Why no backup option for Apple TV?

How can I backup an app that is on my Apple TV but no longer on the Apple App Store?

Unlike the other Apple iDevices, It’s not possible to backup Apple TV 4.

So if for whatever reason I need to reset my Apple TV I will lose that app (that is longer available on the Apple App Store).

I'm referring to the Disney Infinity 3.0 (which will be discontinued on March 3rd)

I need to make a backup of the api file.

Does anybody here know how to extract this file from my Apple TV (for backup purposes)?

I also have this question. I do understand I can download all my apps again but there is the reason i think more needs to be done. So I sold my TV 4 and later got a new one. Yes, all my apps were available and even saved progress made on certain apps given i use iCloud but the problem was, i had to search through all the apps to see which ones i had downloaded and kept and which i deleted from my TV. So my hope for a way to backup like you do on the Mac. So took a bit of head scratching to remember other apps I had kept but the core apps i use those i did remember. Now think as the tvOS apps continue to grow, we download more apps, keep some, delete others. Now it's time to restore and.... Of cause you'll be able to get them all back but it just takes longer. A backup method would shorten the time to get all the essential and currently used apps back up and even restore your TV home screen, how you arranged your apps and all. So hoping this is considered if not now but definitely in future as tvOS apps continues to grow.

Hello Diana.McCall, what do you mean that the "ability to replicate apps on a new device is not available even on iPhones and iPads". I would say yes that ability exists unless am not getting you right. When i back up my iPhone and port to a new iPhone, am able to restore to a new iPhone, the exact content that was backed up so it is as if there was never any change on the new iPhone. So all apps that i downloaded and deleted later do not appear on the new restored iPhone and my home screen, plus other screen are as they were on the old iPhone. So maybe i got your explanation wrong, in which case please enlighten me further.

Some apps and games don't even backup data into iCloud, so when moving for example from 32GB to 64GB version there is much more troubles to come than just reinstall 50+ apps in my case and sort them into groups - go through plenty of settings, playing bunch of levels already finished on previous device, is it really so hard to see good reasons for working backup/restore option?

Another point to make is that if you have a lot of apps organized into folders, you're going to have to set them up all over again! Also, I will have to figure out from all the apps that I had purchased in the past, which ones that I didn't delete. I just got the 5th gen Apple TV and will have to go through the process of restoring it manually without any help from Apple.

What are you looking to backup? Game status is saved in the cloud, media is stored on iTunes or home share. I'm curious as this question has not come up before

What is there to back up?

You don't have any documents saved to your Apple TV. Movies stream from the cloud or from a computer, so either don't need to be backed up or are backed up on via Time Machine. Same goes for music, and photos. Apps can be re-downloaded from the app store, so don't need to be backed up. Games store the players data in iCloud, so that doesn't need to be backed up. There's not much left (passwords? Some people don't want to store those in the cloud!).

So basically the difference is that Apple TV is a media-consumption device, everything comes from the cloud or a computer and a copy will always exist in those locations (and be backed up there). Other devices let you create documents, take photos, etc - and things you create don't exist anywhere else except on those devices, until you backup.

That said, if you buy movies you probably do want to download a copy to your Mac or PC, so you have a "backup" copy in case licensing issues result in the disappearance of that movie from the iTunes Store. But that's kind of a reverse backup.

Totally true. I only have about 10 apps and haven't had to reset so it never really occurred to me but I can see that as an added value and maybe will come in future updates. Since this is a user forum no one can really answer for Apple but you can always send the feedback for future enhancements http://www.apple.com/feedback/

It would be a very nice feature to be able to back up at least what apps are installed on the Apple TV and maybe the account information signed in to eg. Netflix or HBO. Today this would only be useful if you have to reset your Apple TV, but in the future when the next Apple TV is released, a feature like this would be really nice. It could be compared to the migration assistant 🙂

Not necessarily. If you do have to reset the Apple TV and wipe all the data, Apps that you have bought or downloaded for free are stored against your Apple ID. If you wipe your Apple TV (or any other Apple device) you'll be able to log in to your account and download all your previously downloaded Apps. The great thing is even the ones you bought you get to download again for free (because you already bought them once). So no you won't have to try and remember the Apps that you downloaded and go find them. They'll all be tied to your Apple ID and ready to download again if you need to. Hope this helps.

dan.cummins.aus wrote:

They'll all be tied to your Apple ID and ready to download again if you need to. Hope this helps.

You're right, but I think the point everyone is making is about ease of use. It's less about "backup" and more about "restoring to the previous state" without needing to click "install" 15 times to get 15 apps. Just once, and all the apps come back.

As it is now, if you restore you then need to piece together everything from different places in the cloud. It'll work, nothing will be lost, but it'll take some effort.

I'm not really sure about the app logins. Even on my iPad with iCloud backup I have to re-authorize the device when I did a restore for both HBO and Netflix. Maybe a unique software handshake between your specific device software and the provider?

On an iPad or iPhone, whether the password gets backed up may depend on whether you encrypt the backup or not, and whether you backup through iCloud or iTunes. And whether the app developer stores the password in a way that can be backed up.

And some apps just force you to re-enter the password periodically, regardless of whether you restored them or not. Backing up passwords will always be of questionable value.

Yeah you are right. Non of the Backup and restore solutions I've tried so far (regardless of platform) have included user credentials, and I'm afraid it won't be a feature in the near future either. Apple and all the service providing companies would have to put a lot of effort and money info making sure no user credentials would be misplaced or stolen.