I discovered this the hard way. Long flight, ready to relax and enjoy my movies. No Internet connection and no movies. Watching movies while offline is one of the main reasons why I and many people own an iPad. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to solve this "problem". The simple answer is you can't fix this "problem", because it isn't a problem. I believe this has been put in place intentionally for reasons mentioned in this thread, copyright protection, etc, whatever. I just want to watch MY owned movies on My owned device.
However there is a workaround. Download the VLC app onto your device and transfer your movies to VLC using file share in iTunes while your device is connected. Your movies will play while offline, every time.
This is not the best solution for everyone as you need to sync your device with iTunes to get your movie content, but it will get you watching your movies in the air.
I don't know this factually, but I am 99% sure this is not an error, it's apple's Digital Rights Management.
Have you found a solution for this? I’m experiencing exactly the same problem.
What’s the point in having unlimited data if you can’t download a movie without WiFi??? BS
Same issue with purchased content. Just used your link to submit feedback to Apple. Thanks for the link.
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
Correction-Sorry, it was the Michael storm.
Apple TV app/ then library/ wifi or no wifi they are still there and will always be there. I was frustrated too but figured out it was just a little different then before.
About renting movies from the iTunes Store - Apple Support
To watch your movie when you're offline, like on an airline flight where Wi-Fi is not available:
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.
Solved it!
This was making me crazy for a while, scanned all the posts I could find, tries all suggestions, Nothing worked!
But Then:
While connected to WiFi, open the TV App on your I-Pad, go to Library. It will show all purchased videos.
Tap the video you want to "Save" to view in Airplane mode. You'll get a page that shows a brief explanation of the movie. You can then press the "Play" button....But Don't!
On the far right side you will see the icon for "Cloud" down load. Press this instead. You will get the circle showing progress which will eventually become solid, then the word "Downloaded" will show.
Thats it...you can now go to airplane mode and watch the movies you downloaded through Cloud.
I was on chat/call with Apple and they claim to not have heard of this before. I first went into Settings>MY NAME>iCloud>Photos and they asked that I select "Download and Keep Originals" which did nothing to help. Next Next I went to Settings>General>iPad Storage> and look at how much was being used for the TV App (68GB) and then they asked me to select the TV menu in Settings and click on "Offload App." I then did a power off and started back up and went to the app store to reinstall the TV App. That did NOT solve the problem either. They also suggested that I "Reset Network Settings" Settings>General>Reset which I did not do.
The last thing the suggested was restoring the iPad to factory settings and seeing if that solves it. It did, for now. Of course, I had all of my photos on the cloud so I didn't lose anything...at least i don't think I did. Now the frustrating part of trying to get all of my apps back on. Some of which are no longer available in the App store. :-(
I hope this helps you guys.
Same problem here with my downloaded TV shows - many, many TV shows that I legally purchased and own. Unable to watch these on the plane without WiFi. Had to purchase Delta WiFi just to trigger the app to display my previously downloaded content. This is a class action law suit waiting to happen. Do Apple executives actually use their products in practical scenarios? How is this horrible user experience acceptable? It’s overcomplicated. Will stick to Netflix and Prime downloads.
Did you ever get a solution to this issue?
Downloaded movies won’t play without WiFi?
