Rental play failed, now Play is greyed out. How to resume watching?

Question

Rental play failed, now Play is greyed out. How to resume watching?

The movie I rented from iTunes on my iPad (with 8GB free) stopped playing after 30 minutes with the ambiguous message that the movie could no be played. Prior to that it had been stuttering intermittently, i.e. the audio would keep playing but the video would freeze and/or speed up randomly.

Now the movie still appears in the Videos app under "Rentals" but the play button triangle is greyed out.

If I try to re-download the movie from iTunes, it wants to charge me a second time for the rental. There is no iCloud icon or GET button,

The movie does not appear listed under "Purchases" (presumably because it's a rental).

The 24-hour rental viewing period has NOT expired yet . I rented the film two hours ago, started playing it an hour ago, and it quit half an hour ago. My iPad has no restrictions on age, etc, and there's nothing shady going on with my region. Like I say, the movie was playing, then it quit, now it won't play. And I don't want to pay a second time to watch it.

My attempts at troubleshooting:

Restarting the iPad had no effect.

Connecting to a Mac via USB, shows nothing. i.e. if I run ITunes on the Mac, and select iPad to see what's stored on the iPad, the movie does not appear listed.

I have written to Apple Support and requested a refund or credit so I can re-rent the movie, but I'd rather just get this fixed so I can resume watching! Any suggestions in the meantime?

iPad 2, iOS 8.4, 32 GB

Posted on Jul 27, 2015 4:49 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

publicusername24 Author

Level 1

3 points

Jul 27, 2015 5:03 PM in response to publicusername24

Also, in iTunes on the iPad, there is no "Downloads" tab to select. The rental does not appear under Purchases.

On the Mac, if I select Account > Check for Available Downloads..., it only says that all purchases have been downloaded.

Aside: Had to report the problem to Apple via the web browser, not via iTunes. If I tried to use ITunes, and select Account Info > Purchase History > See All, and then click the "Report a Problem" button, NOTHING would happen, except that the "Report a Problem" button would disappear! No error message, no prompt,... iTunes v 12.2.1.16.

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Answer 2

Jul 27, 2015 5:42 PM in response to publicusername24

Okay, so! I saw a post (http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ipad-movie-rental-stopped-mid-download-now-i s-stuck-and-gives-error.998856/) saying, "Delete the partial download, then re-purchase it. They won't charge you again."

So, I went ahead clicked the RENT button again, knowing that it might charge me again and that I'd then have to file a NEW support ticket with Apple, however instead I got a message saying "You've already rented this but it hasn't been download. Go to Downloads to manage your downloads" and *now* there *is* a "Downloads" button which has appeared next to "Purchases".

...And the movie is re-downloading itself, with no mention of charging a second time! :-) This time I will wait until it is fully downloaded before trying to watch it. Hopefully in the future, this thread will help someone else having the same problem...

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Answer 3

Jul 27, 2015 6:32 PM in response to publicusername24

Nope... Re-downloaded, but still greyed out. Can't select play.

Does appear on Mac's iTunes if I connect via USB, but won't play.

😟

But then, quick Videos app, double-clicked the Home button and up-swiped the Videos app to kill it.

Restarted the Videos app on the iPad, went to rentals, and now the Play triangle is black, not grey!

And now it's playing on the iPad!

🙂

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Answer 4

Oct 29, 2016 7:43 AM in response to publicusername24

I have the same problem, however neither killing the app, or resetting the entire iPad has helped… I think my iPad 2 is done for...

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