Unable to buy or rent from Apple TV .. fine from Mac

Question

Level 1

102 points

Unable to buy or rent from Apple TV .. fine from Mac

Ladies and gentlemen: Have a 3d-gen AppleTV purchased summer 2014. Infrequently used until a few weeks ago, now family loves it. We stream iTunes music from Mac in study, have family photos on screen saver, etc ... all normal.

Recently tried to rent a movie on Apple TV using my standard AppleID account (same as on Mac). Apple TV confirmed account information (credit card, etc) was correct but immediately prior to renting asked for credit card CVV number. When this number was entered, Apple TV told me to go to iTunes and "verify account information." (Not the most helpful response.)

I tried it a couple of times just to make sure I hadn't fat-fingered the CVV number. No, it was all good.

Then went to Mac, launched iTunes, and reconfirmed that the credit card information under this AppleID was correct. Still good.

Returned to Apple TV. It still sees my iTunes account under this AppleID. Again, tried to rent movie. Again, failed .. entered CVV number, failed and told to "verify account information."

In frustration, went back to Mac. Noted that Mac knew about previous purchases, and, in fact, so did the Apple TV (can see under "Purchased"). So in frustration I rented the movie through iTunes. Went through without a hitch. Then returned to Apple TV, and lo-and-behold, the rental is there under "Purchased". So we watched the movie.

Bottom line: I can rent movies on Mac iTunes without incident, and then watch the movie on the Apple TV. But I can't rent the movie on the Apple TV .. fails at the CVV step. I'm confident I'm putting in the right information. Have done complete system restore and software update check.

Any thoughts or recommendations?

Apple TV

Posted on Jan 4, 2015 10:24 AM

Reply

Answer 1

judysings

Community Specialist

Jan 5, 2015 1:54 PM in response to Peter Jones4

Hi Peter,

Happy New Year! Sorry to hear you are having trouble renting movies directly on the Apple TV. I know this sounds elementary, but did you actually sign out of the iTunes Store on the Apple TV, restart the device, and sign back in?

When you check the iTunes Store billing information on the computer, the CVV code field is usually blank. You have to enter the code and click Done to save the changes.

Another option is to remove the credit card and enter it again on the computer.

Change or remove your payment information from your iTunes Store account (Apple ID) - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1918

Change your payment information on a Mac or PC

Click to open your account in iTunes. (You might need to sign in with your Apple ID.)
Alternatively, you can:

Open iTunes.

Click iTunes Store.

Click Sign In and enter your Apple ID.

Click your Apple ID and select Account Info.

From the Account Information page, click Edit to the right of Payment Type.

You can see the payment methods that the iTunes Store accepts in the Payment Type section. If you want to remove the payment method, select None in the Payment Type section. See what to do if None isn't showing or you can't select it.

Change your information and click Done.
After you change your payment information, the iTunes Store places an authorization hold on your credit card.

Family Sharing

If you’re using Family Sharing, and you're the family organizer, you can’t set your payment information to None. You need to use a credit card or debit card. Only the Family Organizer can edit payment information for a family group. If you're not the organizer, you'll see this message: "The payment method for your Family is managed by [Apple ID]."

Get help

If you need help changing your payment information, credit card details, or billing information, contact iTunes Store support.

Give this a try the next time you want to rent a movie on the Apple TV. Click on the link to the iTunes Store Support team if you are still unsuccessful.

There is a slight advantage to renting the movies on the computer, because you can transfer them to your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV (only one device at a time).

Movies rented on the Apple TV can only be played on the Apple TV.

How to rent a movie from the iTunes Store on Apple TV - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201571

Sign in to the iTunes Store

From the main Apple TV menu, choose Settings > iTunes Store.
If your location and iTunes account already appear here, skip to the next section.

Select
Location.

Scroll to highlight your location and select it.

Press the Menu button on the remote once to return to the previous screen.

Select Sign in.

Enter your Apple ID and password. If you don't have an Apple ID, create one using iTunes on your computer. (The password is case-sensitive.) If your Apple ID is an AOL account, you'll need to convert it to work with Apple TV. If you need help converting your AOL account, please contact iTunes Store Customer Service.

Apple TV will give you the option to remember your password. Select Yes if you want to save the password.

Press and hold the Menu button to return to the main Apple TV menu.

FAQs about renting movies from the iTunes Store - Apple Support
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201611

Cheers,

- Judy

Reply

Answer 2

Peter Jones4 Author

Level 1

102 points

Jan 5, 2015 2:02 PM in response to judysings

Judy, thank you. I have done all the steps you indicated, with no luck. Nonetheless I will try them again, in the order listed, and see if it helps.

I worked on this (read: messed around with the settings and restarted the device a couple of times) over the weekend and was able to successfully buy music from the Apple TV. Does this mean all my problems are solved? I don't know, because (a) I haven't tried to rent/buy a movie since then (which was the core of the problem), and (b) I don't know what I may have done to fix it.

Until I can know what I did to fix it, I don't know if I really fixed it or not!

Nonetheless I will try the steps you've outlined and give it another go. Will report my findings, probably later this week.

Peter

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