I’d like to transfer a 100mb video file from my iMac to a 1st gen iPad. The iPad has no USB or micro USB slots, just a ‘mezz’ slot. It is running iOS version 7.0.4 so i can’t install the latest version of Dropbox, which needs iOS 8. Bluetooth connection isn’t allowing me to move the video to the iPad.

The video is too big to attach to an email. It needs to be for private viewing only.

My 18th century brain is expecting to be able to copy/download the video to the iPad but should i be uploading it somewhere from my iMac to then watch it on the iPad?

Add to iTunes, sync iPad – job jobbed

You can still use Dropbox. Just save it in your public folder, then use a browser on the iPad that’ll let you download the file.

Should be able to use the USB > 40pin cable, no?

Can’t you sync it through iTunes or something?

have uploaded to Dropbox, and copied the Link then pasted into Safari on the iPad. plays fine, but when i click on the Download button it just plays the video in the browser window. how do i download it to the iPad?

try zipping it then putting it into drop box (if the Ipad can unzip) or try google drive etc. Also places like Vimeo can host behind a password (we use that for some work stuff) The web page version of vimeo will also let you download the original file

VLC on iPad, browser on iMac.
With both on the same wifi network, use sharing on VLC. Type in the IP address shown into the Mac’s browser and you can drag& drop the file to the browser, which will upload to VLC.

(Advantage here is that VLC plays more formats than iTunes, plus iTunes can be “funny” about devices that aren’t synced to it – often wants to wipe existing content.)