Q: itunes is currently unavailable

Appears to be working without changing or touching anything again.  I see others say that an ATV update was available but my system is not seeing it.  Not sure if everyone requires an update or not.  Running 7.0.2

Replying to this since I was here from thread start and now it's finally working again. 7-8 days later.

It's not really clear in what way to interact with apple in a situation like this:

• No chat or mail options for support in Sweden
• Nowhere does it state what support is free or not, just that it's probably not if you dont have apple care or you are outside the 90 day time span from date of purchase.
• Logical place to start looking for support is "apple tv" - "problems with itunes" but I guess that was the wrong way to go (ofc...)

And finally this:

....but then again we don't know what the problem was or indeed whether it was Apple's problem or whether Apple fixed it.

what alternatives would you consider logical? Apple had some hardware issue and because of that we can't blame them? The "internet" acted up for a week? Not to be rude but c'mon this is just silly.

Anyhow problem solved for now.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me...

It's not really clear in what way to interact with apple in a situation like this:

• No chat or mail options for support in Sweden
• Nowhere does it state what support is free or not, just that it's probably not if you dont have apple care or you are outside the 90 day time span from date of purchase.
• Logical place to start looking for support is "apple tv" - "problems with itunes" but I guess that was the wrong way to go (ofc...)

I believe you can schedule a call in Sweden.

As I stated previously support related to your account and warranty is free, everything else requires AppleCare.

And finally this:

....but then again we don't know what the problem was or indeed whether it was Apple's problem or whether Apple fixed it.

 

what alternatives would you consider logical? Apple had some hardware issue and because of that we can't blame them? The "internet" acted up for a week? Not to be rude but c'mon this is just silly.

I assume you are unaware that Akamai Technologies and Level 3 Communications provide the hosting services for iTunes content for Apple. Now I don't know if the problem had anything to do with these companies, but it does perhaps make you wonder who's statement without being rude is well just silly.

You could have found out who to contact and how and avoided jumping to conclusions about what the problem was by asking, although I would recommend you start your own thread for better responses as most helpers here will avoid looking at long 'me too' threads like this.

Winston Churchill wrote:

 

You could have found out who to contact and how and avoided jumping to conclusions about what the problem was by asking, although I would recommend you start your own thread for better responses as most helpers here will avoid looking at long 'me too' threads like this.

As I did ofc, a week ago. I wonder who was first to reply?

I consider this issue and debate closed now.

Glad to see that you're back up and running in UK.

Does your "Movie Genres" option work properly?

i was was able to get a credit for five (5) $4.99 rentals as compensation for the inconvenience If the outage.

It took several emails back and forth before they understood what I wanted. Open a ticket on the support site and explain the problem and ask for compensation for your inconvenience.

At least they were willing to throw me some free movie rentals.

ITs December 13, I am still experiencing the original problem described int his post.  Trying to play Itunes match directly in Apple TV, after a few seconds zi get the message "Itunes is currently unavailable". No changes or fixes in my Apple TV can fix it.. It's a problem either with the he software or ITunes server.  Apple needs to fix this soon, playing in Apple TV is a key feature offered on iTunes Match.

The widespread problem was fixed in their back end (in fact we're listening to iTunes Match right now on the Apple TV), so I'd try all the other hacks advised here and elsewhere (signing out, restarting, updating, updating from laptop with USB cable, etc. etc. etc.). If none of that works and you've still got support for the box, you can call and talk to someone or take it down to an Apple store.

January 19 and 20. Since yesterday, I am having the same issues as discussed here in detail. Restarted everything connected to my network twice and still getting the message iTunes is currently unavailable. I am using a black ATV2. This is for purchased TV shows. On my Mac, no issues and I found a way around the problem by streaming from the Mac. Still, I'd prefer playing the content directly on my ATV.

netflix and Hulu work fine, speed test shows >40Mps on my Wifi and the ATV is connected to ethernet via cable.

apple! Please fix your issues!

Re: New episodes available for download - The Blacklist, Season 2 AND Shark Tank, Season 6

WILL NOT PLAY...AGAIN. BOTH NEW EPISODES SHOW UP ON APPLE TV, but:

"THE ITUNES STORE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE. TRY AGAIN LATER" ...AGAIN! (as of now: for two hours).

Can you imagine turning on "normal" TV to see a show or sporting event or BREAKING NEWS

and seeing a message that says, "Try again later".

iTunes store is UP and store PLAYS older episodes, but not the new ones.

THIS IS A BUG!

REBOOTED the Apple TV. (Unreliable crap, requiring frequent rebooting. I have 4.)

NO HELP.

I had always hesitated to PURCHASE TV episodes  and especially MOVIES for fear that I would someday NOT BE ABLE to access them...if, for example, Apple went out of business. BUT here we are and Apple is still (sort of) in business, BUT NOT AVAILABLE AND NOT RELIABLE. I WILL NOT PURCHASE ANY MORE TV OR MOVIES FROM APPLE TV.

NO WONDER "Tim" lowered the price on Apple TV.

NOTE, However, that I WAS able to download the new Blacklist episode to my iPhone (using up valuable real estate, so I'll have to delete it) AND play it through AirPlay (one of the RARE TIMES AIRPLAY WORKED).

Apple is really screwed and screwed up. TIM HAS FAILED US.

Apple died when Steve jObs was fired years ago, and now that he's dead, it will fail again.

Back to ROKU! (I have two, never had a problem with them, never had to reboot.)

And… ON TO SAMSUNG GALAXY phones! (We currently have 3 iphone 6+, not to mention past iPhone 5s's and 5's. Never 4...thought an Apple Phone was a bad idea. I was right... So MANY things don't work with the iPhone 6+ and iOS 8, and , strangely, NO ONE is reporting them to us ONLINE.)

(A friend just texted a picture from her Galaxy 5. The clarity was so outstanding, it was blinding.

Our iPhone 6 PLUS's (and 5s) make the pictures look like they have the photoshop painted "Sprayed Strokes" effect applied. Very bad.)

I'm having problems accessing the latest episodes of Arrow and The Flash.

Both of them are showing "THE iTUNES STORE IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE".

But I can watch everything else I've purchased.

I've reset, signed in and out and cannot access those two episodes on Apple, but I can get them on Hulu.

Time to call Apple again!

Workaround!

if you are having problems accessing the latest episodes of purchased TV shows, add the series to your Favorites and then you can access them. I had problems accessing the latest Flash and Arrow episodes until I added them to Favorites. Now they're playing!

SImilar problem and a escape solutio.

When i try to read the last Tv show i buy (and Only the last) from BUY menu of the Apple Tv i have the message : ITUNES UNAVAILABLE. But the older show no problmes. I can read from my computer without problem. Seem a problem since the last update.

But when i try to rea the show with problem from main menu (main bar with picture of the show) i can read the show without problem.

Using my Apple TV, last night I started watching the latest episode of a TV show that I had purchased.  Today, when trying to resume, I persistently got the message that the iTunes Store was unavailable, and that I should try again later.  This failure was ONLY for the partially-viewed episode: I could watch any of the other episode.  I tried resetting the device by cycling the power, by resetting from the menu, but none of these worked.

From my Mac I downloaded the same episode that triggered the iTunes Store unavailable message on my Apple TV.  This demonstrated that the iTunes Store was okay.

Workaround

By trial and error I found that the error only happens when selecting the TV show from "Purchased" and then attempted to play the lone problem episode.  This episode plays without problem when I select the same TV show from "Top TV Shows" and then select the episode.

Yes! Let's "workaround" ALL the Apple bugs on iTunes store, AppleTV, Mac/Mac OSX, iPhone/iOS!