Posted on by Alex

Can’t Find That iTunes Deal in the Apple TV App? Here’s How to Get It Anyway

You found a deal on CheapCharts, but the Apple TV app says the title doesn’t exist. No search result, no purchase button, nothing. This happens because the iTunes to Apple TV transition is incomplete. Apple moved everything to the Apple TV app years ago, but many titles – especially TV boxsets, complete series bundles, and older catalog movies – never made it across.

In our experience tracking iTunes prices, we see this with dozens of titles each week. The Apple Support Community has numerous threads about the Apple TV app missing movies that are available in the iTunes Store backend.

This guide shows you how to buy iTunes movies that the Apple TV app won’t show you.

Why the Apple TV App Is Missing Movies and Shows

When Apple retired iTunes on Mac (macOS Catalina, 2019) and folded its store into the Apple TV app, not every title transferred.

What gets left behind:

  • 📦 TV series boxsets and complete collections. Individual seasons might appear, but the discounted complete series bundle often doesn’t.
  • 🎬 Older catalog titles. Movies that haven’t been re-indexed for the Apple TV app.
  • 🌍 Region-specific listings. Some titles exist in the iTunes Store for your country but aren’t surfaced in the Apple TV app’s search.

CheapCharts pulls data from Apple’s iTunes API, which lists these titles. The Apple TV app uses a different catalog index. That’s the gap.

🔧 How to Buy iTunes Movies the Apple TV App Won’t Show

The workaround uses Apple’s itmss:// protocol, which opens the iTunes Store directly (bypassing the Apple TV app).

💻 On Mac (macOS Catalina or later)

  1. Go to CheapCharts and find the title you want
  2. Open the item’s detail page
  3. Click “More” (below “Add to Purchases”) and select “Copy iTunes Link to Clipboard”
  4. Paste the link into a text editor. Replace https with itmss
  5. Open Terminal and type: open "itmss://itunes.apple.com/xxxxx"
  6. Press Enter. Apple Music opens and shows the item. Buy it there.

✅ The link should start with itmss://itunes.apple.com/. If it doesn’t, check step 4.

Find Hidden Deals on CheapCharts →

🪟 On Windows

  1. Visit CheapCharts and locate the deal
  2. Copy the iTunes link (detail page → “More” → “Copy iTunes Link”)
  3. Replace https with itmss in a text editor
  4. Open Command Prompt and type: start "itmss://itunes.apple.com/xxxxx"
  5. The item opens in iTunes for Windows (or Apple Music), ready to purchase

Windows still has the full iTunes desktop app. If you prefer, skip the itmss:// workaround and search directly inside iTunes.

📋 Other Ways to Access Hidden iTunes Deals

  • 🖥️ iTunes on Windows PC. Full store access. Search for any title, buy it, and it syncs to your Apple account across all devices.
  • 📱 Older iPhones (iOS before 17.2). These have direct iTunes Store integration. Apple removed this in iOS 17.2 (December 2023), per Apple’s iOS 17 release notes.
  • 🔗 Direct links from CheapCharts. Every deal page includes a direct iTunes Store link. On devices where the iTunes Store still functions, these open the correct page.

We’ve reported the missing movies issue to Apple multiple times. As of early 2026, no fix has been announced.

The Bottom Line

The iTunes to Apple TV transition left gaps in Apple’s storefront. Many titles – especially boxsets and catalog movies – exist in Apple’s backend but don’t appear in the Apple TV app.

The fix: Copy the iTunes link from CheapCharts, swap https for itmss, open it through Terminal or Command Prompt. Done.