iTunes Does Not Sync With Apple TV Any More?

When you start launching iTunes, it recognizes that your AppleTV is on and initiates a sync. If you didn’t happen to make any changes to what is already synced, iTunes launching should be a problem. But suddenly you notice that without any warnings displayed, iTunes starts copying several files to your Apple TV. This copying thing is made in the same manner that one had newly added the iTunes to Apple TV’s play lists. This is increasingly unsettling as you recognize these files as the ones that had been previously synced therefore they should already be on the Apple TV. So, what happens: iTunes does not sync with Apple TV any more?

This problem happened several times, and depending on the volume of data needed to be copied, it may last from minutes to hours! So the question is: “Is iTunes deleting DRMed and the content from Apple TV?” (DRM, as a generic term defines “digital rights management”, meaning access control technologies that try to impose restrictions on the unauthorized usage of digital content and devices).

There is a reportedly growing numbers of users that say that iTunes app deletes DRM-protected content from Apple TV in case your Mac or PC can’t connect to the iTunes Store. There are rumors stating that the existence of a bug that has been lately introduced through the updates might make this possible. Other rumors claim that perhaps a new DRM requirement was put into place when Apple began producing HD movies available on markets. Whichever it is, this thing is utterly unpleasant, since when it happens, people have to resync all of their DRM protected content back to the Apple TV, which may take time again.

Generally the recopied music should be DRM-protected music, theoretically meaning that either Apple TV itself or iTunes is blocked from being connected to iTunes stores. If this connection doesn’t exist, you will not be confirmed that you are actually authorized to play the protected files; it results in deleting the files from the Apple TV. After iTunes Store access is restored and you next sync Apple TV in iTunes, then the authorization is recognized and the files start to be recopied. A temporary loss of Internet access can represent a cause of these flaws in the sync process. But there is an available solution to this problem, which is to pay for a music upgrading thorough DRM-free iTunes Plus version. Well, not a solution that is convenient for all the people that face this issue.

It is understood that a restriction is necessary for the unauthorized playing of the protected music, and a way has to be found in order to deal with these situations, as nobody wants to have massive amounts of data suddenly deleted from an Apple TV, even if this happens every time losses of Internet connection take place. When contacted, the Apple manufacturers have confirmed that it is a known issue and they think that it comes from a corrupted Apple TV drive. In case they won’t be able to fix it by doing a factory restore of the Apple TVs, then the only viable solution is to get a new AppleTV.