TIL that rented iTunes movies purchased from iOS devices cannot be watched in Apple TV

[striders]

Rented a movie last night from my computer (did not download the movie) with the hope I can watch it later on my Apple TV. I couldn't find the rented movie under "Purchased". Start researching and found this:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201611

If you rented the movie on your computer, but want to watch it on an iOS device, connect the devices and sync using USB. When you move a rented movie from your computer, it will disappear from your computer’s iTunes library. You can move the movie between devices as often as you want, but you can only have it on one device at a time.

If you rented the movie on your iOS device or Apple TV, you can’t move it to any other device.

I thought that, as long as I have NOT downloaded the rented movie, iTunes will recognize that there is a rented movie "pending" to be downloaded and I can download it once on ANY device I registered to.

 

[NameUndecided]

It's really amazing that this limitation still exists. Unless a person is already aware or has heard of this, there's really no reason to suspect that a rented movie wouldn't show up in your overall account like any other iTunes purchase.

I think the best thing you could do is contact Apple support and ask for a refund or exchange and tell them that you didn't know about this crazy-dumb rule of theirs (maybe phrase it better). Usually their support is pretty understanding and helpful with these kinds of things. And also it'll act as a bit of feedback that they should really fix this.

 

[Darth.Titan]

Just download it to the computer you rented it from, and watch it from the Apple TV using home sharing.

 

[striders]

It's really amazing that this limitation still exists. Unless a person is already aware or has heard of this, there's really no reason to suspect that a rented movie wouldn't show up in your overall account like any other iTunes purchase.

I think the best thing you could do is contact Apple support and ask for a refund or exchange and tell them that you didn't know about this crazy-dumb rule of theirs (maybe phrase it better). Usually their support is pretty understanding and helpful with these kinds of things. And also it'll act as a bit of feedback that they should really fix this.

Thanks for the suggestion. I emailed iTunes support and hopefully they'll understand.

 

[striders]

Just download it to the computer you rented it from, and watch it from the Apple TV using home sharing.

Good point, but it took me sometime to realize that the restriction was put in place by Apple. I thought something was wrong with my iTunes account or AppleTV, it was really confusing.