In a nutshell: Few things are more irritating than renting a movie you've been wanting to see, sitting down to enjoy it, and then finding out that it won't play. If your recent Apple movie rental won't play, there are several things you can try to fix it. Keep reading to learn what to do to get your movie night back on track as quickly as possible.

Introduction

Few things are more irritating than renting a movie you've been wanting to see, sitting down to enjoy it, and then finding out that it won't play. If your recent Apple movie rental won't play, there are several things you can try to fix it. Keep reading to learn what to do to get your movie night back on track as quickly as possible.

What You'll Need

If you need to contact Apple to get the problem resolved, try running a little experiment first, and see if you can watch other Apple TV content. Whether it's just the one movie that won't play or whether it's everything will tell Apple's technicians a lot about what the problem could be.

Try watching the movie on a different device.

The problem might be some strange technical issue with the device you are using, one that another device would not share.

Talk to other people who are currently on your Wi-Fi.

If a bunch of other people are trying to do resource-heavy things online, such as watching TV or movies of their own, there may not be enough bandwidth to play your movie. You will have to work it out with them.

If that did not help, close the Apple TV app and shut off the smart TV or Apple device you were trying to play the movie on, then restart them.

Doing this can clear out problematic data items in the cache that could be interfering with you movie viewing.

Check your other devices to see if the Apple TV app is open on any of them.

If it is, shut them down. Rented movies from Apple can only be viewed on one device at a time, so having multiple instances of the app open while you are trying to watch a movie could be triggering the device limit shut-off.

Go to the Apple System Status page and check for any service interruptions that could be affecting your service.

Apple System Status page
If there is a service interruption, then the problem is on Apple's end, not yours, and there is nothing you can do about it. Keep checking the System Status page to see when the service interruption is over. You should be able to watch your movie then.

What Do I Do If the Movie I Rented on Apple Won't Play? (Step 5)

Check your internet speed.

To stream movies, you need a connection of at least 8Mbps. If your Wi-Fi is too slow, try connecting your device to the internet with an ethernet cable.

Update your operating system to the latest version.

Update the Apple TV app to the latest version.

Check that your Wi-Fi router is 802.11a/g/n/ac compatible.

You may need to contact the manufacturer or seller to determine this.

Conclusion

If nothing else works, contact an Apple customer service representative for help trying to figure out what's wrong. If all else fails, they should at least be able to offer you a refund of your rental price. The customer service center is open from 4:00 am to 10:00 pm PT seven days a week.

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What Do I Do If the Movie I Rented on Apple Won't Play?