save mp4 video to device camera roll

Question

I'm starting with just an NSString that is a url to an .mp4 file, and from here I would like to have that video saved to the device camera roll. It seems I can only save .mov files, so I have to first convert the .mp4, but the few posts I've seen about this didn't help.

Can anyone help me accomplish this?

Thanks in advance...

Answer 1

You can save an mp4 file to the camera roll provided it uses supported codecs. For example:

NSURL *sourceURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://path/to/video.mp4"];

NSURLSessionTask *download = [[NSURLSession sharedSession] downloadTaskWithURL:sourceURL completionHandler:^(NSURL *location, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *error) {
    NSURL *documentsURL = [[[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask] firstObject];
    NSURL *tempURL = [documentsURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:[sourceURL lastPathComponent]];
    [[NSFileManager defaultManager] moveItemAtURL:location toURL:tempURL error:nil];
    UISaveVideoAtPathToSavedPhotosAlbum(tempURL.path, nil, NULL, NULL);
}];

[download resume];

Or, on iOS 6 and above:

NSURL *sourceURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://path/to/video.mp4"];
NSURLRequest *request = [NSURLRequest requestWithURL:sourceURL];

[NSURLConnection sendAsynchronousRequest:request queue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue] completionHandler:^(NSURLResponse *response, NSData *data, NSError *connectionError) {
    NSURL *documentsURL = [[[NSFileManager defaultManager] URLsForDirectory:NSDocumentDirectory inDomains:NSUserDomainMask] firstObject];
    NSURL *tempURL = [documentsURL URLByAppendingPathComponent:[sourceURL lastPathComponent]];
    [data writeToURL:tempURL atomically:YES];
    UISaveVideoAtPathToSavedPhotosAlbum(tempURL.path, nil, NULL, NULL);
}];