Series episode is not available on Apple TV

I recieved this response today:

Hello Aaron,

Jon here from the iTunes Store. Shivendra has stepped out of the office, and has asked me to take over their emails.

I understand that you were able to download your purchase of, "Eastern Exposure," but some purchases are missing from your iTunes in the Cloud feature. I can certainly appreciate how eager you must be to have this issue looked into, and I would be more than happy to assist you with this today.

Aaron, thank you for taking interest in the new and exciting feature, iTunes in the Cloud. With iTunes 10.3 or later you can download past app, music, TV show and book purchases without incurring additional charges as long as what you want to download is showing on your Purchased page.

That being said, some content may not be available for download again if its provider no longer offers it on the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore. It also can mean if an item has been modified since your original purchase. When items have been modified, customers who have purchased the item before it was modified no longer can redownload that item because the original file has been removed and replaced with a new (modified) version.

If you are not seeing the item in your Purchased list, but you can find the item in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore, then it means it has been modified. If you cannot find the item in the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore, it means the item has been removed. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Also, please consider that you may have purchased the items from a different account. To make sure this is not the case, I ask that you review your account's purchase history. This will ensure the items not appearing in your Purchased list were in fact purchased from your account or not. To review your purchase history, please consult the following article:

Seeing your iTunes Store purchase history and order numbers

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2727

Now, I strongly advise that you follow the instructions in these articles. They explain how to create and maintain an up-to-date backup of your iTunes library:

How to back up your media in iTunes

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1382

Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

Please be aware that Apple still strongly encourages its customers to back up their purchases regularly to avoid any lost content that cannot be recovered using iTunes in the Cloud.

I hope this information has been helpful. Thank you very much for being part of the iTunes Store family, Aaron. I hope you have a great day.

Sincerely,

Jon

iTunes Store/Mac App Store Customer Support

_______________

Needless to say this didn't solve the problem and Jon clearly didn't understand the issue so this is how I responded.

Jon,

None of those things are the problem.

I bought the episode on my Apple TV, it froze, I backed out and went to restart the episode (within a span of seconds). Instantly, the episode was no longer available to play, when I went to click "buy" it said I had already bought the episode. When I checked in my purchase episodes (in the cloud) it did not show up, but it showed up in my purchase history (within my account).

I could not download it because it was not available to download.

Additionally, I purchased a season pass of Fringe (before I updated my Apple TV) the episodes released before the update show up, but after the update they are not showing up as purchased and the option to purchase a season pass is back. When I click it - it says, "you've already bought a season pass would you like to buy it again."

So, this is a specific problem between Apple TV (since the latest update) and iTunes in the Cloud.

This is not just a problem that I am having either - there a forum on the Apple Support Community that is blowing up with other customers experiencing the same problem.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3389813?answerId=16447884022#16447884022

There are tons of Apple TV users experiencing the same issue. Entire Season passes are no longer showing up on their Apple TV's.

You can purchase a show via the iTunes store on a Mac, then go to your Apple TV and it's not there. You can purchase an episode in Apple TV and it won't remember you bought it and it won't show up in your purchase history in iTunes.

You guys need to address this from a system-wide standpoint. The added functionality of being able to play my purchased TV Shows straight from the cloud was a very welcome addition. Since the latest update that functionality has disappeared. The cloud is doing the opposite of what it is supposed to do.

I sent Eddy Cue this email (he's responsible for the Cloud/iTunes) - you guys might want to send him some as well.

Eddy,

iTunes in the Cloud is not working with Apple TV - big time!

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3389813?tstart=0

Purchased TV Shows are not registering, disappearing, and generally messing up.

Please fix this!

Aaron Hill

This is my latest response from yet another Rep who didn't bother to read the previous interaction I had with the Rep I was passed to her from. This is getting just sad.

At the bottom you can see my initial response to them just throwing more downloads at me, 82 in total and none of which I need. Then her response and just below this my reply back.

I can tell by your response you didn't even bother to read my problem. Thanks for wasting more of my time.

I am not missing the download, which I have repeated over and over. I am missing this episode "The Reckoning" Order No. MGFJ5WMLLG from my Purchased (iTunes in The Cloud) Section within the iTunes store and on all my devices. Issuing me another download does not fix this problem which is why I previously stated I do not need more downloads issued. It's getting very frustrating having to repeat myself over and over only to know the next Rep I get passed off to won't bother to actually read what my issue is.

Please elevate this issue to someone who understands how iTunes in The Cloud works so I can get this resolved and have the access I paid for to this episode.

Thank you.

On Oct 19, 2011, at 10:35 PM, iTunes Store wrote:

Dear Drew,

Laura here from iTunes. I would like to mention before I move on that we are all working together to help answer our customers as soon as possible. That being said, you will experience speaking to different advisors should you require further assistance.

I am sorry to hear that your purchases are not showing up as available to play. I can amine your frustration and anxiety regarding this situation. I will be happy to help.

I have taken a look and it looks like there are 86 downloads posted to your account and awaiting download, so you should be able to restart the download by following these steps on your computer ( if you are unable to download the files from your account, please reply with a screen shot and the text of any errors you have received):

1) Make sure you're using the latest version of iTunes. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Apple website:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download

Note: Installing the latest version of iTunes will not affect your library or any items in your account that you haven't downloaded.

2) Open iTunes. From the Store menu at the top, choose Check for Available Downloads. You can also click this link to do the same thing:

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/checkForPurchases

3) Enter your account name and password when prompted, then click the Check button. Your purchase should begin downloading. If you receive an error message when downloading, try again after turning off any firewall or web-accelerator software that you may have installed.

It has been a pleasure assisting you. Please don't hesitate to write back if you need further assistance. We want to ensure that your issue gets resolved in its entirety. We appreciate your business, thank you for being an iTunes customer!

Sincerely,

Laura

Apple Advisor

iTunes Store / Mac App Store Customer Support

Please Note: I work until 9:00 PM EST today and will be back in tomorrow at 12:30 PM . Thank you for being an iTunes Store Customer!

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you. You may receive an AppleCare survey email; any feedback about my performance that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

It's STILL not there! Do you need me to provide screen captures of the purchased page within my iTunes account? I've checked the purchased page in iTunes on my Mac, iPhone and AppleTv. It's still missing! Issuing me a download does not fix the problem! The purchased page is not the purchased playlist in iTunes! I paid for this show now please elevate this to someone who understands and can fix the problem. Thank you.

Were your issues resolved after contacting apple support? I just submitted this issue again through the appleTV feedback option online and I copied the link to this thread.

"We are having an issue with our season purchase of The Next Great Baker Season 2. The 3rd episode is available on iTunes but not appearing on our Purchased section. When confirming that we had bought the Season Pass, I clicked buy season pass and it asked me if I wanted to buy it again. If not, it said to go to Settings > Downloads. THERE IS NO SECTION on Downloadds in Settings.

I checked online and there are a lot of complaints on this - see thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3389813?tstart=0

that has been running for the past few months already!"

Incredibly frustrating.

I have been having these problems since recently chucking cable in favor of Apple TV, as well. This may not be a solution, but it's what I've found:

• Looking for movies and tv shows purchased via Apple TV aren't showing up where I'd expect in iTunes.
• Instead, I opened iTunes, went to iTunes Store. In the store, I selected the "TV Shows" button on the top. Then in the menu over on the right side, I selected "Purchased."
• Once there, I selected "TV Shows" at the top and then found my shows.
• I downloaded all the episodes.
• Now, things are where I expect them to be.

To Apple's credit, perhaps they're trying to spare us the volume of HD downloads living on our machine? At any rate, if this is the solution, it would be good to find some reference to it in the help files.

PS: I have Roku2 XD in addition to Apple TV. At first I thought I liked the Roku better, because there were so many more options (Hulu+, Amazon Prime, Pandora), but in the end, the Apple TV is better for me (access to iTunes, YouTube, easier to find programs by network, nicer integration overall, Netflix nixes the need for the other services in the end).

:-)

I'm having the exact same issue. New episodes do now show up under "Purchased" on the Apple TV. Anyone have a solution for this? Very frustrating, consindering the potential for a seamless experience...

I'm having the same problem. I purchased the current Season Pass for Grey's anatomy before the season started on my Apple TV. For the first 4 episodes everything worked just fine. I would simply go to PURCHASED on the Apple TV and the new episodes would be available the day after (I'm not sure exactly when they showed up, but I never got around to looking until a day later). We have been on vacation for the past week so I missed this week's episode. It is Saturday (so 2 days after it aired) and the 5th episode is not available. However, if I go to purchase the show again it does show up for $2.99. Unfortunately I forgot to check before applying the latest software update, so I don't know if it has anything to do with that. I also tried to find it using my computer via iTunes and no luck. The first 4 episodes are there as expected, but the 5th one wants me to pay. *sigh* - very frustrated with Apple and TV shows at the moment.

Same issue here. Have several purchased seasons and over half of them are having the same problem as stated above. The other seasons are ok. Apple TV has the latest update and I've never had an issue with the apple TV since I've had it. I'm also having issues with itunes bumping out my saved password and I have to sign back in several times for it to connect to the server. I'm currently downloading episodes onto my macbook to watch on my apple tv though it states that any purchases made would be available via apple tv. I've stopped downloading via my laptop since they were always on apple tv. Not going to be happy if this is what has to be done from here on out.

I am having the same problem. I have 7 season passes across 2 iTunes accounts and none of them on either account have been properly updating. I have been experiencing this problem since installing the latest update. I can still stream episodes I have already watched but I haven't had a single new episode made available to me. I have tried signing out and back into my iTunes accounts, shutting down and turning on the AppleTV, and a full restore to no avail.

I'm having the same issue. New episodes from my Season Passes aren't relfected in the Purchased tab. And it' frustrating.

My strong hunch is that it's not a problem with iCloud or the update to the Apple TV firmware, but with the way the iTunes Store is currnetly handling the "purchased items" tab for Season Passes. The way to verify this it to launch iTunes on your Mac or PC, click on the iTunes Store, and then the "Purchased" tab on the right sidebar. All the Season Pass episodes that you can't download onto the Apple TV should also not show up there. Also, single show purchases seem to be there and show up without issue.

And as others have pointed out, the "direct download" functionality seems to be a different software mechanism. So all those Season Passes still push out episodes that you can download directly on your Mac or PC (or iOS Device) and then stream to your Apple TV from there. That is why I consider this a frustrating issue, but not a "deal killer"—we're still getting the shows, just not the way we want (and expected to be able) to stream them.

FWIW, until this issue cropped up, I've been extremely happy with both the Apple TV as a device and it's integration with the iTunes Store. I'm still very happy with the Apple TV as a Netflix, Airplay, and computer streaming device. I just want this Season Pass/iTunes Store issue fixed ASAP, as do we all.

Orren

I'm having the same issue with The Walking Dead Season 2. Support told me to email itunes support. What bullcrap. I know there is a problem with iCloud because I can't see the episode on my ipad 2 or iphone 4 as well as my Apple TV 2.

iTunes>TV Shows>Purchased.

This is very frustrating and I expect more from Apple to at least acknowledge the problem and let us know they are working on it.