TV App

I had the same issue, and spent a bunch of time on support with Apple. One of the senior techs came up with this, and it worked for me. Hopefully it helps.

Double click your home button and clear all open apps by swiping up. Then let’s go to settings>iTunes and app store and tap your Apple ID and sign out. Restart your device and then sign back in. Once done make sure wifi is turned on and go to the tv app and make sure your downloaded content appears. Then go to airplane mode and check if content still plays. Then clear app again and relaunch and test whilst still in airplane mode.

Okay, I just dragged out my iPad Air. The Home Sharing Library does display on the iPad so it looks like an Apple TV limitation. I can see all my videos and movies on the iPad - and iPhone -and can play my movies on the iPhone but I have some kind of permissions problem trying to play on the iPad. Need to try restarting logging back in.

Now, if only the ATV would behave the same way.

From ATV

From iPad

DB_! wrote:

thanks for the suggestions, however, this issue is a terrible bug in the new iOS,

You are indeed correct. Add your voice to the list of people that have supplied feedback.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

This is a major bug with the new TV app.

Submit your feedback here.

iPad Feedback

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

The more people that submit feedback on this issue, the faster Apple can get a fix out as another iOS update.

Good Luck!

The title of the discussion is "TV App" and searching crosses discussions. This is good info for both TV App users on the Apple TV and iPad.

Bottom line is - the TV App can be linked to an iTunes Home Sharing Library so content can be displayed in the TV App Library on an iPhone or iPad, but NOT on an Apple TV. This Home Sharing linking functionality does not exist for the Apple TV TV App.

To find a list of all shows and movies that you purchased or rented in the iTunes Store, open the Library tab and select TV Shows or Movies. On your iPhone and iPad, the Library tab also shows your recent purchases and any home videos that you transferred to your device. To see more of your recently purchased content, tap See All.

Use the TV app on your Apple TV (4th generation), iPhone, and iPad

Way to go Apple....

Easier method.

Someone had an easy workaround.

Launch the TV app while connected to Wifi.

Once launched, try turning off Wifi and then try to play your movies without WiFi on.

I think this is a bug in the TV app.

Try it.

MichelPM, you keep posting this..... yes it might be easier, but it doesn't solve the problem. The issue is not that you can't use the TV app when you have wifi to launch it. I figured out long ago that as long as you still had wifi/data you could launch the app, THEN go to airplane mode and it will still work. The problem is when you are already out of wifi/data range and try to launch the app, it doesn't work. So if you have taken off on a flight across the ocean without wifi, and you've forgotten to open your TV app, you're going to be looking at a white screen for the next 10 hours. The fix I posted (so far) allows you to access the TV app anytime whether you're in wifi/data or not.

mm767cap wrote:

The fix I posted (so far) allows you to access the TV app anytime whether you're in wifi/data or not.

Am I missing something in your "fix"? Aren't you still relying on being connected to WiFi to make sure that the downloaded content still appears and are you not using that connection here as part of the fix ? If not, why mention being connected to WiFi to check?

Once done make sure wifi is turned on and go to the tv app and make sure your downloaded content appears. Then go to airplane mode and check if content still plays. Then clear app again and relaunch and test whilst still in airplane mode.

As far as why the steps are the way they are, and connecting back up to wifi to check, I have no idea. I just posted exactly what the senior analyst gave to me; step by step.

All I know is that I followed the steps I posted here to the letter, and I now am able to access the TV app anytime whether I'm hooked up to wifi or not. The step you refer to above is a one time requirement as part of the "reset". It now works for me anywhere, anytime. When I launch TV without wifi, I get a screen that says "Downloaded content" instead of Library, and all my downloaded movies/shows are available. I USED to get a message saying "TV isn't available, check your wifi connection" which made the app worthless if you weren't connected to wifi/data

Sorry; to answer your question, NO you do not need to be connected to anything once you have run this reset/fix. You can launch from airplane mode or with no signal after you've gone through the steps

OK. I think I get it now. It is a one time only step after which you don't have to go through all of that again, correct?

BTW, What a mess this new TV app is. I was hoping it would have been fixed in the last update to iOS 10.2.1 and that didn't happen.

Demo,

Yes exactly. A one time thing that seems to have "reset" my TV app so that it now works offline. Sorry I did a cruddy job of explaining it.

Boy you aren't kidding. They seem to be focused on streaming, so I guess I understand the concept of what Apple was trying to do here; but they made a mess of this one.

Hope this fix works for you like it did for me

thanks for the suggestions, however, this issue is a terrible bug in the new iOS, I have hours of video to watch that I now have to go thru these steps to get a work around.... it's silly, hey Apple, if it ain't broke, do us users a favor and don't fix it it...

The move to the TV app from the Video app has been nothing buy a headache

I did this. It is not permanent. So it does not work. It worked yesterday for the day. Then when I was out again for the day today, I got the same message again. I guess the best solution is to dump the apple TV App and get a better App. I have been tryin out others and found other apps that will play the formats Apple can't. I've already deleted the TV app, reset my iPod, etc. I guess apple really just *****.

Same thing happened to me. The "fix" worked for one day, and then back to the same issue. I've spent another several hours with tech support today doing every sort of reset/restore in the book, all with no help (which I figured would be the case). Finally, it has been elevated up to engineering with all my iPhone logs, so hopefully this will get them the data that they need in order to create a REAL fix to the TV app. FRUSTRATING for sure.