iOS 17.2 and tvOS 17.2 Kill TV Show and Movie Wishlists With No Warning

[SamRyouji]

Time for a shake up at Apple. Tim needs to go. A clear lack of innovation and poor design choices of late.

Take the Car Play share implementation. Everytime the family want to use it they have to re-join. Why does t it remember them for every journey?

And FaceTime continuity camera for AppleTV is absolutely buggy garbage. I’d rather spend £99 on a dedicated camera that works 100%.

Also no way of clearing the viewing history of just one show? I’m trying to rewatch something and it’s really annoying as you have to rewind to the start of each episode and then they don’t automatically start the next one.

Not just him. The VP of Marketing as well. Anything related to implementations and/or campaign has marketing team behind it as well.
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Remember how he answered Joanna Stern's question about USB-C at WSJ's YouTube talkshow with him, Joanna and Craig? Almost everyone saw the way he delivered his answers as arrogant. Unlike Craig which everyone saw him a bit more chill.

 

[fatTribble]

I’m in the process of dusting off my blu-rays and DVDs. The TV app is now just a bunch of ads with a sliver of my content that requires arduous horizontal scrolling. Paramount+ does a much better job of allowing you to surface your content by having an entire tab devoted to shows you choose. Nothing else is on that tab to clutter the page. I’m an Apple fan, but I think their TV app is wrong in so many ways.

 

[TimFL1]

All I really want them to add to the TV app is being able to like / dislike movies / shows … My whole „Watch Now“ list is absolute and utter crap due to me being the sole media content sponsor for my family (translation: I buy everything on my account and they use family sharing to view).

They really need to get on it and add a way to tweak the suggestion algorithm so I can finally get good recommendations again. It‘s not just purchases ruining my suggestions, it‘s also the occasional movie you watch and end up hating but the app thinks it needs to fill an entire row with „BECAUSE YOU WATCHED THE ROOM“ movie suggestions.

No idea why it takes them this long to add this. I thought the family recommendations thingy was a sign of proper tweaks coming, but it‘s just giving me even worse suggestions.

 

[forrie]

They did a major re-work of tvOS's Movies, etc., which is now merged with the (confusing to look at) TV+ app. Ugh, I find this very frustrating -- such a major change, no warning and there are some UI mistakes I've found -- for example, try to read the "Info" about a movie (you can't). It feels like another "rush and get this out" Apple-ism -- the errors/issues I've found should have been identified/corrected in a good QA process.

 

[Rradcircless]

I use CheapCharts. It’s a but rudimentary but it tells me when the things I want are discounted and it’s still being actively updated.

 

[sjsharksfan12]

I think I'm going to embrace the up next feature on Apple TV more. I really haven't had any issues with the new update, even though I do find it funny they are trying to make the Apple TV app the new Itunes. Will it tell the weather this time next year as well?

 

[jonnyb098]

Why is Apple throwing everything into the AppleTV app? They are making it into the new old version of iTunes?

tv app is built on new architecture while the older iTunes apps are just old code and tech at this point. Not an excuse really but Apple tends to pile on layer after layer in apps bloating them. Indeed the tv app will eventually be the new bloated iTunes at some point.

 

[CarAnalogy]

There are ways to do this, you just have to be creative... and use the Computers app instead of the AppleTV app. The former is the MUCH BETTER app for owned content. The AppleTV app has an extreme focus on extracting more revenue out of its users. IMO: that's what's eroding that app- too much push to further enrich Apple at the expense of user experience.

Apple USED to let the SHOW tag group serialized movies. For example, insert "James Bond" for all 2X Bond movies in the SHOW tag and you would have 1 line item called James Bond in the main list of movies. Click that to then see all of them (like menu and submenu functionality). Workaround: use GENRE for this. Create a Genre called James Bond (and Star Trek and Star Wars and Harry Potter) and then choose that genre when you want to quickly get to one of those movies. Tag the individual movie files GENRE with a single name that will group all of the sequels together. For example, Genre James Bond will present all of the James Bond movies when selected.

Download all iTunes Store purchased content to a local drive to sever the streaming dependency. Then you can use the Computers app for your own owned content instead of having to lean on the AppleTV app.

Take advantage of the TV Show sorting & organizing features to get your sitcoms organized under the TV Show tab in the Computers app. TV Show tags will get things in Show and then Season order.

Good tip: instead of using the Home Movies tag, make your Home Movies into a TV Show (tag) too, so you can get them into Year (Season) order, to make it easy to find the 201X video you call Christmas without having to hunt through several home movies you've also named Christmas. All of my very large collection of home movies are tagged as a "TV show" called Home Movies. Within that click one can find a few decades worth of TV Show seasons (which is basically grouping them by year, even in date order (episode tags) within those years). Within those seasons, it's easy to find the "episode" I want to watch.

Computers app lacks the promotional focus, so no pushes for rentals or purchases, subscriptions, sports content, etc. As some boys on a famous Life cereal commercial once pitched: try it, you'll like it (Hey Mikey).

I can’t believe I read all this but basically you have manually done all the work Apple’s supposed to be doing, but they’re too busy trying to extract money from us to give a **** about the actual experience.

Also I wouldn’t be surprised if the “Computers” app quietly disappears in a near future version. Sounds like it has far too much functionality and far too few ads for current Apple. Which is ironic because you are literally “engaged” with it, but what they actually mean is “engaged” with the ads, so that dog won’t hunt.

I don’t have enough hard drive space and don’t want to buy another external hard drive just to download the shows I bought from Apple all so I can just watch them without being harassed.

I’m buying all content from Amazon now because it’s more frequently discounted, the interface is better, and ironically even though their app is even more full of ads, it’s no more difficult to navigate than Apple seems to have purposely made the TV app.

 

[CarAnalogy]

tv app is built on new architecture while the older iTunes apps are just old code and tech at this point. Not an excuse really but Apple tends to pile on layer after layer in apps bloating them. Indeed the tv app will eventually be the new bloated iTunes at some point.

This is the pattern of software development since about 2010. Replace old, working version with new version. Claim new version is lighter and better, but in fact it has less functionality for the user but makes more money for the company. Repeat cycle until all software is worse than it used to be. Keep ratcheting it down and pretty soon these computers will be little more than interactive TVs, just an ad platform which only performs actions approved by the platform owner.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Wow, this is really bad news. I’m glad I haven’t updated iOS yet. I use the movies wish list literally every day. Guess I’m gonna have to move it over to some other list (a list that doesn’t show current prices, which is gonna be dumb). This is likely going to decrease my amount of movie purchases, because I won’t be daily checking prices anymore. Apple’s loss, I guess…

They’ve done the math and they don’t care. They figure that now that discounts are harder to find people will just rent the movies they shove in your face on every single tab of the TV app, except of course the punitively slow loading “library” tab. Which the app cannot be set to open by default, and will always sooner rather than later take you back to the TV+ tab like it or not.

Also they don’t really want people to buy movies. They make more money renting them to you forever at $11 per month. They make just as much money advertising the movies in the TV app ad slot as they do selling them, I’m sure.

 

[USAvalos]

Go back to DVDs & Blu Ray, learn to rip your own (you get to choose the quality, not a corp stranger) and render so you can enjoy your own media in the AppleTV Computers app: tremendous utility for consumers of owned media collections without the endless marketing to buy/rent/subscribe to more. IMO: it's the far better app for media consumption. I just about NEVER open AppleTV app but use Computers app just about every day.

The used video disc market will generally beat the prices of the new digital market... and rolling your own won't put you at the mercy of Studios suddenly deleting a movie or show. You'll also have a built-in backup copy should you suffer any storage catastrophe. If you like extras, you'll have them too. And you'll actually OWN instead of "lifetime

Go back to DVDs & Blu Ray, learn to rip your own (you get to choose the quality, not a corp stranger) and render so you can enjoy your own media in the AppleTV Computers app: tremendous utility for consumers of owned media collections without the endless marketing to buy/rent/subscribe to more. IMO: it's the far better app for media consumption. I just about NEVER open AppleTV app but use Computers app just about every day.

The used video disc market will generally beat the prices of the new digital market... and rolling your own won't put you at the mercy of Studios suddenly deleting a movie or show. You'll also have a built-in backup copy should you suffer any storage catastrophe. If you like extras, you'll have them too. And you'll actually OWN instead of "lifetime lease."

what is the computers app? first time a read about it, i'm interested

 

[Surf Monkey]

It’s telling that not a single person has said ANYTHING positive about these changes or pointed out anything about them that could be seen as a positive for consumers.

Clearly the TV app is not being driven by customer focused developers. It has already become nothing but a user hostile rat’s nest of crap content shoved in your face in hope that you’ll break down and buy something.

This all goes back to Tim Cook. He delegates critical decisions and then seems not to care when when they lead to poor outcomes. Evidently all Tim wants to do is play with his plastic faceplate/helmet toy and try to convince you to pay as much as a used car to join him.

 

[Surf Monkey]

what is the computers app? first time a read about it, i'm interested

It’s the Apple TV interface to Home Sharing.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

what is the computers app? first time a read about it, i'm interested

Default app, orange in color, usually thoroughly ignored but it's right there in every AppleTV.

Organize all of one's own media in Apple Music and Apple TV apps on Mac or iTunes on PC, turn on home sharing to share that media to AppleTV boxes, Open Computers app and enjoy ad-free access to all of the media you own:

• Music & Music Playlists (including all of your ripped music from CDs)
• Movie, home movies, tv shows (including all of your ripped video from UHD, BluRay, DVD)
• Photos & Photos albums (including all of those old photos shot on film and scanned with a scanner)

No cloud required, no pitches to buy/rent other stuff, no teaser content that is trying to lure you into subscribing to services, etc.

It's the second most used AppleTV app in my home, right behind the fantastic Channels app for live TV and personal DVR of any size that I control myself (not others deciding when DVR'd content can be deleted and/or capped size of what can be stored). We very rarely EVER open the AppleTV app.

 

[jz0309]

what is the computers app? first time a read about it, i'm interested

It lets you access movie and music libraries on your Mac

 

[fonzy91]

You can still reach your wish list. Go to iTunes Store App, Music Store Tab. Wish list are still in upper right menu and show everything including movies. But yes they should bring them into the TV App.

This comment right here. Wishlists didn't go anywhere, I checked. Can we all do some research before writing articles and angry comments? lol

 

[dominiongamma]

I wish we could buy movies back in the iTunes app, so muc better then the garbage Apple tv app, Apple should reverse course on this

 

[UltimateSyn]

The lack of Complete Series / Box Sets is more annoying to me. You guys should make an article on it. Some shows don't even have all their seasons available for purchase in the TV Store, while they were readily available in the iTunes Store.

 

[USAvalos]

It’s the Apple TV interface to Home Sharing.

Default app, orange in color, usually thoroughly ignored but it's right there in every AppleTV.

Organize all of one's own media in Apple Music and Apple TV apps on Mac or iTunes on PC, turn on home sharing to share that media to AppleTV boxes, Open Computers app and enjoy ad-free access to all of the media you own:

• Music & Music Playlists (including all of your ripped music from CDs)
• Movie, home movies, tv shows (including all of your ripped video from UHD, BluRay, DVD)
• Photos & Photos albums (including all of those old photos shot on film and scanned with a scanner)

No cloud required, no pitches to buy/rent other stuff, no teaser content that is trying to lure you into subscribing to services, etc.

It's the second most used AppleTV app in my home, right behind the fantastic Channels app for live TV and personal DVR of any size that I control myself (not others deciding when DVR'd content can be deleted and/or capped size of what can be stored). We very rarely EVER open the AppleTV app.

Thank you. Good to know, I really wasn't aware that was a thing, this is very useful

 

[lkrupp]

You can’t please any of the people any of the time it would appear. Users are bellowing about swiping to change watch faces, they are indignant over having to push the side button on their apple watch to get to the Control Center on watchOS 10, the Caps Lock indicator on macOS 14 has been labeled as making a Mac completely useless (their words, not mine). The end of wishlists has some declaring they will sell their Apple TV box and buy an Amazon Fire box. At least a few users are demanding Apple make it possible to return to the old System Preferences in stead of the new Settings menu on macOS. It never ends, the tiniest changes sparking contempt and outrage.

Just look at this very thread.

 

[WiiDSmoker]

Go back to DVDs & Blu Ray, learn to rip your own (you get to choose the quality, not a corp stranger) and render so you can enjoy your own media in the AppleTV Computers app: tremendous utility for consumers of owned media collections without the endless marketing to buy/rent/subscribe to more. IMO: it's the far better app for media consumption. I just about NEVER open AppleTV app but use Computers app just about every day.

The used video disc market will generally beat the prices of the new digital market... and rolling your own won't put you at the mercy of Studios suddenly deleting a movie or show. You'll also have a built-in backup copy should you suffer any storage catastrophe. If you like extras, you'll have them too. And you'll actually OWN instead of "lifetime lease."

How do I get my rips to show in the AppleTV app?

 

[Chazz12]

Time for a shake up at Apple. Tim needs to go. A clear lack of innovation and poor design choices of late.

Take the Car Play share implementation. Everytime the family want to use it they have to re-join. Why does t it remember them for every journey?

And FaceTime continuity camera for AppleTV is absolutely buggy garbage. I’d rather spend £99 on a dedicated camera that works 100%.

Also no way of clearing the viewing history of just one show? I’m trying to rewatch something and it’s really annoying as you have to rewind to the start of each episode and then they don’t automatically start the next one.

The fact that I emailed his office about this issue, as well as submitted bug reports being on the beta, yeah, I agree. This is garbage. They've known about this issue for years, too. When you search it, there are years of people complaining they can't find the wishlist on the Apple TV App, which is where they should have moved it to in the first place.

 

[Chazz12]

sure, I do the same, because the TV app doesn't recognize my ripped movies ... and then there are those who don't have a Mac, they're stuck ...

They can use Plex. I have a Mac and still use it. I've used it for about a decade from when I lived overseas in a third world country and the only movies we could get were the, well, ones that didn't cost as much...lol. Then we would rip them and. put them into Plex. I'm pretty sure it does the meta data for you, too. I could be mistaken as I do remember adding that manually for a lot of them, and some movies are missing it.

 

[Chazz12]

How do I get my rips to show in the AppleTV app?

You can't. I use the Plex Media Server and App on the Apple TV for my ripped media.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

How do I get my rips to show in the AppleTV app?

AppleTV (default) app is basically a media rental/sales/sell subscriptions app. It's mostly about helping Apple make more services revenue.

Computers (default) app is THE app for your own rips of music, movies, tv shows, home movies and photos, as well as any purchases from Apple that you've downloaded to store in your own storage. It's about letting content owners enjoy their own content (instead of Apple and other subscription sellers content).

Home Sharing from either Mac or PC (where all of your media is stored) is key to making this all work.