The original is a classic. The 2005 version is a joke.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Disappearing movies
- Thread starter LV426
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I don’t. Mainly because I don’t want shelf after shelf of my 500+ purchased movies, or indeed the clunky 20th century technology required to view them.
Also, the 4K movies that Apple proudly announce for sale are blocked from being downloaded – streaming only, I’m afraid. So you can’t even download them to a hard drive. Not that I’d want to: it’s 2022, the internet can/should store my purchased content for me.
I agree the AppleTV is much much better than a blue ray player. I RARELY use my DVD player but only on rare occasion.
I have DOZENS of TV shows no longer available to purchase on the iTunes Store, and several movies, but are still viewable in my library.
My cousin has probably about a 100 TV shows no longer available to purchase on the iTunes Store, and probably about 15 movies that are no longer available for purchase, but he can still watch them.
My experience has been that it's VERY rare for shows/movies to NOT remain in the library even after being withdrawn from sale.
Years ago, I was bitten by some obscure music removed from my iCloud library after being removed from the store. Luckily, I had downloaded them, and able to upload them to my iCloud library again.
Rare, but very annoying when it happens. I have more purchased iTunes movies than you or your cousin and have, consequently, been more affected.
As you say, iTunes music is similarly affected. In one spectacularly poor example, I purchased the Mike Oldfield album "Islands". Now, in my library, a paltry sum of two tracks from that album show up. One shouldn't have to download purchased music then upload it again in the modern world.
I'm not a particularly paranoid person, but reading that you know how many movies I own (not to mention my cousin) is a little spooky.
It's extremely possible that you have purchased more iTunes movies than I have (I don't claim to know). I know people who have larger libraries than me, but my count isn't a small amount:
TV Shows: 2,960
Movies: 2,027
The movie list is actually higher than that, but I have some movies "hidden" that are duplicates.
There are people out there who have lost titles. Some have higher counts than me, and others have smaller amounts. I own quite a bit of stuff that's no longer available for purchase. They might not even show up in search since they're no longer available for purchase, available for streaming, or available on a provider (Netflix) that doesn't support Apple's Universal Search. That could change tomorrow...
aah, "37,2 Le Matin"(Betty Blue) movie signs were everywhere
in Montréal in 1986-87 especially in Metro stations.
i had the DVD in 2001 but lent that out
that was the most rented netflix foreign movie when they shipped DVDs
what i did last decade was handbrake many many movies.
even the français ones.
in Montréal in 1986-87 especially in Metro stations.
i had the DVD in 2001 but lent that out
that was the most rented netflix foreign movie when they shipped DVDs
what i did last decade was handbrake many many movies.
even the français ones.
Yes. But I would need multiple terabytes to download all my movies. And have the inconvenience of using it that way to stream to the Apple TV. Not a great solution.
You would not need to stream the locally-stored movies unless you want to. Just download everything to the hard drive as a backup. "Multiple terabytes" are not so expensive anymore, I needed storage in a hurry recently and picked up a fast WD 8tb external hard disk at WalMart for something like $160.
Then just continue to stream everything from Apple if that's what you prefer. But you won't have to worry about any "disappearing movies".
When a movie is downloaded I assume it is linked to the iTunes master entry. If that entry is deleted along with any link to a downloaded file would iTunes still be able to find the downloaded movie?
And if the hard drive failed?You would not need to stream the locally-stored movies unless you want to. Just download everything to the hard drive as a backup. "Multiple terabytes" are not so expensive anymore, I needed storage in a hurry recently and picked up a fast WD 8tb external hard disk at WalMart for something like $160.
Then just continue to stream everything from Apple if that's what you prefer. But you won't have to worry about any "disappearing movies".
This is 2022. The whole point of streaming iTunes movies from the cloud is so that I don’t have to concern myself with storage solutions or plugging in bits of superfluous kit in order to watch a movie. When I view my list of purchased movies on Apple TV, I expect a) to be able to see them and b) to be able to play them without additional messing about.
If I wanted a hard life, I’d still be buying discs and plugging them into a BluRay player.
Good question... I don't know. But anecdotal evidence from posts here at MacRumors suggests that you will still be able to play downloaded movies even if they are removed from the online store. All I know is, all my purchases are downloaded and none of them have disappeared.
Last edited:
You should ALWAYS have backups of your data, computer or otherwise.
Unless of course if your files are unimportant......
You should ALWAYS have backups of your data, computer or otherwise.
Unless of course if your files are unimportant......
That's what the cloud is for. Both Azure Storage and Amazon S3 storage, used by Apple to host iTunes data, store multiple copies of movie files in data centres that are then replicated to geo-redundant data centres. Typically at least six separate copies of each file. Such files are never lost, only deliberately removed.
Not sure what you are saying. Yes Apple and the Studios (hopefully) have multiple backups of their movies in multiple locations. That has nothing to do with your your ability to play a movie or its backup as you can only access those servers and files via the Apple portal apps such as iTunes. There may be hundreds of movies on those servers that you can't access since the Apple Apps aren't authorized to link to them.
If a studio no longer allows a movie to be purchased then it unclear whether a downloaded copy would work since
1. the link to the file on your local disk from iTunes would no longer exist and
2. the link from iTunes to the files on those servers would have been removed
The only way you can absolutely guarantee that a hard copy of a movie will be always available is to either have the physical media or a ripped downloaded copy which you can play via Plex, Infuse, or the like. These will need to be backed up using the normal 3-2-1 backup strategy.
I'm not getting through, am I?
Apple "sell" iTunes movies on the basis that they can be catalogued on - and streamed to - an Apple TV. They also provide short term rental on the same basis.
In arbitrarily removing movies for streaming, buying a movie amounts to no more than long term rental, which is disingenous. If they changed the "Buy" button to "Long Term Rent" I would not be so annoyed.
There are any number of ways of downloading, movies, storing them, making backups, making backups of backups, plugging extra things in and - if you're lucky enough to have the right equipment at the time - viewing them.
Guess what? When Apple invite me to buy a movie on my Apple TV, I expect to be able to play it. End of story. Without any of the above nonsense.
Occasionaly Movies are sold under a different Studio.
So they are a 'new' purchase. This will explained in the Terms and Conditions for the iTunes Store.
I have such a movie on my HDD, which now shows in the iTunes Store as 'not purchased'.
My Mac can be disconnected from the interweb, and I can play films with iTunes or QT player no problem.
Back before I started using Plex, I thought this was the case as well.
Until the internet line in my whole neighborhood was damaged due to road construction on a highway, I was without internet for a week and then found out that using DRM movies saved on my Mac's iTunes on my Apple TV would only work for a short amount of time.
After a certain amount of time disconnected from the interweb, your iTunes account will need to be reauthenicated to play DRM content.
When I found this out, I was really pissed.
BTW, this was to play DRM content on my ATV via the Computer app. IIRC, it might have still worked on my Mac, I cannot remember.
Yeah, this is why I stopped buying any content from Apple. I get physical media, and try to get ones with digital copies.
Unless something breaks or gets lost, you have the physical copies forever.
Games are the same way now. I have a bunch of old video game consoles, and can still play the games from 40 years ago.
You can purchase something on iOS or especially tvOS and the game breaks a day later after an OS update.