End of an Era: Farewell to iTunes Movies and TV Shows on tvOS 26.4

Apple recently informed iTunes users via email that the traditional Apple TV “Wish Lists” will no longer be available, with the removal process set to happen swiftly.

For a long time, the Apple TV has included two apps, iTunes Movies and iTunes TV Shows, for browsing, buying, and renting video content from the iTunes Store. These apps have been around since the early days of Apple’s set-top box and survived the transition to tvOS in 2015 with the fourth-generation Apple TV. They have since remained unchanged.

These apps allowed users to not only purchase and rent content but also save items in lists such as a “Wish List” for Movies and a “Favorites” list for TV Shows. However, these lists were only accessible from the Apple TV apps, creating a disconnect with the iTunes apps on other devices.

About two years ago, Apple phased out these two apps in tvOS 17.2, leaving them as placeholders on the tvOS Home Screen to direct users to the Store in the Apple TV app. This change resulted in users losing access to their saved items in the Wish List and Favorites. Fortunately, the data was still retrievable from Apple’s servers in tvOS 17.3.

Despite these apps living on borrowed time, they remained a part of the Apple TV experience until the recent betas of tvOS 26.4, where they are noticeably absent. Users with a significant amount of content in their wish lists are advised to take note of their items before updating to the final release of tvOS 26.4.

It is recommended to compare any PDFs received from Apple against the actual Wish List and Favorites to ensure all items are accounted for. Some users have reported missing items, especially those with extensive collections. Additionally, individuals who have not received a PDF should manually create a list of their content as a precaution.