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Apps Apple TV App doesn’t recognize purchased tv shows

philpalmiero

philpalmiero

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 5, 2010
222
208
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I have an Apple TV 4K 64GB A1842. I have several purchased tv shows that I purchased thru iTunes. When I select the next episode from the “Up Next” UI the app directs me to purchase the next episode even though I already own the entire series. I am forced to go into my library, scroll thru tv shows, find the next episode and launch it. That’s so slow and dumb. This happens on any show or series, I do own several different shows all purchased thru iTunes. Is there something setup incorrectly? I’m really pissed at this lack of refinement.

oh, I am running tvOS 14.3
 
Apple_Robert said:
Have all your purchased shows been purchased with the same Apple ID? If so, is this problem from shows that have been bought as a complete box set?
Click to expand...
Yes all the same Apple ID. I’m not sure about the series question. This particular show, I bought the entire season. But other shows I may have bought them piecemeal. I can test.
 
Is the Apple TV app supposed to look in the users library for the next episode first and then if not found go to the iTunes Store to offer the user an opportunity to purchase the next episode?
 
As a guess what you actually bought isn’t available to buy in the store anymore and has been replaced by another listing thus given a new store ID.
This is where up next and search fail as rather than obtaining info from your actual library it looks for the store listing instead.
 
No it’s still listed in the store. I just got an answer from Apple Support. They are saying the seller changed the tos to not allow the Up Next feature to work with this content. Not sure if I buy that answer but there it is.
 
Well, I did some quick testing. Other seasons of an entirely different show do work with the Up Next feature so Apple Support must be telling me the truth. It’s surprising that a seller’s tos can get that specific as to dictate the Up Next functionality. Why would they care?
 
What show specifically are you referring to? Perhaps other users may have the ability to test it themselves?

The up next feature is buggy as hell quite frankly. It loses track of what you are watching, especially if the content is hosted outside the Apple ecosphere (i.e. external apps, et al). So you are not alone in having to find the original source and restarting from there.

At best it is a reminder of what to watch... not so much a launcher for what to watch. Individual apps have a tendency to get confused as well.
 
Do you have Amazon Prime? Just watch Downton Abey there, it's free. "Next up" works fine.
 
HDFan said:
Do you have Amazon Prime? Just watch Downton Abey there, it's free. "Next up" works fine.
Click to expand...
I do have Prime. I know the Up Next works on Prime. It’s just that I bought them on iTunes. Therefore, I should watch the ones I paid for. BTW, I bought them when they first came out and weren’t on Prime yet.
 
I think I’m having a similar issue. My Apple TV 4K isn’t recognizing my Apple TV plus subscription or the movies I bought in the library. My library is fine on my iPhone or iPad though. This is only on my AppleTV 4k. I’ve tried signing in and out of the AppleTV and that doesn’t work.
 
Exact same issue with Downton Abbey. It's 'first world' in terms of problems, but I freely admit to watching Downton Abbey pretty much on an endless loop, so it's maddening to have to scroll through the entire series constantly.
 
I recently had a similar bug with Green Acres and Saved by the Bell, which I paid for 'complete series' but only had access to Season 1 of Saved by the Bell, and only Season 2 of Green Acres, despite it showing correctly as 'complete series' in the iTunes TV shows app. It also bugged out in the TV app showing S2 Episode 20 for Green Acres as the next up, even though I never watched that show on the ATV until I attempted to watch Season 1 Episode 1 after purchase.

I had other issues with my ATV 4K, so I reset the unit, reinstalled everything, and now all seasons show properly as purchased and the TV app is correctly showing the proper episodes, including Incredible Hulk, which for some reason had originally listed Season 1 Episode 4 as Season 1 Episode 1. That's fixed as well, listing Season 1 Episode 3 as next up, titled 'Death in the Family'.

Tons of bugs lately with the ATV, so I'm hoping I don't come across others as well. it 'forgetting' purchases was concerning, given I paid a lot for complete series.
 
Interestingly, the smart TV I just bought has an Apple TV app, and the problem isn’t present in the app. Downton abbey works in that app on my TCL, but not when I use my actual Apple TV.
 
I got a similar thing on my Roku. Unfortunately content from Disney+, CBS All Access and other third party apps that 'link' to the TV app on an ATV don't show up on the Roku's version of the app. Just Apple content. Last I checked, even ATV+ stuff didn't show up.

I just had to do another plug pull restart today, since CBS All Access crashed or something, I was browsing the list of series on that 'channel,' tried watching Brady Bunch, and was told to install Hulu or pay. Tried rebooting the unit, via the settings, but same issue. Pull the actual cord from the back, and plug it in, wait for it to do a full restart, and the show works.

I'm really getting tired of this. It just got another 'update' to tvOS 14.4, uncommanded (I got auto updates off, blocked at the router, and it didn't notify me one bit--just woke up to the 'what's new' screen.) That update had happened before my attempt to watch The Brady Bunch. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the Health app since I have no need for it on an Apple TV, and it's just annoying having a useless app sitting there. Also don't like the TV+ menu in the TV app, as it's redundant (right up there with ellipsis, gear and three-dot menus on apps these days).
 
I’m having the same problem. Watch Next/Up Next will not recognize series purchases. Reported it to Apple over two months ago and to date nothing has been corrected. I purchased the complete series’ for CSI Miami, CSI New York, CSI Crime Scene Investigation, Criminal Minds and Elementary. Two of the series CSI NY and Criminal Mind can’t be queued or watched via Watch Next. Both say I need to purchase each episode. CSI Vegas is really screwed up. I can watch seasons 1-6 via Watch Next, but starting with season 7, it says I need to purchase. Strangely, I’m not having the same problem wit CSI Miami or Elementary. At least so far.

This problem happens when using the Apple app on my Apple 4K TV box, Samsung smart TV or iPad. My Apple 4K box and iPad are both at iOS 15.5. I’ve uninstalled/reinstalled the Apple app, sent MOV files to Apple support and had Apple reps do “screen share” to see what’s happening. So far the problems continues. To date their solution has been to watch the programs via the library. Requiring me to scroll through several hundred episodes each time I want to watch. Plus the library does not remainder the “last episode” watched. Not a very realistic solution. If this can’t be resolved soon, I think I’ll request that Apple give me a refund and repurchase the series on Amazon Prime.
 
hickamcasa said:
To date their solution has been to watch the programs via the library. Requiring me to scroll through several hundred episodes each time I want to watch. Plus the library does not remainder the “last episode” watched. Not a very realistic solution.
Click to expand...
The better solution would be to use the TV Shows app instead and select from the Purchased section.
Unless there’s further issues with those episodes they should queue up the next episode without the need of endlessly scrolling.
Here’s an example with one of my shows I’m watching,

Via the ATV App Library it always opens to episode 1.
D3E5D4EF-05A6-4883-862A-81C271DBCA0D.jpeg


Whereas via the TV Shows App it opens to my current episode which in this case is Episode 85
42D72181-5381-4FC7-9269-64CAA9533AA6.jpeg
 
Thanks for the input. First time I‘ve tried using the TV Shows app that comes with the Apple 4K TV box. Unfortunately, when I accessed the app and selected “purchased” from the top menu I got nothing. It doesn’t recognize a single TV show/series I’ve purchased. All I see is a series of black boxes/squares, and when I select one I get the message “unexpected error occured”. I then went to the Movies app. It sees every movie I’ve purchased from Apple when I select “purchased” on the top menu.

Again thanks for the recommendation.
 
hickamcasa said:
Thanks for the input. First time I‘ve tried using the TV Shows app that comes with the Apple 4K TV box. Unfortunately, when I accessed the app and selected “purchased” from the top menu I got nothing. It doesn’t recognize a single TV show/series I’ve purchased. All I see is a series of black boxes/squares, and when I select one I get the message “unexpected error occured”. I then went to the Movies app. It sees every movie I’ve purchased from Apple when I select “purchased” on the top menu.

Again thanks for the recommendation.
Click to expand...
Close the app down and try again, probably just a server glitch.
 
That worked. Apple TV Shows app now reflects all the TV shows I purchased and allows me to watch all of them. That said, however, I’m not giving up on Apple fixing their Apple TV app. It’s on my Smart TV, my Apple 4K box and iPad. It should work and doesn’t.
 
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