How do I upload HD video to Youtube from iOS? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Anyone know how to upload HD video from an iPad to YouTube? I upload from the YouTube app and my videos come out as 480p max quality. I’ve got YT set to upload in HD (and now full quality). I’ve let them “sit” overnight and 720p and 1080p don’t appear after googles servers chew on them.

I’m flummoxed.

 

[Clinton McClure]

https://www.solveyourtech.com/iphone-youtube-app-enable-full-quality-uploads/

Basically, open the YouTube app on your iPad, open your user settings, scroll down to “uploads” and open the “upload quality” tab. Select “Full Quality”.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Wait... I reread your post and saw where you already have YouTube set to upload in full quality.

I’m at a loss then too...

 

[DaveF]

Yeah. It’s weird. I need to check a video I uploaded two days ago. If it’s now HD, then it’s just waiting a long time for YouTube to process. If not, then I’m at a complete loss.

 

[DaveF]

I think I understand the problem and solution now. For YouTube, the key appears to be that HEVC videos need to be transcoded to MP4 or MKV or something that Google YouTube understands. I believe I can do that on iPhone or iPad with iMove, but I didn't have it installed to try on vacation. At home on my iMac that worked.


A bit more info:
First, I'd tried to upload to Facebook with low-res results. I later found that i had Facebook's "Upload HD Video" toggled off on my iPhone and iPad. That's probably that, though I haven't tested yet.

For YouTube, iPhone records in video formats that YouTube doesn't support natively. The "more compatible" option in the iOS Camera settings exports a MOV file. That wouldn't upload from my phone at all, just trying it now. It uploaded fine from my iMac, and resulted in a 480p video. I need to check back in a few hours and see if it converts up to 1080p.

I toggled my iPhone camera to "more efficient", and that produces Apple's new video format HEVC. Google doesn't understand that it all. On my iMac it gives a warning that the file format isn't know. The result is 480p from any device uploaded to YouTube.

I imported the video into iMovie on my iMac and exported it as a high quality video. The resultant MP4 uploaded to Google and was immediately viewable as 1080p.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Haven’t tried from iPhone or iPad, but you can absolutely upload native iPhone 4K HEVC files to YouTube from the Mac via Safari to YouTube.com
YouTube itself then makes them available in all the different resolutions for viewers.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work exactly the same way from iOS - but again, I haven’t tried

 

[DaveF]

Haven’t tried from iPhone or iPad, but you can absolutely upload native iPhone 4K HEVC files to YouTube from the Mac via Safari to YouTube.com
YouTube itself then makes them available in all the different resolutions for viewers.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work exactly the same way from iOS - but again, I haven’t tried

I'm uploading Apple's Slow Motion and Time Lapse formats, so maybe that's the problem?

I can upload HEVC to YouTube, but it's 480p max. Waiting 18+ hours doesn't result in YouTube processing them back into 1080p. I've seen this on iOS and macOS. I have to transcode to a supported format to get 1080p in YouTube.

Here's a screenshot uploading HEVC where Google says the format isn't understood and they'll do the best, which for me is 480p.

 

[DaveF]

Here's the video uploaded directly as HEVC from Photos. It's 480p max.


Here's the same video (with a little editing) exported as MP4 from iMovie before uploading. It's 1080p immediately.

 

[Ted Todorov]

Here is the last one I posted:


In fact it maxed out (as viewed on my Mac) as 1080P rather than 4K. Not sure if it got rid of 4K altogether or if you are viewing it on a 4K capable YouRube app, it shows up also as 4K? Was there a 4K capable YouTube app for the AppleTV?

 

[DaveF]

It appears to be vertical (portrait) orientation that's causing problems.

Vertical test


Widescreen test


Both videos were shot in iPhone HEVC 4K at 60 fps on my iPhone 8+, downloaded to my iMac via normal iCloud syncing, and then uploaded with the standard YouTube Studio (beta) in Safari.

 

[DaveF]

I don't know how to upload to or view 4K on YouTube. I've got the 5K iMac, but otherwise don't have any normal 4K display gear in the house.