With iOS 17.2, iPadOS 17.2, and tvOS 17.2, Apple removed the option to purchase TV shows and movies from the iTunes Store apps, redirecting customers to the Apple TV app instead. Unfortunately, Apple's move to consolidate purchasing and viewing in the Apple TV app has done away with wishlists, and customers who used the feature got no warning about their elimination.
On Reddit, Twitter, the GeekWebGuides forums, and the Apple Support Community, customers are complaining about the change. From the GeekWebGuides forums:
Removing the wish list is a really bad move by Apple. I had a bunch of movies I was working my way through. That list is just gone now. I won't be renting or buying anything from Apple TV any more. Bad move Apple.
In the iTunes Store app on the iPhone and iPad, and the separate iTunes TV Shows and iTunes Movies apps on the Apple TV, there were options to add TV shows and movies to a dedicated wishlist when browsing, which consumers used to save the content for later and watch for sales.
The wishlists did not transfer over to the Apple TV app with these updates, so some customers who had compiled long watch lists are unable to access those curated lists or copy them over to a new location. Some users are able to open up the iTunes Store app on iOS devices and tap on the hamburger button in the upper right corner to see their wishlists, but this does not appear to be working for everyone. Those who compiled lists on the Apple TV appear to have no way to access them. From Reddit:
I've looked on iOS, and my wishlist has completely disappeared. I've been building it for about 10 years, and it had a little over 400 movies on it. I wish Apple would've thought this through more before just springing such a drastic change on us.
In tvOS 17.2, iOS 17.2, and iPadOS 17.2, there is a "+" button that can be used for saving content for future watching, but this adds it to the Up Next feature, which can be rather more cluttered than a traditional wishlist.
With tvOS 17.2, Apple disabled the separate iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps during the beta testing process. The option to purchase TV shows and movies from the iTunes Store app on the iPhone and the iPad was removed at the time iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 were released through a server side update.
It is not clear if Apple will reimplement wishlists in some way given the number of upset customers, but it seems unlikely. There were similar complaints when Apple removed App Store wishlists way back with iOS 11, but that feature did not return.
