Q: How do I stop iTunes from automatically downloading Apps and Videos that are not already on my computer?

From your iTunes menu bar top of your screen click iTunes > Preferences > Store

Deselect Music / Apps / Books then click OK.

This doesn't work for me carolyn. I tried what you have suggested even tried uninstalling and re-installing itunes.

As well as disabling available download check.

So far the best i can do is disable the simultaneous download option.

Will apple PLEASE address this issue!? Especially for those of us with download caps this is maddening !

I have an idea, but can't try it for (according to iTunes) another 16 to 22 hours after all of Mad Men is downloaded. I'm so excited about that. 500 gigajiggles of data on my hard drive. Thanks, Apple, for not letting any of the aforementioned suggestions to stop the auto-downloading work or providing a simple way to solve this apparently never ending and ubiquitous problem. I've already unchecked the store items boxes, set prefs for not checking, even checked all the videos as "already watched", but nothing works. Every friggin' time I launch iTunes it starts downloading. Probably Apple's revenge for having the audacity of running it under Windows (Bootcamped on an MacBook Pro, but still Windows).

But I digress... here's the idea: Someone, somewhere said they offloaded downloaded videos to their external hard drive. Good. But then d/l starts up again after they do that. So how about this? AFTER you move files over so you can access them later, can't you just put in a dummy text file (for example) and name it the same filename as the one(s) moved so that iTunes "thinks" the file is still there and won't want to download again? Just fool the foolish program? Beat it at its own game?

I'll try this in a few weeks when all my forced (you know, "legitimate", like rape) downloads are finally finished, but in the mean time if anyone else tries it and it works, please let us all know.

That may or may not work because apple (could) perform(s) CRC(MD5/SHA) checks on files to make sure they are complete/legit.

This is so ******! I am so sick of this complete ********, as I have been sick of the complete ******** that is iTunes for almost 10 years now. Every year it's the same, some **** in iTunes that is ******* broken...it's the biggest pile of **** that Apple have ever unleashed on the earth but it persists. Why?

Fix it! No, I and the rest of the world DO NOT want to download the same TV show 1000 times. C'mon, this goes against the Apple philosophy of making things simple and having it just work. As you can see from the pic, every option is unselected but this continues to be a problem. This is so annoying it's #1 in the list of 1st world problems...congratulations Apple, you've finally eclipsed Windows in annoying computing behaviour. Well done, you absolute incompetent twaats.

Same problem here, preferences wont solve it!!! this is so annoying!!!! Apple, get your s### together and fix this crap pls!

Same problems for ages.. purchased thru ipad, watched on apple tv yet still tries to download on ipad or sometimes randomly on my mac as well... ridiculous.

I have the same problem.  I have all the options deselected like you, and old TV shows keep downloading when I start iTunes!  Come on Apple!

Thank God/Jedhi/Chocolate I found this post. I thought it was me, this is a ridiculous flaw Apple, come on please help us, this is the kind of thing I would expect from the PC world of old not Apple, seriously I'm downloading shows I watched 5 years ago, doesn't make any difference what preference rules we set up it downloads the whole lot - please fix it in 2013. Pretty Please!

I have been having this exact same problem for years and I still have no resolution.  I store my iTunes media library folder on an external drive (since my mac mini can only store so much data). I have unchecked every box for automatic downloads that I could find in the preferences menu and yet iTunes still consistently tries to automatically re-download my entire library every time I open iTunes.  THIS IS VERY FRUSTRATING!  It is not clear to me why apple has not resolved this apparently ubiquitous problem yet despite several iTunes updates (the last of which managed to actually create more problems for finding and managing iTunes media files rather than fixing obvious problems like the inability to turn off automatic downloads.

Compounding the problem is that many TV shows seem to only be offered in HD, which I already don't like since it takes up too much memory and takes too much time to download a single show.  I don't have a problem with an HD option, but some things I just want to see for their content. I don't need HD for everything.

APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS!!!!  STOP TORTURING US!!!!

AMEN!  I second that!

I sent a support request to apple and they deleted those shows from my download queue.

It is a ridiculous workaround to a problem that would seem to have a simple solution.

1) Give me an option to disable automatic downloads for TV Shows and Movies, as well as the music and books.

2) When I purchase something, prompt me whether I would like to download immediately or wait for me to download them manually from the cloud.

3) Give us an option via menu, button, or contextual-menu to remove items from our download queue so I don't have to frantically stop all 23 HD 50 GIGABYTES worth of TV and fill out a support request and wait for them to delete it for me.  Not all of us live 10 feet from the internet backbone.

P.S.  

AND GIVE ME MY FRIGGING SCROLL BAR ARROWS BACK!  Ever dealt with a long file before and can't use a scroll wheel because the stupid apple mightymouse ball is perpetually stuck and uncleanable?  Don't force me to use my desktop computer like a touch tablet!

i have the same problem and tried this.

i had a problem with dexter(purchased on ipad) trying to download automatically everytime i opened up itunes on my Imac. i did this and restarted my computer. opened up itunes and it seemed to work. just a thought.

2014, Apple still can't figure out how to make iTunes follow it's own preferences? Just updated to 12.1 and there it goes, trying to download iPad apps to my PC. Really, Apple? How about less innovation in the field of watches and more work on programming. And yes, auto downloads disabled, apps disabled. Doesn't matter. Seeing a thread that started in 2012 still have no resolution gives me little hope that it will ever be addressed. Ridiculous.

Same thing for me....this should be easy...not sure why they will not correct this! Very Annoying