Some movies have no sound when played via the Apple TV app and nobody knows why

Apple TV (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Some people are finding that movies bought and rented via the Apple TV app are playing without any sound.
No fix has been discovered, but Apple is giving some people refunds.

As great as the Apple TV app is for people who don't have an Apple TV, it seems that some people are finding that it doesn't always play ball with some movies when they are bought and streamed. According to multiple reports, some content is missing sound when played via the TV app.

Reported by multiple people across social media and Reddit before being picked up by 9to5Mac, the issue doesn't affect all content and it doesn't affect all users. Those are the worst kinds of issues to try and diagnose and it seems Apple hasn't managed to do so. In fact, Apple's answer seems to be to issue refunds to people — and even then, it isn't doing it for everyone that's afflicted by the issue.

To make matters worse, customers are having mixed results when contacting Apple Support about the problems. Seemingly, Apple Support cannot fix the issue and serve a fresh copy of the movie with music intact — instead they appear to just give out refund to anyone that files a complaint on this matter.

Trying to watch the purge on Apple TV and it’s literally no sound on the movie 😒😒😒Trying to watch the purge on Apple TV and it’s literally no sound on the movie 😒😒😒— Jennie 4rm the Block (@TERRIfic_IsShe) August 1, 2021 August 1, 2021

It isn't clear what's going on here, and it does seem to be affecting multiple devices across multiple platforms.

One option might be to pick up an Apple TV 4K to see if that is more reliable, though. These are the best Apple TV deals we've seen, by the way.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.