How to put anime on iPhone and iPad
The honest, end-to-end version: get any anime release into the native TV app on your iPhone and iPad — episodes in the right order, posters, correct audio track, subtitles. No jailbreak, no iCloud, no DRM dance.
Why use the built-in TV app, not VLC / Infuse?
Third-party players work, but the native TV app is offline by default, integrated with AirPlay and the Apple TV remote, remembers playback position across devices, and survives device resets. The catch is that Apple offers no consumer-grade way to load video into it. MediaPorter rebuilds that path for iPhone and iPad.
What you need
A Mac running macOS 14 or newer, an iPhone or iPad on iOS / iPadOS 15+, a USB cable (or first-time Wi-Fi pairing through Finder), and the anime files. Common formats — .mkv, .mp4, .m4v, .avi, .mov — all work. Containers with H.264, HEVC, AAC, AC-3, E-AC-3, or DTS audio are handled.
Step-by-step
Below is the exact flow. There is no setup screen with twelve toggles — the app reads your files, makes a plan, and shows the receipts.
- 01
Install MediaPorter
Download the macOS app from porter.md and drag it to /Applications.
- 02
Connect your iPhone and iPad
Plug in via USB the first time so macOS trusts the device. Wi-Fi sync works on subsequent runs.
- 03
Drop your anime folder
Drag the folder (or individual .mkv / .mp4 files) into the MediaPorter window.
- 04
Review the plan
MediaPorter shows what will be kept as-is, remuxed, or transcoded, and which TMDb match was chosen for each episode. Correct any mismatches inline.
- 05
Sync
Click Sync. Episodes appear inside the TV app on the iPhone and iPad as each file finishes uploading. Posters and episode order are correct from the first arrival.
Fan-subbed and multi-audio releases
Most anime releases ship as .mkv with dual audio (Japanese + English dub) and soft subs (ASS/SSA). MediaPorter keeps both audio tracks when the TV app can play them, converts AC-3 to AAC (the iPad TV app silently hides AC-3 from the audio switcher), and remuxes soft subtitles into the output file. ASS styling falls back to plain text where the TV app can't render karaoke effects.
Episode numbers and burned-in titles
Releases like "[Group] Show Name - 07 [1080p].mkv" are detected as episode 7 of the named show. MediaPorter writes the full TV-app field set (sort title, episode_sort_id, season number) so the episode lands in the correct slot — not as "0. Show Name" at the top of the list, which is a long-standing bug when fields are partially filled. Burned-in episode numbers in the picture are left alone.
Specials, OVAs, and movies
Specials are mapped to season 0 by TMDb convention; OVAs and movies are routed to the Movies tab. If a release has no TMDb match (very recent or niche shows), MediaPorter falls back to the folder name and you can correct the metadata in the plan view before syncing.
Will it fill up my device?
Yes if you let it. The app shows free space on the device and the projected size of the transcoded output before you sync. Files that are already in a TV-app-compatible codec are not re-encoded — they are remuxed in place, costing the same bytes. Re-encodes default to HEVC at a target bitrate appropriate for the iPhone and iPad display. You can override per file.
Compared to AirDrop, VLC, Infuse, and WALTR
AirDrop dumps files into the Files app, not the TV app, and skips per-episode metadata. VLC and Infuse are great third-party players but live outside the native TV ecosystem (no AirPlay-from-lock-screen, no system Now Playing). Older sync tools targeted iTunes; iTunes is gone on modern macOS. MediaPorter is built specifically for the modern, post-iTunes path into the native TV app, with anime-aware metadata handling.