Films disappeared from Apple tv when syncing

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.

If the content was purchased on the tv then when a sync occurs they will be transferred back to itunes, this is what is supposed to happen. If you then want this content to sync back to the tv, you should set your sync options to do this.

If they've disappeared from the tv and you can't find them in itunes, I'd be a little bit worried.

Firstly I'd try a spotlight search for the missing content, and maybe restart the tv (but let any current sync finish first.

If the content is transferring as a result of a current sync I can't be sure whether you'll see them in itunes until its finished, I simply haven't noticed whether they do or don't before. However I do know that the progress bar at the top of itunes will show the progress of any transfers.

I'm not sure how you got into the position of having so much content on the tv without it transferring before. Is this the first time you've synced for a while (or at all)

Is there any way to retrieve the missing films etc or are they gone for good?

If the films have disappeared from your ATV and they're not in your iTunes library, something clearly has gone wrong. You can use the "Report a Problem" link in your iTunes store purchase history for the missing files to request authorization to download them again.

However, it might be a good idea to download a few podcasts and see if they sync back to your iTunes library reliably. The cause of the problem needs to be identified and resolved first, otherwise it will likely happen again. Either there is a problem with your ATV, or there are network connectivity problems.