Why won't my iTunes movies sync to my iPad?

I am having the same issue.

itunes recognizes the ipad but it will not let me check the boxes next to my movies to sync them.

I also cannot download itunes on the ipad. I ckick the download button and instead of downloading it asks me to send myself the link which I do not want to do.

Obviously the sync should not happen very quickly at all since it takes some time to sync one movie let alone several. A couple of things that you can check .....

You are signed into the correct ID on the iPad in Settings>iTunes and App Stores>Apple ID.

The movies are not content restricted in Settings>General>Restrictions>Allowed Content>Movies.

In iTunes on the Mac, you have not selected Manually Manage Music and Videos.

It sounds like you are doing everything exactly the way that you should be doing it.

You could fiddle around with a number of other troubleshooting steps, or you could cut right to the chase and restore the iPad iOS software, which is what I think you may ultimately have to do anyway. I know that seems kind of far fetched with a brand new iPad, but that should get right to the heart of the problem and it should fix it.

Transfer all purchases from the iPad into iTunes, sync with iTunes, backup the iPad, restore the iOS software, restore from the backup, and then sync with iTunes again and the movies should sync to the iPad.

iTunes: Restoring iOS software - Support - Apple

I have recently seen a number of users with brand new devices that have had problems syncing their purchased content, and it seems like more often than not, restoring the iOS was necessary and ultimately fixed the issues.

Hi guys if you cant sync movies i have alternative way ..

1.download PlayerXtreme at the apps store

2. when it finish downloading, plug you device to you pc/mac

3. choose your device and click at the apps tab

4. then at the bottom you can see file sharing then click the PlayerXtreme

5. at the right side, you can see "add.." and "save to.."

6. now choose add then browse the movie you want

it can play any format ^_^ thats all

sorry for my bad english ..

Hey there.

I believe the probable cause is that you've moved your movies on your computer to a different folder from which they had originally been imported into iTunes. iTunes memorizes the location of every audio or video file in the library and if you change the directory it will not be able to find it and sync it to your iOS device.

To solve the problem simply try playing the movie and if your suffer from the same issue as I did, the program will let you know it cannot find the file and offer you the choice to show it to the corresponding folder.

Hope this helps!

I was having this same exact issue, but to add a comment to the above solution of transferring purchases, then syncing, then backng up, then restoring, i found that i never had to complete the actual restore steps. i first transferred, then synced, then performed a manual back up to the computer instead of icloud, then synced again before starting the restore process, and voila... my unwatched movies that were not transferring before the backup all of a sudden started syncing!

For me, signing out of my iTunes account in both my iPad and iTunes fixed the problem. Thank you!

I had the same issues and the movie showed with a dashed circle next to the check box on iTunes but no movie on the iPad. The following resolved it for me: 1) I deleted the movie from the iPad from iTunes. 2) Manual Backup of iPad. 3) Copied the movie to the iPad again. 4) Sync... and now the movie transferred.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Finally! Nothing worked until I just did this simple (and so stupid) thing. Signing out of my Apple ID on both the device and iTunes did it! Thank you!

This was the reason for my problem!

Just wanted to update this for anyone continuing to look, it's 2014 and this is still a problem fixed by the above explanation of signing out on both, syncing, and signing back in. I can finally watch Rent 😝 Thanks!

It is very easy to backup iPod data with the help of iPubsoft iPad iPhone iPod to Mac Transfer. With the help of comprehensive software you can easily recover data of your smart phone on your PC within few simple clicks. So, if iTunes fails to extract your data then third-party software could be best option for you. For More Information Visit:

How to backup moive to ipad on mac ?

I tested everything and only THIS advice worked: sign out and in again on both your itunes account on your device and your PC/Mac. Once you've done this, just add the videos on the ipad mini (NB: create an ipad version prior to that if needed_ just select your video(s) in itunes then click on Files> Create a version>Create a version for Ipad or Apple TV) and sync. Voilà, you're done! Enjoy! 🙂

Wow! Thanks for this! helped me a lot