tvOS 17.2 Officially Kills iTunes Movies and TV Shows Apps

Following a late October report that Apple was planning to sunset the standalone Movies and TV Shows apps, it appears that tvOS 17.2 has now driven the final nail in their coffin — at least on the Apple TV.

Although the two apps remain in place in this week’s release candidate of tvOS 17.2, they’re no longer functional. Instead, opening either iTunes Movies or iTunes TV Shows takes users to a screen telling them that “iTunes Movies [or TV Shows] and Your Purchases Have Moved” and that they can buy or rent movies (or buy TV shows) and find their purchases in the TV app.

That second point has been the case for some time; users’ purchased content libraries and a store section have been included in the TV app from the day it first launched in late 2016. Despite this, Apple kept the standalone iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows apps in place for those who preferred to access their content libraries or purchase and rent new content that way.

Nevertheless, it’s a bit of redundancy, especially with Apple tying in so many other streaming services into its TV app. In some ways, it’s surprising that the standalone iTunes apps lived on the Apple TV for as long as they did, but while redesigning the TV app in tvOS 17.2, Apple must have realized it was finally time for them to go.

Sadly, the two apps will persist as placeholders on your Apple TV home screen for now. Like other built-in apps, there’s no way to delete them, although you can tuck them away in a folder if you haven’t already done so.

Opening either app will show two buttons, one to Go to the Store and another to Go to Your Purchases. As you would expect, these will open the TV app to either the main Store page or the Recent Purchases section of your Library; however, you’ll end up in the same places whether you start from iTunes Movies or iTunes TV Shows apps.

The duo of legacy iTunes apps will undoubtedly be removed in a future tvOS update, but for now, Apple is leaving them in place to help those folks who may have used them in the past transition to the TV app.

While the pair of iTunes apps were helpful for those with existing purchased content libraries who preferred to avoid the clutter of the TV app, the good news is that this is just a bit of housecleaning. Apple isn’t removing any functionality; it’s just telling users to look for it in the TV app, where the “Library” tab will provide a similarly clean perspective on your purchased content.

Furthermore, Apple also hasn’t pulled the Computers app from tvOS, so those who prefer to stream their content library from a Mac or PC in their own home can still do so.

Apple is also reportedly planning to phase out the Movies and TV Shows sections in the iTunes Store app on the iPhone and iPad. However, those sections are still present in the iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 release candidates, although it’s still possible that Apple could switch them off on the back end following the public release of iOS 17.2, which is expected to land next week.