Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Archived Post

Download local copies of all movies, music purchased on iTunes to make sure they don’t disappear

I ran across this article at Gizmodo while vacationing last week. It tells of a man who had purchased three movies from iTunes, but which disappeared from his library.

Here’s the scoop: He explained that three movies he’d “bought” through iTunes disappeared from his library and shared an email from Apple that explained that content was no longer being offered in the iTunes store by the content provider. He was offered a free movie rental with a value of up to $5.99 for his trouble. He was understandably upset about this low ball offer to make him go away.



The situation is a bit more complicated than it first appears. However, don’t assume that every movie (or album) you buy will always be waiting for you “in the cloud.” Download everything locally. If you buy a lot of movies, you’ll need a very spacious drive — and a second one to back up the first. That will cost you some moolah, but it will be worth it to ensure that the movies/tunes you bought will always be available to you.

To download, for example, a movie, open iTunes and click Movies. Any titles that show with a cloud icon/downwards-pointing arrow ARE NOT stored locally. Click this icon to download them to the drive that houses your photo library. You’ll be glad you did.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.