Marking videos as "watched"

Question

Marking videos as "watched"

I have the new Apple TV. It works great. However, today I noticed something odd. I have TV shows on my computer in iTunes and both devices use Home Sharing. Everything works great and I watch the TVs from the Computer on the Apple TV. However, when a show concludes, my old Apple TV will mark the show as "Watched" on the computer there by allowing my other devices (iPads, iPods etc) to see the show as watched and not sync them. The new Apple TV does not mark shows as watched.

If I hold down the remote button and get the pop up dialog to manually mark the show as watched, the new Apple TV crashes and reboots.

Anyone else having this issue? I have 2 new apple tvs, in different rooms and I have confirmed that this happens on both. Manually marking a show as "watched" causes the new Apple TV to crash and reboot.

Mac Pro (2009), iPad Wifi, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Oct 23, 2010 8:29 AM

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Answer 1

Mar 30, 2017 10:47 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

I was able to resolve this in iTunes 12 by making the two preferences settings below. No idea why that fixed it.

Preferences > Downloads > Always check for available downloads (uncheck)

Preferences > Store > Sync Playback information across devices (uncheck)

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Answer 2

Oct 23, 2010 8:36 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Not seeing the crash, here...
However, I am seeing that if I let a video play to the very end, the video will not automatically Mark as Played.

If I stop within the last 2-3 minutes (ala Credits), than the video is properly flagged as Played.

What I would suggest is that if you are seeing crashes on the AppleTV when you do that action that you try Restoring it via iTunes. Please note, to restore the AppleTV via iTunes, you will need a MicroUSB Cable. These are common for syncing Blackberries and LG Mobile Phones. If you've ever had one of these, than you probably have one sitting around your house.

I personally needed to restore both of my AppleTVs before they would "reliably" work. The first didn't even turn on.

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Answer 3

Oct 23, 2010 8:49 AM in response to Tyson Edwards

Wow? really? These two Apple TVs are brand new...

On your other note though, I did go back and try it again with different TV shows. Shows purchased on iTunes (Castle, Lost, etc) mark and unmark just fine. Shows I encoded from my personal DVD collection however, cause the crash.

Based on your observation, I tried to watch a show (purchased), stopping it during the credits. At this point, the apple tv DID mark it as watched. I redid the same thing with the same show, letting the credits play through until the end of the file, the apple tv DID NOT mark it as watched. Odd.

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Answer 4

Nov 3, 2010 12:02 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

I am seeing this "watched" issue as well with my Gen2 AppleTV and oddly with FrontRow as well. I think the common culprit is iTunes 10.

Still searching for answers.

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Answer 5

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

Nov 3, 2010 12:13 PM in response to Christopher Mercer

Me too. I don't even get the manual pop up. But I will try stopping during the credits to see if that works.

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Answer 6

Nov 14, 2010 9:01 AM in response to Christopher Mercer

Updating to iTunes 10.1 did not solve the problem. The Apple TV still fails to mark television shows and movies as watched. I am going to try connecting one of my new apple TVs to iTunes and attempting to restore it. I will post the results shortly.

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Answer 7

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Nov 14, 2010 9:06 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Andrew Mcvinnie wrote:
Updating to iTunes 10.1 did not solve the problem. The Apple TV still fails to mark television shows and movies as watched. I am going to try connecting one of my new apple TVs to iTunes and attempting to restore it. I will post the results shortly.

that's because it's not an itunes issue. it's an appletv software issue, and won't be resolved until there is an update to the appletv software.

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Answer 8

Nov 14, 2010 9:32 AM in response to Chenks

Chenks wrote:

that's because it's not an itunes issue. it's an appletv software issue, and won't be resolved until there is an update to the appletv software.

I was attempting to verify this problem and test a hypothesis. Above in the thread, someone suggested that they had success with a restore. It can be safely assumed that it is a bug in the AppleTV software, but since iTunes does have a hand in the operation, it is also plausible that iTunes 10 might be causing the issue. I was trying to replicate and verify that a restore might fix the problem. Add this been the case, then it would suggest that the OS shipped on the ATV is different than the one obtained through a restore. This is however, not the case.

After restoring my AppleTV, it still crashes and restarts when trying to mark shows as "Watched." It also does not correctly mark a show as "Watched" when the end of a show is reached.

Hopefully, Apple reps read these and report the issues.

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Answer 9

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Nov 14, 2010 10:11 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Andrew Mcvinnie wrote:
After restoring my AppleTV, it still crashes and restarts when trying to mark shows as "Watched." It also does not correctly mark a show as "Watched" when the end of a show is reached.

mine doesn't "crash and restart" when manually marking something as watched.

Hopefully, Apple reps read these and report the issues.

they don't

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Answer 10

Nov 14, 2010 11:23 AM in response to Chenks

Chenks wrote:
mine doesn't "crash and restart" when manually marking something as watched.

Generally, when one isn't experiencing a problem listed in a post, or does not have anything useful to add, one should just remain silent. Clearly other people involved in this discussion have the same issue. But thanks, you've been a great help.

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Answer 11

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Nov 14, 2010 11:28 AM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Andrew Mcvinnie wrote:
Generally, when one isn't experiencing a problem listed in a post, or does not have anything useful to add, one should just remain silent. Clearly other people involved in this discussion have the same issue. But thanks, you've been a great help.

so you don't think it's useful to know if there is someone who doesn't have the same issue? know that might help investigation of the issue (where you can compare configurations etc).

how could anyone gauge how widespread an issue is if only people how have the issue are involved in the discussion? you clearly don't have any test environment experience.

at no point did i say the issue didn't exist. i merely added that i did not experience the issue.

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Answer 12

Nov 15, 2010 1:10 PM in response to Chenks

I disagree that this is an Apple TV issue since the same issue is seen with FrontRow since the release of iTunes 10. 10.1 also does not solve either issue.

Content watched on the AppleTV that is stored in iTunes or on a mac using FrontRow is not marked as "Watched" properly. With the AppleTV it is left as "Unwatched" with FrontRow it is half "Watched" or in progress.

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Answer 13

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Nov 16, 2010 1:31 AM in response to Christopher Mercer

Christopher Mercer wrote:
I disagree that this is an Apple TV issue since the same issue is seen with FrontRow since the release of iTunes 10. 10.1 also does not solve either issue.

the issue is not present on the first generation appletv with itunes 10.x.

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Answer 14

Nov 16, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Chenks

I have this issue with the new apple tv. I didn't with the old one.

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Answer 15

Nov 22, 2010 12:11 PM in response to Andrew Mcvinnie

Apple TV Update 4.1 solves this problem. When a show/move is concluded, it is now properly marked as "Watched." Also, holding down the remote button to manually mark a show as "Watched" also works. It no longer reboots the Apple TV.

Hope this problem is solved for everyone. TTFN!

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