Using ios 11.2.5 Movies I have downloaded, or ripped myself and have watched for years are suddenly unplayable without a wifi or cellular connection. Can find no setting to change, these are my movies and have nothing to do with icloud, streaming or my apple account, why can't i watch them now?
***
Videos will play if connected to wifi or have a cell connection, though the tv app screen is blank for many seconds and looks like it has crashed. It's just taking forever. Things look fine once it loads, but attempting to watch anything will create the error "must connect to wifi/cellular to play"
*** I now think it IS a form of ill-conceived copyright check. But will soon be considered an issue if not a true technical bug. The app is incapable of making a distinction between copyrighted content (itunes downloads) and non copyrighted content.
The app is essentially saying "you have content on your phone (mostly from your computer), I can't connect to the internet so . . . PIRATE!"
If I'm allowed to download from itunes onto my computer, thats enough of a protection check for paid content, and the issue with self created content has to be a bug, or a major mistake.
A larger problem:
If you put the phone into airplane mode, videos will not be able to be played. I did this to simulate not having a viable connection. *** now anyone on a plane that wants to watch videos bought from itunes, ripped legally (remember the Rip. Mix. Burn campaign by Apple?) or home-created movies cannot watch them. ***
One very short-term partial solution I discovered is that if you start a movie in itunes, and then pause it. Then put it into airplane mode (or presumably lose internet/cell coverage) the video can be restarted and watched in it's entirety. I have successfully done this with a ripped (bought & paid for) movie (Ghostbusters), an itunes downloaded tv show (Stranger Things) and a video of my daughters softball game.
Another solution is to use a better player than than the TV app like VLC which is a free download. It has played just about everything. There are others, at varying cost.
Further: I found an older page focused on *** the issue of watching content on the buggy tv app.
https://appletoolbox.com/2016/12/cant-play-videos-after-ios-10-2-update-how-to/
It recommends relabeling everything in your library from Movie or TV Show to "Home Move". Unfortunately I tried that to no success.
They also recommend re-downloading the tv app , restarting, reloading the various content, etc.
I have tried some of those steps without success which was why I came here to this forum in the first place to try and determine if this was a technical bug or some new setting by Apple that could possibly be turned off.
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<Edited by Host>
***
Videos will play if connected to wifi or have a cell connection, though the tv app screen is blank for many seconds and looks like it has crashed. It's just taking forever. Things look fine once it loads, but attempting to watch anything will create the error "must connect to wifi/cellular to play"
*** I now think it IS a form of ill-conceived copyright check. But will soon be considered an issue if not a true technical bug. The app is incapable of making a distinction between copyrighted content (itunes downloads) and non copyrighted content.
The app is essentially saying "you have content on your phone (mostly from your computer), I can't connect to the internet so . . . PIRATE!"
If I'm allowed to download from itunes onto my computer, thats enough of a protection check for paid content, and the issue with self created content has to be a bug, or a major mistake.
A larger problem:
If you put the phone into airplane mode, videos will not be able to be played. I did this to simulate not having a viable connection. *** now anyone on a plane that wants to watch videos bought from itunes, ripped legally (remember the Rip. Mix. Burn campaign by Apple?) or home-created movies cannot watch them. ***
One very short-term partial solution I discovered is that if you start a movie in itunes, and then pause it. Then put it into airplane mode (or presumably lose internet/cell coverage) the video can be restarted and watched in it's entirety. I have successfully done this with a ripped (bought & paid for) movie (Ghostbusters), an itunes downloaded tv show (Stranger Things) and a video of my daughters softball game.
Another solution is to use a better player than than the TV app like VLC which is a free download. It has played just about everything. There are others, at varying cost.
Further: I found an older page focused on *** the issue of watching content on the buggy tv app.
https://appletoolbox.com/2016/12/cant-play-videos-after-ios-10-2-update-how-to/
It recommends relabeling everything in your library from Movie or TV Show to "Home Move". Unfortunately I tried that to no success.
They also recommend re-downloading the tv app , restarting, reloading the various content, etc.
I have tried some of those steps without success which was why I came here to this forum in the first place to try and determine if this was a technical bug or some new setting by Apple that could possibly be turned off.
***
<Edited by Host>
Since Apple decided to replace the Videos app with the TV app, I have seen a number of users describing this same behavior that is giving you fits. I have three purchased movies from iTunes in my TV app on my iPad Air 2 running iOS 11.2.5 that I can play with absolutely no issues at all WITHOUT being connected to WiFi. You should be able to play fully downloaded movies in the TV app whether you are connected to WiFi or not. Movies that you shot yourself would not need a WiFi connection in order to play them. That would make no sense at all.
Unfortunately, I cannot explain why you can’t do this nor do I have a solution. However, I suggest that you contact Apple or make an appointment at an Apple Store and ask for their help in sorting this out.
Are the movies actually on the device?
If not you've got them in the cloud and you need a connection to retrieve them.
I think you misunderstood my post (my poor phrasing). It is illogical at best and stupid at worst for Apple to prevent me from watching home movies of my children on my phone because of some new misguided attempt at copyright protections.
The problem as stated is, the TV app insists that I have an internet connection to watch any video content (regardless of type or source) on my phone as of the last update.
How is this not a technical problem.
Ripping dvds that I have legally purchased and wish to watch is NOT copyright infringement and has long been settled by courts. Videos legally downloaded from itunes won't work either, nor home videos of my kids that were watchable last week, all because this app now demands an internet connection?
That's absurd.
**** I think it's irrelevant that you disagree with established law.
First you seem incapable of understanding 2 things;
1. I own both paid for (as in artists got paid) copyrighted content, AND uncopyrighted, self-created content that is now (since Apple's last update) unplayable due to either a technical bug, or an ill-thought decision by Apple. Even home movies do not play anymore, can you not understand this fact?
2nd, because of my children's many sports we spend hours every day in structures with 0 wifi and no cell connection. There is no cellular connection up north, nor at the beach, both places that watching legally owned or self created content would be enjoyable.
You seem obsessively focused on copyrighted content.
Perhaps you'd like to pay for my data that apparently costs zip zilch or nada? Yeah I thought so.
<Edited by Host>
At the sake of being redundant, I am going to state again, that I have no problems whatsoever playing already downloaded movies on my iPad, in the TV app, without using or needing WiFi. However, as I stated earlier, there have been a number of users over the past year that have been experiencing this very same behavior that lunatic fridge is describing.
According to lunatic fridge, these are movies that he has been able to play without issue even without WiFi, up until the latest update to iOS 11.2.5. Home movies that he shot on his own and synced to his device have nothing to do with streaming or downloading.
I don’t know why some users are having problems and I have no solution, but I have seen others describe this very same thing since Apple introduced the TV app in iOS 10.
Thanks for the reply.
one of my ipads that i just tested is running 11.2.2 it is a wifi only ipad and plays all forms of video content when it is connected, AND when wifi is turned off (or out of range) so I suspect it is something either with the ios/phone software setting only. I'm not sure if this is the latest ios update for the ipad but I know I wont be updating any of our pads or other phones until this issue is resolved. If would be nuts if I couldn't play anything when out of wifi range, but thats whats happening with the newest phone version of TV.
Yes content is actually on the device, that was my first idea, as when that "feature" was first introduced it caused some confusion. These are not cloud-stored items, and no cloud icon.
What I've noticed is when the iphone TV app launches it takes f o r e v e r till a screen comes up. I'd assumed that this was Apple trying to connect to the itunes store to offer me lots of things to buy which was ok, yet mildly annoying since most of my content are movies not downloaded through itunes (yet amazingly legal) and self made videos from my own library. The delay in the screen loading was manageable but I think it is taking even longer and longer to load since yesterday's update. Good internet connection, fast router, Is 23 seconds a long time for my library (loaded on phone) to load one single movie as a test?
I think so, & that is maybe a symptom of something else.
The moment you crack DRM (Digital Rights Managemnt) to rip the DVD, you've violated Title I of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 17 U.S.C. 1201 prohibits circumvention of DRM . . . Some courts have tried to leaven this rather harsh rule, but most have not. While it's typically hard to detect small-scale circumvention, the question is whether bypassing DRM is legal. The statute sets up some minor exceptions, but our ripper doesn't fall into any of them. So, the moment a studio protects the DVD with DRM, it gains both a technical and a legal advantage—ripping is almost certainly unlawful.
I don't to add anything not already under the rule of law.
In case you haven't noticed, you haven't actually helped yet.
Were you referring to calling me a copyright pirate or when you suggested I had other problems?
I think I've provided more information and resources to help others in this thread so far than you have.
I appreciate anyone trying to help.
My WAG is that this is a connection that confirms that the movie is on your device legally. Probably something demanded by the copyright owners.
Except ripping from DVD's is a form of copyright infringement...
lunatic fridge wrote:
No, I think that is incorrect, or at the least illogical, and likely stupid if true.
Have a nice day.
It is indeed unfortunate that the world is out to get you.
Have a nice day!
Why can't I watch movies offline?
