MacOS & Meta Quest 3 Sideloading Format Issues

[drmillerkc]

I have a Mac with the latest Sonoma and just bought a Meta Quest 3. I've also had an Oculus Go in a drawer for about 5 years that I used to view 180 3D and 360 2D images and videos I took with a Vuze XR camera.

It wasn't as easy as with a PC to transfer media files to the Oculus from a Mac (and it's even harder with a Quest). I had to use the Android File Transfer app. With that the Oculus appeared as a read-write external drive and everything was straightforward. Well, AFT doesn't work with my Mac and Quest 3. So, I had to use the SideQuest app and become a "Developer" in the process.

After everything is setup SideQuest makes it easy to transfer a folder, NOT individual files TO the Quest but had no option to delete media FROM the Quest.

Also with the dozens of transferred media files each, painfully in Quest VR, had to be manually changed in multiple "clicks" to the appropriate format.

TIP: Before you side-load your VR media files to the Quest folders (I use the DCIM folder and the Quest magically puts them in the "right" folders in Files), rename your files to include separated descriptors of "180", "360", "3D" at the end of the file name (or anywhere actually - "2D" is the default and is not necessary). Separate those descriptors with an underscore, e.g. "MyVideo_180_3D.mp4", "MyVideo_360.mp4". The order doesn't seem to matter. Now when you view your media in Quest TV or Files apps, the media will have the correct format (and I believe persists), and the media will be viewed correctly (without having to manually fix the format).

Now if I could just get rid of the File Viewer empty frame when immersive that obstructs my view my media.