Can't Airdrop premiere Project exported as mp4: "Failed to save item. Save to iCloud Drive Instead?"

[dashbarkhuss]

I'm exported a video from Premier Pro 19 as an mp4 file. When I try to Air Drop the mp4 to my iPhone, I get this message on my phone: "Failed to save item. Save to iCloud Drive Instead?" Why wouldn't I be able to AirDrop this to my photos in a normal manner? Is anyone able to airdrop their Premier Pro exported projects to their iOS device?

People have posted this question, but I found no clear answer:

Can't airdrop premeire pro 18 projects to iphone help

Premier Pro Video Failing airdrop

UPDATE:

I was able to airdrop it when I followed these sequence settings and export settings.

[yepexactly]

I have this problem as well and it's very frustrating. If I take the MP4 file created in Premier Pro run it through an online MP4 file converter without changing any settings from the original, it will AirDrop.  This is a pain and we really need a solution

[yepexactly]

I'll add that I am creating video for Insta Stories 

[priyajain2605]

Hey! 

Can you please tell me which Mp4 converter did you use? Please share the link. I am also facing the same issue with Airdrop.

Thanks. 

[yepexactly]

this works, sorry for the year's late response

https://video.online-convert.com/convert-to-mp4

[LtheG91]

try

file - export - media 

adjust the settings how you want 

and then press queque instead of export. 

media encoder will open. select (click once) your video and then press the green play arrow in the top right. 

once its done it will say done and you can click output file name in blue to open your video

and from there you should be able to air drop it. 

lmk if it works for you like it has for me!

[BenjaminButton]

Nope, that doesnt work. Thx for posting this anyway. However, this is such an annoying problem.

[Digital1834]

Just wanted to comment and say that this is still an issue in September 2020. What's going on, Adobe?

I run into this issue seemingly at random. It does not matter whether it's a project created in Premiere, After Effects, both, or whether I export the mp4 through Premiere or Adobe Media Encoder. Sometimes it can Airdrop to my phone, and sometimes I get the same error mentioned above. So frustrating!

[zzz5C7F]

I agree completely! This has been happening with my imac pro and iphone 11 randomly it is BEYOND FRUSTRATING!!! This never used to happen adobe its honestly making me consider using premeire 

[zzz5C7F]

Same exact setup. imac pro to either of my iphones. ANY file from premeire and its COMOLETELY RANDOM. i have to wait days to post things sometimes because i literally cant get the file to my phone. not via dropbox or email either. it makes me want to break this computer LOL

[yepexactly]

This is absurd. Having to take an MP4 file and re-render it as an MP4 file with a third party converter in order to use AirDrop is ridiculous. Premiere Pro isn't a free program. For it to be incapable of this basic function is nonsense. Free third party apps can accomplish this.  It needs to get fixed.

[Michael Grenadier]

sounds like this could also be caused by apple...  a company that is not known for playing nice with other companies.  They make sure everything works nice when you stay in the apple ecosphere.   

[Digital1834]

I understand how it could potentially be something on Apple's end, but I would really appreciate Adobe doing a thorough investigation to confirm it's nothing on their end. A lot of Adobe users are on Apple computers. Airdrop is a great help to workflow, and this used to work perfectly, 100% of the time. There's also the fact that if I take a file exported by an Adobe program with this issue, and then I re-export as an MP4 using a different program like Quicktime, it can then be airdropped. (But then at that point we're facing unncessary file degradation and time wasted exporting twice). That's why I suspect that something Adobe added to updates in the last year is clashing with Apple. I hope it can be made to work again! 

[Michael28444993tgf8]

i export videos through logic pro x (bought in the apple store) and get the same issue in all the export format settings. There have been inconistancies in how Logic has interactic with my phone to make a long story short. I meet specs to deliver for social ads but there continues to be issues and i cannot not stand loosing quality anylonger with compression

[Siri0D45]

What are you doing with this problem, Adobe? This is not a free program and needs to be fixed. Spending hours trying to fix it. 

[jamenr91839438]

All you have to do is lower your file size, anything over 20mb usually has problems AirDropping. Could also be that your phone doesn't have a lot of storage. Reason it works after using a third party converter is because those converters compress the video size.

[Digital1834]

Sorry, I don't think any of those things are the issue, either. I airdrop large videos frequently, sometimes over 1 GB. That works fine. My phone's storage is also wide open. And to address your last point, when an export from AME fails to Airdrop, and I use another app to re-export it — I'm not making the file size smaller. I'm just re-exporting it as an MP4 again. I've compared the before and after file sizes and they're virtually identical. 

[jamenr91839438]

You're right. I found another solution today. When you open the video on Quicktime player, just click export in 4K or 1080p, you won't lose any quality and it'll airdrop perfectly fine as an .mov file.

[Siri0D45]

Did not work for me to export it through Quicktime... 😞 Last month I had the same issue and spent days. I finally mad it work by opening the mp4 in imovie and from there exported it. Now that´s not working either..

[The Cave of2780665665ke]

This one did the trick. BRAVO!!!

[Eddie28568896t2jh]

that worked for me....2023 Feb smh

[zzz5C7F]

Agreed! Not a file size issue! A current airdrop issue that is beyond frustrating 

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Have you tried multiple encoding presets with h.264 from PPro? Does it make any difference?

[Digital1834]

I have, although there's a caveat — a lot of the time, my workflow is to create and export a movie from Premiere (either using Premiere's export function, or Adobe Media Encoder's), and then bring it into After Effects for finishing touches, and then export that final product using Adobe Media Encoder. 
I haven't conclusively been able to determine that exporting from Premiere's export function (instead of Adobe Media Encoder) solves the issue. (And even if it did, I use After Effects so often it wouldn't matter, since I need to use Adobe Media Encoder to export after using After Effects). 

[Floor5CCC]

read this here from apple support explaining it. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207022 

you either need to select the H.265 format,  deselect the HEVC checkbox, or : "On some older devices, support for HEVC is affected by the resolution and frame rate (fps) of the video. Resolutions of 1080p or lower and frame rates of 60 fps or lower are more broadly compatible with older devices."