Q: Why won't my iTunes movie rental play or download?

What I did was click on the store tab and then clicked check for available downloads. After this, I had a rented bar and it worked fine.

I have had this problem for several years now, despite new versions of Mac OS X, iTunes, and new Macs. No matter what I do, I cannot playback any video content in iTunes. Currently on the latest version, 12.3.3.17, and El Crapitan 10.11.4, and even a brand new MacBook Pro 15", and still, no go.

Reading all of these posts, which are ALL over the internet, by the way, without a common solution, is frustrating. If Timmy would worry less about gay rights and privacy, we might get something beneficial out of Apple. Instead, just more buggy software and no innovation since he took over.

Anyway, no answer to this problem exists, unless I am missing something.

where do you change this setting?

It is good to know I am not alone with this issue.  I rented a movie from iTunes and the screen remained black when I tried to play it.  After failed attempts of trying the mini player and other suggestions, I called Apple Support.  The first tech support rep gave me a free download and asked me to try downloading the movie again... same thing.  The second tech support rep asked me the same questions and waited on the line for another rep... pointless.  The third tech support rep said the first guy should have told me to delete the first download then attempt to download it again.  I deleted both downloads of the movie.  Downloaded it again, waited 20 minutes on the phone with this guy, and when I pushed play the same exact thing happened... a black screen.  The tech support rep proceeded to tell me that there must be something wrong with this movie file and that I should try downloading it again in 3-4 days.  Are you kidding me?!

Just for laughs I downloaded a different movie and surprise, surprise the same black screen.  I am done with iTunes movies.  I will be on Amazon watching my movies and not wasting my time waiting for downloads.

Me too i just bought deadpool and downloaded it (purchased not rented) and it wont play on any device not even mu iPad Air

only thing i differ with you here is i haven't sent any report to itunes because that is pointless. They never reply and just ignore you anyway. Always have done, always will do. So why send a message to a deaf horse?

Im sick of Apple's m4v files too wont even play on quicktime, and dont let you watch your own purchased movie. I thought that the movie companies let you write on dvd for personal use.. but it seems Apple put so much DRM and HDCP prevention in there its ridiculous, they try to stop you from watching the content you purchase except for in iTunes

Makes you want to go to the pirate bay

Thank you!

agreed. I got the digital version of Deadpool yesterday, and it won't play at all on my PC. I've done just about everything I can think of, and it won't play at all. only thing I can think of, is that the digital version, is HD ONLY, and if your comp display isn't HD, you're SoL.

I don't really want to watch Deadpool, on a tiny little phone, that'll go from 100% battery power, to 5% in just a few minutes with a movie playing, but I may not have a choice. I'm seriously considering just deactivating my account...I shouldn't have to go to great lengths just to play a **** movie here.

SAME PROBLEM!! I tried everything, reauthorizing/reauthorizing didn't work, minelayer didn't work, downloading in SD didn't work, so I finally decided to upgrade my software which took about 2 hours and ruined my movie night. After updating my software... I was able to watch Zootopia. Pretty ridiculous but glad I got it to work. Good luck to you all

De-Authorising and then authorising didn't work. Any suggestions?

Restarting my computer worked perfectly. If it asks if you still want to restart your computer while the movie is downloading, say yes. That's what I did. As soon as my computer restarted it said my movie was ready and started playing right away.

This did not work for me

DO NOT do this or your movie will show "Expired" and be removed from iTunes!

Actually makes sense, given 24 hr viewing deadline.

THis was like a Windoze experience and is fkg disgraceful.

I'm an Apple user since 1984 who thinks this MUST be addressed!

THe above comment is in regards changing the System Clock! as suggested by erockinit

The fact that the iTunes software still does this (just sits there with a black screen without playing anything after pressing play) after 4 years... is amazing.

I Also downloaded Deadpool, it would not start.

Then I went into the audio, subtitles menu....I had "Prefer AC3 Passthrough" checked....as soon as I unchecked it, the movie started playing with 5.1 audio......something I can not do on Netflix..(Silverlight, HTML5 will not pass 5.1)