Error Trying to Watch TV Shows ("An unexpected error occurred")

I just got it working. I tried pulling up my purchased TV shows through Apple's "TV" app and can play them that way. I just can't play them via the "TV Shows" app (as of today).

I am experiencing the same issue. However, thanks to a subsequent respondant, I discovered that I now have to use the TV app, listed near the top of the home screen to playback episodes. The old TV shows app appears to be broken.

I truly do hate change especially when I can see no benefit.

This worked for me too. Couldn’t get new or previously purchased episodes of season 15 RuPauls drag race. Went into TV APP on Apple TV then had to go to up next after starting to play the last episode I purchased, selected the season 15 option that was listed and was able to complete the season there and start watching episode 5

The problem has been resolved. I just updated my AppleTV and everything is working as it should. So, update to the latest version of tvOS and you should be good to go.

I'm personally having this exact problem with Dr Who. My most recent purchases for Dr Who was a multi-season bundle called "The Matt Smith Years". The episodes purchased with this bundle don't show up in the new "🍎 TV" app.

The episodes I purchased as a part of the "The Matt Smith Years" don't show up under "Library" within that app. I currently have to search for "Dr Who" via the "🍎 TV" app 'search' to find all the episodes I purchased.

My hunch, as a software engineer, this seems like the Apple TV backend people are probably working on migrating all of the TV apps functionality to the new "🍎 TV" app and didn't correctly port all the features. In the meantime, they managed to break the old "tv shows iTunes" app

Check your iPhone > Settings > Apple ID, iCloud+, Media & Purchases > Payment & Shipping to see if the Manage Payments includes a currently active Payment Method Card that has not expired. No one else here in this Posting Community has expressed a problem on their iOS Devices, some have said their iOS Devices work fine relative to this issue.

Hope this helps You.

> Not sure if anyone at Apple is aware of this though.

I spent an hour on the phone with apple care explaining the problem, recording a video reproducing the problem, and sending it to them. An issue has been opened and reported to the apple engineering team. They are supposedly now aware of the problem and should have an update within the next 2 weeks.

I'm experiencing the same thing. Worked fine about 24 hours ago (Thurs, 2/9/2023), so it seems like this is likely a temporary issue. As some extra data points, I can play some older-purchased shows fine, and I can play the problematic shows fine on my iPhone. I just can't watch these recently-purchased shows on my Apple TV (even though I could play them fine yesterday).

I'll be searching now to see if there's a way to get in touch with an Apple rep via chat somehow.

There's an issue with their url pages as well. For example with Flash season 8, if you go to the web version of the show pages, (The Flash, Season 8 on iTunes (apple.com)) it seems to be stuck in some kind of loop. I'm assuming this is what's causing the error. Not sure if anyone at Apple is aware of this though.

Same issue happening on my ATV. Only some shows though. Works on the phone app, just not the AppTV.

must be an issue on their side.

Tech support could not give me an explanation. They gave me a refund for Reacher and Titans season 4. Believe me, once I had a problem with my access to ALL my purchases and it took me two years for them to fix it.

we need to unite as a community and put pressure on them. I don’t know about you but I have invested thousands in 4560 films and 760 TV shows. I can’t lose access again.

Updated iPhone > Settings > Payment & Shipping with a currently active credit card but "Apple TV HD" Purchased "NCIS" and "Castle" TV episodes can not be seen on the Apple TV App because a "An unexpected error occurred massage occurs" message appear. Works fine on the iPad > Apple TV App.

Could there be a problem with the Content Providers servers the "Apple TV HD" unit are connected to, this just started to happen. I've tried so many different possible fixes with no success.

Other Purchased TV Shows work fine. Are some of the Content Providers having a problem with their servers or even stopped using these TV Shows for some Policy Reason?

I'm NOT having a "good user experience" with Apple Computer right now. Could someone please define the root cause and fix this condition. Is it Apple Computer or the Content Provider, should I contact the Content Provider?

I DO NOT want a refund, they work on my iPad. Apple TV Support please give us ALL a "good user experience."

Yes. I can look for them on the Apple TV in shows and watch them. But I want to have the same access a week ago.

By the way, a friend from London is having the same situation with his itunes UK TV shows. Random shows get the same error.

Yes and a few more. Apple has our input, they should do their job.

Apple tells all the third party Developers to make their Apps a "Good user experience," now they have one more opportunity and challenge to do the same for their customers. Apple TV App was working find for users, and now it is not for some users. I wonder how many other users are having similar problems?

Users that do not want to spend the time to post about their experiences, please just Post here with a "YES!" so we have a count for Apple.

2 weeks?! That's an unacceptable amount of time to fix a product breaking glitch.