Apple TV | The Studio Episode 4 won't play – everything else does

I'm keen to watch Episode 4 of The Studio on Apple TV, but it won't play. I'm on a MacBook using the Apple TV app. Everything else plays except for this particular episode. When I hit the Play Episode button, nothing happens — it's like there's no code behind the button. I can watch it online using the web interface at least. When I start it on there and try to continue watching it in the app, the app registers that I've started watching it but won't let me resume. Happy to watch it from the web, but it would be good to know why it's not loading in the app. For reference, I'm in Australia.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.4

Posted on Apr 12, 2025 1:14 AM

Reply
13 replies

May 3, 2025 9:26 PM in response to EveryCondition

I am also having this issue trying to watch Dark Matter on my Mac. Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were fine but then episode 4 wouldn't play. It didn't matter if I streamed it or downloaded it first, it just wouldn't play. So then I watched it on my iPhone which worked fine and went back to my Mac for episodes 5, 6 and 7 and now episode 8 is not working the Mac either.


One thing I noticed is that the 2 that did not work were both ones where it asks you first "Are you over 15?" (and I said yes) whereas the ones that worked without issue were ones that did not require that check. Perhaps there is a bug in that check where it thinks you clicked No even if you clicked Yes.

Apr 18, 2025 4:51 PM in response to DanHail

As an update, no good news yet, but Apple TV support has been exemplary, and I've been impressed with how well each new person I speak to quickly picks things up and moves my case along.


Key points

  • In addition to "The Studio", the issue has spread to "Your Friends and Neighbors", "Foundation", and "Severance" – when I click play on these, nothing happens
  • I can watch "Dope Thief", "Slow Horses", "Ted Lasso" and all the movies that I've tried, including ones I've watched and haven't watched
  • I had thought it might be to do with new episodes of new programs, but "Foundation" throws that idea out – I thought I'd rewatch it, so I watched s01e01 again and then couldn't progress further
  • With Apple TV Support, I have:
    • Turned it off and on (natch)
    • Cleared Apple TV library caches
    • Confirmed no issues playing these shows on iPhone and the web interface
    • Created a test user profile on my computer to see if the issue replicates for that user (and it does)
    • Reinstalled the Sequoia operating system – it seems this is the only way to delete and reinstall the Apple TV application, and there's no ability to download the Apple TV app for Mac from somewhere to replace it (?!)
    • Tested my account on another MacBook Apple TV interface (and it works)


Next steps

I now need to check how someone else's Apple TV account works on my MacBook to see if the issue replicates for their account. I suspect the same issue will happen, which will mean the issue is local to my MacBook only. At this point, Apple TV Support will allocate my case to an engineering team to work out what's wrong.


What I think is wrong

I suspect I've deleted some of the wrong library files at some point in the last two weeks. I've been having trouble with One Drive sync issues and been trying to fix that — when I open a Word doc from within Word using 'open recent files', I sometimes get a duplicate or read only error, which means there's an issue with where Word autosaves files when I'm working on them. I haven't worked that one out yet, but I suspect that in trying to fix that, I may have deleted something I shouldn't have.


Then again, other people seem to be having this issue, so it may be completely unrelated.


When I work it out, I'll post an update.

Apr 12, 2025 9:33 AM in response to EveryCondition

same issue here on the Windows 11 app, also in Australia. with The Studio i can watch earlier episodes but the latest Episode 4 clicking play does nothing.

and same goes for Dope Thief the latest Episode 6 doesn't work but everything prior does?

i can download the episodes but same issue the player never opens only on those new episodes.

video google drive link note at the start of this video episode5 is playing fine and im skipping around the episode just fine. it only shows as black on OBS likely apples anti recording DRM stuff. but after closing episode 5 i cant click play on episode 6 via the thumbnail or going direct to the shows episode.

i tried all the typical suggestions, authorizing the pc, log out/in, reset the app, reinstalling, restart pc etc

Apr 18, 2025 4:06 AM in response to DanHail

these forums are user helping other users like yourself, it's sort of going

to a physical apple store and asking other customers there advice


they don't read your post in these user helping other user forums


you can provide them with feedback using

Product Feedback - Apple


and or

 reportaproblem.apple.com.


and or reach out to their support channels


 Get

Support (apple.com)

And

or


 Contact

- Official Apple Support


And

or


Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple


Apr 12, 2025 6:30 AM in response to EveryCondition

Having the exact same problem with the whole series. No episode of "The Studio" will play in the Apple TV app on macOS. Everything else on the platform works flawlessly, it's literally just this show. It's so bizarre. It works on everything else, Apple TV 4K, iPhone no problems. The Apple TV app on MacOS though? The play button doesn't respond to being clicked on no matter what, specifically for this show.

May 24, 2025 3:56 AM in response to EveryCondition

Same - I can't play 'The Studio' at all. I just upgraded to Sequoia 15.5 but it made no difference. From what I hear, the process of logging a case is painfully slow so I'm not going to bother with it. I've just cancelled the subscription because there's no point paying for it if I can't view the content. Apple needs to sort this out or they'll keep losing people as a result.

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Apple TV | The Studio Episode 4 won't play – everything else does

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