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iTune Movie Rentals don't play in airplane mode

Recently I rented and downloaded movies from iTunes to watch on my iPad Pro during a flight. However while in airplane mode the movies will not load. Does anybody have a way to fix this?

iPad Pro 12.9-inch Wi-Fi, Cellular

Posted on Dec 20, 2017 5:05 PM

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Posted on Jan 30, 2018 12:27 PM

I have had this same problem for a couple of years now. Starting the movie Before you take off does not help. I have had many fruitless conversations with the apple support folks about this, all leading to no solution. It’s a known issue, and none of apple’s OS updates ever seem to fix it.

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Jan 30, 2018 12:27 PM in response to jeffoakpark

I have had this same problem for a couple of years now. Starting the movie Before you take off does not help. I have had many fruitless conversations with the apple support folks about this, all leading to no solution. It’s a known issue, and none of apple’s OS updates ever seem to fix it.

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Dec 22, 2017 7:29 PM in response to jeffoakpark

Hello jeffoakpark,

I understand that you have a question about renting a moving on your iPad. I use my device a lot and know how important it is to have your device running correctly. I'm here to help.

Here is a resource that can assist you:

About renting movies from the iTunes Store

Specifically:

Watch your movie rental offline

To watch your movie when you're offline, like on an airline flight where Wi-Fi is not available:

  • Download the entire movie before you go offline.
  • Press play to start watching. The 48-hour timer starts even if you're offline.

You might consider downloading rented movies prior to the day of your trip to make sure you have time to download all of the content.


Have a great day!
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Jan 31, 2018 9:20 AM in response to David Siegal

I can confirm starting before getting on the plane didn’t help. I had to buy the WiFi on the flight to get the movie to start. There must be some sort of confirmation required, even if the content is downloaded. This adds a cost to downloading movies to watch on flights.

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Feb 2, 2018 10:15 AM in response to jeffoakpark

I have had the same problem. I am now on the third trip I have made and have been unable to watch rented movies. I have downloaded and watched other movies but this has started recently. I am on the plane now with full WiFi and it still is not working. Something has changed recently that is causing this.

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Mar 25, 2018 7:38 AM in response to jeffoakpark

I’ve been dealing with this issue as well for months now with my iPad Pro 10.5. I just confirmed it again, downloaded three rental movies while at home with 1 gig internet connection. Started to play the movie even while connected and the movie disappears from the downloaded section of my TV app. I go to the movie again in iTunes store and it’s giving me the cloud icon to download again. Highly frustrated and I expect better. It’s cost me at least $30 in wasted movie rentals.

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Apr 29, 2018 1:40 PM in response to jeffoakpark

I'm having the same problem. Was able to watch downloaded movies in airplane mode while in flight as of Oct-Nov of last year. Now it no longer works. Does anyone know if this has been resolved? I'm traveling tomorrow on a 4 hour flight and would really love to be able to watch a movie.

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May 31, 2018 3:09 PM in response to turingtest2

I had the same problem just last week. I downloaded (completely) two movies to my iPad. The first one that I watched ran just fine. Then, at the end of the week, back on a plane, I went to watch the second movie and it simply would not play. This has happened before but not for awhile. It's totally frustrating and a nuisance to convince the iTunes store to refund the rental cost.

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Jun 6, 2018 11:32 AM in response to Sprag1

That was exactly my experience...all downloaded and wouldn't plan in airplane mode. Once home, it played but that was not why I rented the movie. It's happened before over the years...sometimes I can view on the plane; sometimes I can't.

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iTune Movie Rentals don't play in airplane mode

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