Apple TV Keeps Selling Me French Versions of Shows

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Level 1

9 points

Apple TV Keeps Selling Me French Versions of Shows

Three or four times now, I've been on the English description show with no evidence of a French version, bought it and found out it was in French with no way to get the English version.

It just happened with Dexter Season 1 which I thought I'd rewatch. It happened with Season 3 of True Blood after I'd watched the first two seasons. It happened with Roy Donovan in a random season as well.

This is not acceptable. This has clearly been going on for years. Apple TV has a problem and needs to fix it.

And I'd really like to be given the chance to watch Dexter in English, so if someone could tell me how to get the language version I paid for, I'd appreciate it.

Yes, I know how to select languages in the UI, and only French is offered. Yes, I know how to use Apple TV and buy things, and no, there is no indication of a choice of languages in the UI, just a description in English.

MacBook, macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 20, 2024 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,088 points

Feb 21, 2024 4:55 PM in response to Mike Barnard

It seems that TV shows to buy from the Store are often available in Canada in two separate language editions. You may thank Quebec for that. The original language English edition as one Store item, and a dubbed French edition as another Store item. Unfortunately, you can’t switch between these at will. To get the wanted edition at the buy moment, I suggest to not use the automatic Buy selection at the top, but instead scroll down to the How to Watch header. It should list all available content providers for this show, and also (language) editions and bundles (separate episode, or season, or complete series).

To distinguish the (original) English edition from the French dubbed edition, look for additional clues as Season vs Saison, and markers such as (VO) vs (VF) vs (FOST) vs (FOSTFR) in the title. (VF) is quite common for Version Français, the other acronyms less so.

To undo an unintended edition purchase, and get the wanted edition instead, please contact the iTunes Store staff.

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2024 7:52 PM in response to Mike Barnard

I’m American and don’t speak French, outside of vaguely remembered phrases from high school.

I assume you did since you’re buying French content.

In the email receipts you received, there is a link to report issues.

I suggest you use it to contact Apple and start the refund process.

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Answer 3

Mike Barnard Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 20, 2024 4:38 PM in response to Johnathan Burger

Not that your questions are well phrased as I'm clearly asserting that French is not a language I'm fluent in, but I'm in British Columbia in Canada — not an automatically French language location —, I have no idea what a Stire is so am assuming it's a typo and I'm not using a VPN.

This is a bog standard Macbook Air with Apple TV where 95% of the time I get English shows and 5% of the time Apple TV decides to sell me French ones without notifying me in advance that it's doing that, as noted in the first post. The problem isn't my configuration, my region or my VPN, it's Apple TV.

Feel free to use translation tools to read what I wrote just as I used translation tools to understand your questions.

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Answer 4

Mike Barnard Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 20, 2024 9:56 PM in response to Johnathan Burger

I suspect you should rethink your hobbies if you have 66,000 Apple community points with this kind of nonsense. Have you considered Reading Comprehension 101?

Regardless, go be useless to someone else.

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