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LIBRARY not working on new AppleTV 4K (2021)

JonDiesel

JonDiesel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 13, 2016
17
58
New Jersey
Hey all, have been having a fun few months trying to get this issue resolved with Apple, but it appears to be a wider spread issue than just me, and applies solely to the new model (2021) AppleTV 4K.

The issue is that the LIBRARY tab in the AppleTV app will not load ANY purchases. It will just show an empty screen with only family sharing (if your account has that enabled), but no Library of purchased content. The issue seems to pertain to others like myself who have large purchased content libraries (>1000), and might be some sort of caching issue with loading the content on this device.

I have contacted Apple support about it via their forums and through email, been told they are "looking into it" but its been a few months now and still no fix. There are many people that echo my issue with the same AppleTV 4K model who have also claimed that Apple has been ignoring the issue and not fixing it. Some have even brought their devices into Apple stores to be replaced (which obviously didn't fix the issue).

Not sure what to do about it besides try posting about this in other places, but we've already been posting about it on the Apple Support community and Reddit, as seen here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252790524

https://www.reddit.com/r/appletv/comments/nkox06


Does anyone have any idea how to get their Support team to get off their asses and fix something like this? It feels like a slap in the face to long-term customers to just ignore it like they have been doing.
 
Personally I’d say to just not bother using the ATV app for movies, just use the Movies app instead and then scroll over to the Purchased tab.
 
it's a problem seemingly ONLY with the newest model AppleTV 4K from 2021. I have two of the previous ones (as well as two of the new ones) as set top boxes in my home, and the issue is solely happening on the new devices. I have tried all different versions of firmware, as well as the beta versions on one of them.

Others seem to have the same issue, but again it only seems to be on the new model from 2021.

And yeah I have something like 2000 movies in my library, and even on the older model it takes a while to load them all but it at least does load them. This model seems to just time out after about 10 seconds and display a blank page.

Also I had considered the idea of just using the "Movies" app but the TV app has all the 4K content separated (which is very convenient) so myself and the others with the issue enjoy using it for that reason
 
Has anyone heard of a fix for this? I updated to beta tvOS 15 and it didn’t help. My gen 1 Apple TV 4K continues to work correctly.
 
I found a work around as neither Apple Care or the Genius Bar at the Apple Store could find the problem or seemed to care despite being one of their best customers. The Apple Store at least replaced my 1st Gen 4K Apple TV which did nothing. The issue is the large size of the collection. It’s truly embarrassing for a tech company of any kind, let alone Apple to not be able to handle a large collection. It’s not like they’re actually stored on the device.

Anyway, the work around is to delete (hide) your movies slowly until there are none and then slowly bring them back 20-50 at a time. This will only allow your collection to be in the library, not to be updated very well with new purchases you make in the future (although for a little bit it will update accurately) It’s a giant pain in the ass as I have almost 3300 movies spread over 4 countries, but luckily this doesn’t happen for my smaller collection in the US, UK and Australia, just Canada because I have over 2000 movies there.

There can sometimes be glitches in removing all your movies whether done slowly or all at once, but they eventually are fixed with repeated re-sign ins. I only found this work around because I naturally have always troubleshooted tech and get things to eventually work or in the case of my Dell 4K Inspiron 4 years ago completely destroy and never buy a PC again (Macbook Air user since 2018). I am going to buy the new 2022 Apple TV on November 3, 2022 and if I still have issues I will be suing Apple for not letting me enjoy my massive Apple collection by not fixing a known issue that prevents updating or even display of my purchased content. I may actually bring a class action suit to get their attention. This is not how you treat your most loyal customers.
 
WeShouldSueApple79 said:
I found a work around as neither Apple Care or the Genius Bar at the Apple Store could find the problem or seemed to care despite being one of their best customers. The Apple Store at least replaced my 1st Gen 4K Apple TV which did nothing. The issue is the large size of the collection. It’s truly embarrassing for a tech company of any kind, let alone Apple to not be able to handle a large collection. It’s not like they’re actually stored on the device.

Anyway, the work around is to delete (hide) your movies slowly until there are none and then slowly bring them back 20-50 at a time. This will only allow your collection to be in the library, not to be updated very well with new purchases you make in the future (although for a little bit it will update accurately) It’s a giant pain in the ass as I have almost 3300 movies spread over 4 countries, but luckily this doesn’t happen for my smaller collection in the US, UK and Australia, just Canada because I have over 2000 movies there.

There can sometimes be glitches in removing all your movies whether done slowly or all at once, but they eventually are fixed with repeated re-sign ins. I only found this work around because I naturally have always troubleshooted tech and get things to eventually work or in the case of my Dell 4K Inspiron 4 years ago completely destroy and never buy a PC again (Macbook Air user since 2018). I am going to buy the new 2022 Apple TV on November 3, 2022 and if I still have issues I will be suing Apple for not letting me enjoy my massive Apple collection by not fixing a known issue that prevents updating or even display of my purchased content. I may actually bring a class action suit to get their attention. This is not how you treat your most loyal customers.
Click to expand...
Did you have any luck with the 2022 Apple TV 4K?
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately the issue persists. It seems to be an Apple TV App bug regardless of Hardware, Software Updates and does not affect iTunes Movies App or smaller collections. Only Apple can solve this issue with their engineers working on the issue, but I made them aware of it December of 2021 and here we are. For now my workaround seems to be the only current solution, but it is not a permanent solution. Hope this helps. I would advise against buying the new 2022 Apple TV until they solve this issue otherwise it will feel like nothing has changed whatsoever for you. Good Luck everyone. I told Apple that if we don’t get a reasonable solution soon that we may very well pursue a class action lawsuit to get a refund at a minimum for our huge investment we cannot fully enjoy without great effort. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Fingers crossed that they take us seriously. Don’t exactly look forward to take on a Trillion dollar plus company in court.
 
This issue only affects the TV app though doesn’t it, no such issue using the Movies app?
If so then why even bother with the TV App Library, granted you should expect it to just work but if the easiest solution is to just use the purchased section of the movies app then just use that instead.
 
-Gonzo- said:
This issue only affects the TV app though doesn’t it, no such issue using the Movies app?
If so then why even bother with the TV App Library, granted you should expect it to just work but if the easiest solution is to just use the purchased section of the movies app then just use that instead.
Click to expand...
Because the Apple TV App shows all the 4K movies in a group; the Movies app does not.
 
mpeele4 said:
Because the Apple TV App shows all the 4K movies in a group; the Movies app does not.
Click to expand...
Fair enough, for me it’s more important I find something to watch rather than whether it’s 4K or not.
That 4K section was most definitely more useful when it used to show the 4K count in tvOS 12, it’s a shame they removed it.
 
Also if I wanted to just use the iTunes movie app I could have just used a Roku for a lot less. FYI this issue affects all 3 generations of Apple TV 4K because it’s the Apple TV App that’s the issue not the hardware. Apple are aware of the issue but haven’t fixed it yet (if ever). As for collections of 1000 movies it seems to be okay with that amount. Not sure where the problem begins to take effect but if I were to guess then I would say after 1500 movies or so.
 
WeShouldSueApple79 said:
Also if I wanted to just use the iTunes movie app I could have just used a Roku for a lot less.
Click to expand...
You could but then the iTunes movie app isn’t available on a Roku, that’s only got the ATV app.

I did see someone mention elsewhere that their large library finally populated after around 6 hours on the 3rd gen.
It is a weird issue for sure as I believe if you access your library from another family sharing profile then the library populates fine.
 
Same issue here. No purchases show up in the tv App Library on the new 2022 model and only on this device. They show up on every other device with the tv app. This includes the iPhone, iPad, PS5 and Xbox. All purchases show up there in the tv App Library. I have 2 of the ATV 2022 models and neither displays them.
 
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