How to really stop Automatic Downloads ???

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Level 1

4 points

How to really stop Automatic Downloads ???

I have a MacBook Pro, El Capitan v10.11.6, iTunes v12.4.3.1

I bought 2 movies (Avengers and Moneyball, if you must know), and want to leave them in the Cloud and don't want them taking up space on my computer. I have unchecked every box on the Preferences>Store: Automatic Downloads section (see screenshot below). EVERY time I re-open iTunes it flashes "Checking for Downloads" and these 2 movies start downloading. WHY??? Everything is unchecked!! I even "hid" them in the Purchased section of my store, because I read somewhere that that mattered. I deleted the temporary files that keep downloading, including the plist. That seems to stop it when I open iTunes, but when I sync my iPhone, it checks for downloads again and the movies start downloading. Nothing truly works! HELP!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 9, 2016 1:09 PM

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Answer 1

AppleJen77

Community Specialist

Aug 10, 2016 11:32 AM in response to richfry

Hello there, richfry!

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. It sounds like you have a situation with your iPhone and iTunes trying to download movies from your past purchases. I know how important it is to be sure Movies are not downloaded unless you want them to be. Sounds like you got the issue taken care of with the movies downloading when you start iTunes.

Since you have gotten the issue to stop on the computer except with you have the iPhone plugged in, you might want to try being sure Automatic Downloads on the iPhone are turned off by checking out this article here: Turn on Automatic Downloads . Even though the article says how to turn it on, you can follow the same steps to turn it off also:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Tap Settings > iTunes & App Store.

If you're not already, sign in with your Apple ID.

Turn on the content that you want to automatically download.

You can turn Automatic Downloads on or off over your cellular network on an iPhone or iPad Wi-Fi + Cellular. Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and turn Use Cellular Data on or off. Cellular Data downloads are limited to a file size of 100 MB or smaller.

Just be sure everything is switched off so nothing purchased on other devices tries to download.

Cheers!

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