If Apple TV needs to be restored, I have to rebuy all media???

Question

Say it ain't so! If I purchase media on my Apple TV and don't sync it up to my laptop's puny HDD throught iTunes, I will have to rebuy all that media if I have to restore my Apple TV?

Answer 1

bobbyisrad wrote:
Say it ain't so! If I purchase media on my Apple TV and don't sync it up to my laptop's puny HDD throught iTunes, I will have to rebuy all that media if I have to restore my Apple TV?
Apple currently do not allow you to redownload purchases without good reason eg fault affecting syncing back to iTunes, and then you have to request via iTunes support.
You may not like the syncing model, but it's how they designed it - for convenience you can buy on AppleTV and keep the item there to play when the computer is off, but AppleTv is expected to be in sync with iTunes which officially means a copy in iTunes media folder. If the folder is on a laptop or computer with limited storeage yes, this can be a bind, but you have other options:
1 - Move your library to an external drive and sync/stream from there.
2 - Keep library where it is, but store actual media files on an external (some or all).
3 - Delete the files manually from the file system once they've synced back so itunes thinks they're still there - crucial to make a backup of these files elsewhere first - they won't sync back from AppleTv again, and if AppleTv fails you're stuck.
Personally I would let them sync back to iTunes, ensure you make a backup somewhere (external or DVDs) then make a copy on an external drive and add them to itunes having altered Prefs not to copy to media folder. They will sit on this external and be available to sync when this is connected, once synced you can remove external and they should stay on AppleTV. You will only need to reconnect to store/sync different items on the external.
Do not rely on AppleTv as the only copy, as it will eventually fail or fill up.
If you delete the items from within iTunes they will disappear from AppleTv at next sync.