it to any storage location. Once you click on the transfered ZIP file it will ask if you want to unzip it and promt it to do so. Problem solved. Yes you can change the file from mkv to MP4 but the procedure is more time consuming and headaches.
 
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