In-app purchase error for 'All the Presidents Men' movie on Apple TV App

I have my movies on a Synology NAS and can play them via a firestick onto which I have loaded the Apple TV App. One of the movies (All the Presidents Men), which was purchased via Apple some time ago will not play.

The message I get is "In-app purchases are not allowed on this device. To watch here, you must have purchased or rented this movie or episode on an Apple device." We have watched the movie 3 time in the past when it was on a different NAS and all of the other movies which we transferred to the Synology NAS are playing OK.



[Edited by Moderator]

iMac 24″, macOS 15.6

Posted on Aug 7, 2025 5:37 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 7, 2025 6:13 AM

  • The Apple TV app on a Fire TV stick is made to only play from online sources (Apple servers). Having the Apple TV app loaded doesn’t bring extra functionality to apps and services outside that app.
  • The Apple TV app on Mac can play downloaded media stored on an external drive or network drive.
  • Apple Home Sharing can play .mp4/.m4v/.mov downloads, but doesn’t support ‘modern’ HLS (.movpkg) downloads.
  • Apple media purchased and downloaded is intended to not be playable through third party apps due to DRM.
  • Apple media purchased and downloaded is intended to not be playable on other devices than to which it was downloaded.
  • Apple AirPlay is possible from Mac to supported AirPlay-receiving devices, including select smart TVs running Fire OS.
1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 7, 2025 6:13 AM in response to PaulBrannan8

  • The Apple TV app on a Fire TV stick is made to only play from online sources (Apple servers). Having the Apple TV app loaded doesn’t bring extra functionality to apps and services outside that app.
  • The Apple TV app on Mac can play downloaded media stored on an external drive or network drive.
  • Apple Home Sharing can play .mp4/.m4v/.mov downloads, but doesn’t support ‘modern’ HLS (.movpkg) downloads.
  • Apple media purchased and downloaded is intended to not be playable through third party apps due to DRM.
  • Apple media purchased and downloaded is intended to not be playable on other devices than to which it was downloaded.
  • Apple AirPlay is possible from Mac to supported AirPlay-receiving devices, including select smart TVs running Fire OS.

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In-app purchase error for 'All the Presidents Men' movie on Apple TV App

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