Movies download issues after changing iTunes store

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Movies download issues after changing iTunes store

After moving countries, I changed my iTunes store and payment info from US to Netherlands, that was fine. But when I tried to download the movies I purchased in the US iTunes store, I got the message that "this movie is not available in the Dutch store". Of course not, I purchased it while having the US iTunes store! I found all the movies also in the Dutch store, but Apple wants me to pay for them again, despite the fact I paid for them before under the US iTunes store - this is not making any sense at all, since I did not change my ID, just the country and the payment info - and at no point in the process was there a warning that you would loose all purchases made under the previous store. What am I missing here? Any ideas how to get back the movies I paid for? These are the movies I had on my iPad, by the way. Thanks!

Posted on Sep 5, 2014 4:57 AM

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Answer 1

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King_Penguin

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Sep 5, 2014 5:37 AM in response to UndertheAlps

As well as being tied to the account that downloaded them, content is also tied to the country that it was downloaded in. Unless you return to the US and have a US billing address on your account (you have to be in a country to use its store) then you won't be able to potentially redownload them (assuming that they remain in the store). Have you not got copies of them in your computer's iTunes library and/or on your backup of your downloads/library ?

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Answer 2

UndertheAlps Author

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Sep 5, 2014 5:59 AM in response to King_Penguin

Thank you! I checked again, and the weird thing is, I have part of the movies on my PC, not all of them (I used to have all of them in my library, why part of them disappeared is not clear to me) - but I can still see all of them on my iPad, I just can't download them again. I get the whole country/store/billing info point, and that was fine, but what bothers me is the fact, that there is no explanation anywhere regarding the transfer of all purchases - or I've missed it. All my music is fine, it's just the movies and TV shows that are the problem. I would expect an Apple solution to this since it's about movies paid for, not rented - and since the purchases are tied to the Apple ID, the country change should not matter. Any other ideas ;-)?

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Answer 3

King_Penguin

Level 10

334,138 points

Sep 5, 2014 6:05 AM in response to UndertheAlps

If they are still stored on your iPad then you should be able to copy them over to your computer's iTunes library by connecting and doing File > Devices > Transfer Purchases.

I've never changed countries so I don't know what does/doesn't show (though it wouldn't surprise me if it doesn't), but it is mentioned on this page : Change the country of your iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, and Mac App Store account. But ideally you'd be keeping and maintaining a backup copy of all of your downloads even if you don't change countries, a rights-holder could remove their item (film, music album, app etc) from the store at any time (and audiobooks and ringtones are one-time only downloads) - you are only guaranteed one download of any item.

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