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Something wonky is happening between MoviesAnywhere and iTunes. Library fluctuates live.

shinseiromeo

shinseiromeo

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 8, 2017
391
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Over the past week I have had titles that are 4K on MA and my UV master library, that have now disappeared from my 4K/HDR list on iTunes on my Apple TV 4k. Here are some details:

iTunes library shows 1025 titles owned. 155 in 4K/HDR.

Since last week I’ve watched a couple titles drop off the 4K list on my Apple TV 4K, Batman Begins and Spider-Man, which is from a trilogy code. Spider-Man 2 & 3 still show in 4K. Every couple days my 4K count changes. This morning I completely disconnected all libraries as well as reset my Apple TV 4K. I waited about 20 minutes, reconnected all accounts and what happens next just doesn’t make sense.

Apple TV 4K library shows 158 titles in 4K! Great that’s more than before and it fixed my missing titles issue. Wait a minute... 157... 156... 155... 154... 155... 154...

I literally watched the library fight itself and the numbers kept changing, settling on 154, one lower than where I started before I reconnected my accounts.

What the heck is going on lately? I have about 20 new digital copy codes I’m waiting to redeem and am afraid to with the issues lately.
 
I'd like to add to the above.

I just got off the phone with apple support, specifically Apple TV 4k. They said essentially to bugger off, that since the disappearing films were not purchased directly in iTunes, they will not help me. Only Apple TV 4k is affected, my iPhone 8 plus shows the disappearing films in HDR without issue.
 
An update to this post:

I spent some time yesterday on the phone with MoviesAnywhere. We disconnected all of my libraries and started playing from there. It is their belief at this point that the cause is owning multiple versions of the same movie in one retailer, such as VUDU, is causing syncing issues with MA to iTunes.

As an example, I own three copies digitally of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Last night after de-syncing and re-syncing, the titles would randomly show up in my 4K category on my Apple TV 4K. I can watch the movie in 4k, they deleted the HD version off my MA account, the movie would then play in 4K on my Apple TV. Then we would sync libraries again, the movie disappeared from my 4K library and playback was in HD.

So far the affected titles on my end that randomly disappear and re-appear are Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, & Spider-man, Spider-man 2, Spiderman 3, plus one what I cal 'ghost movie' that I cannot figure out what keeps disappearing. MoviesAnywhere's opinion so far is it's a sort of handshake issue where the different owned versions fight over what shares to other retailers.
 
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Yep that’s exactly the issue. I have some of the same titles doing that intermittently. MA and iTunes need to figure out why iTunes can’t just see all transactions and prefer the highest resolution owned.
 
OP if you have an iTunes version of the same movie. Can’t you hide it in iTunes so only the Vudu version ports over?
 
I believe the issue is solely from UV versions of the movies. I figured out my ‘ghost movie’ too, Pacific Rim. I recently redeemed the 4K code and that title also disappears randomly from my 4K list on Apple TV 4K.
 
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MA & iTunes integration is a mess. iTunes randomly reads the the quality you own in MA transaction history.

Some of the old titles from Disney movie anywhere that got upgraded from SD to HD have been downgraded to SD (randomly not all).

You can't upgrade a title from HD to 4K if it was transferred over to iTunes in HD via MA. Your only option is to gift it to yourself but it will transfer to MA in HD.

MA says call Apple. Apple support seems to have no idea what MA is. No one is taking responsibly and the consumers (us) have no idea if this is even being addressed.

Walmart / VUDU has gotten it right, why can't Apple / iTunes? If someone know how to escalate and get answers that would be great.
 
The SD downgrade and bouncing of HD to 4K appear to be fixed as of this afternoon.

Still need Apple to answer for why we can't upgrade or why the gift is stuck with an HD license when it costs the same as 4K (not talking about the auto upgrade).
 
Larsennet said:
The SD downgrade and bouncing of HD to 4K appear to be fixed as of this afternoon.

Still need Apple to answer for why we can't upgrade or why the gift is stuck with an HD license when it costs the same as 4K (not talking about the auto upgrade).
Click to expand...

THIS.
They need to provide more clarification about all of this and especially about the auto upgrade. To my knowledge there has been no official clarification stating the movies bought elsewhere do not upgrade to 4k. That was determined by forum members I believe.
 
I have had this issue for awhile and no luck with Apple support, I bought and have the receipt for a movie but that movie does not show up on Apple TV called support and they see I bought it and walked me thru downloading it to my computer great still not on Apple TV. So the movie was Ironman 2 I also own iron man 1 so now iron man 3 is purchased and Apple ted to movies anywhere Apple TV shows I have Ironman 1 twice and now 2 and 3 are missing very frustrating an no help from support
 
kylew1212 said:
THIS.
They need to provide more clarification about all of this and especially about the auto upgrade. To my knowledge there has been no official clarification stating the movies bought elsewhere do not upgrade to 4k. That was determined by forum members I believe.
Click to expand...

At the end of the following article there is a clarification claimed to be sourced directly from Apple:
https://hdgear.highdefdigest.com/52427/moviesanywhere.html

Here is the relevant text:
  • If you PURCHASED a movie or REDEEMED a Digital Copy IN iTunes AND it's available in iTunes in 4K, you get a free 4K upgrade and will be able to play that back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
  • If you PURCHASED a digital movie in 4K somewhere else, like VUDU, AND it's available in iTunes in 4K, you'll be able to play this title back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
  • If you REDEEMED a Digital Copy code from a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray somewhere else AND it's available in iTunes in 4K AND that specific movie studio allows for 4K redemption on this specific title, you'll be able to play that back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
But...
  • If you PURCHASED an HD version of a movie on VUDU, or one of the other streaming services, it will only playback in HD even when there is a 4K copy available in iTunes.
  • If you REDEEMED a Digital Copy from an HD Blu-ray in Movies Anywhere or VUDU or Ultraviolet, it will playback in HD even when there is a 4K copy available in iTunes. Please also note that some studios sell 4K Blu-rays with "HD" Digital Copies included.
What throws me is that there is a pretty big difference between purchased and redeemed in the second and third bullet. In my library I just see a bunch of titles. I can't remember what's been purchased and what's been redeemed. Of those purchased, I can't remember which was purchased where, and which was transferred. And I only have 40 or so movies. OP has over a thousand.

And even if you did know, how do you know if "that specific movie studio allows for 4K redemption on this specific title". I mean, yeah, I know there's a Google Docs spreadsheet for that, but the whole thing is ridiculous.
 
Last edited:
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ActionableMango said:
At the end of the following article there is a clarification claimed to be sourced directly from Apple:
https://hdgear.highdefdigest.com/52427/moviesanywhere.html

Here is the relevant text:
  • If you PURCHASED a movie or REDEEMED a Digital Copy IN iTunes AND it's available in iTunes in 4K, you get a free 4K upgrade and will be able to play that back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
  • If you PURCHASED a digital movie in 4K somewhere else, like VUDU, AND it's available in iTunes in 4K, you'll be able to play this title back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
  • If you REDEEMED a Digital Copy code from a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray somewhere else AND it's available in iTunes in 4K AND that specific movie studio allows for 4K redemption on this specific title, you'll be able to play that back in 4K on the Apple TV 4K.
But...
  • If you PURCHASED an HD version of a movie on VUDU, or one of the other streaming services, it will only playback in HD even when there is a 4K copy available in iTunes.
  • If you REDEEMED a Digital Copy from an HD Blu-ray in Movies Anywhere or VUDU or Ultraviolet, it will playback in HD even when there is a 4K copy available in iTunes. Please also note that some studios sell 4K Blu-rays with "HD" Digital Copies included.
What throws me is that there is a pretty big difference between purchased and redeemed in the second and third bullet. In my library I just see a bunch of titles. I can't remember what's been purchased and what's been redeemed. Of those purchased, I can't remember which was purchased where, and which was transferred. And I only have 40 or so movies. OP has over a thousand.

And even if you did know, how do you know if "that specific movie studio allows for 4K redemption on this specific title". I mean, yeah, I know there's a Google Docs spreadsheet for that, but the whole thing is ridiculous.
Click to expand...


I agree with the things you said. I also did not know about the bullets, so thank you very much for the clarification.

Apple needs to clearly present definition of the movie you own. Ideally it would be similar to Vudu and say "You own HD," "you own UHD," etc. then never change unless a new copy was purchased, or the definition was upgraded by buying an upgrade (I know this doesn't exist but it should).
 
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