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  • How can I buy a movie on my Apple iPad?

How can I buy a movie on my Apple iPad?

April 9, 2010 / Dave Taylor / iPad Help / 25 Comments

I can already tell that the iPad is an awesome movie viewer, but if I’m on the road and that’s all I have, can I buy a movie directly on the iPad and have it downloaded for later viewing? I only have the wifi version, btw.

I’m with you. From the moment I saw the advertising for the Apple iPad, I thought “man, that’s going to be a sweet, sweet device for my next airplane flight!” Then I realized that you have to get the content onto the iPad. You can do that with iTunes, of course, but if you aren’t near your computer and want to get a new movie, are you out of luck?
Of course you aren’t. You think Apple doesn’t want to enable you to spend money any time, anywhere? 🙂
More seriously, you need to launch the ‘iTunes’ app and then the steps are straightforward if you’ve already set up an iTunes account with payment information. If you haven’t, that’s a step you’ll probably need to do on your main computer, though if you enjoy the data entry system on the iPad you can definitely use that too.
Start by tapping on ‘iTunes’:

ipad icons itunes

You’ve now entered a fascinating new world of the iTunes Store. Tons to check out, and a fair amount of free stuff if you can find it. Tap on “Movies” along the bottom and you’ll see something like this:
ipad itunes movies

You are welcome to spend hours browsing, but I’m going to move quickly by typing in the name of a great Pixar animated short Mike’s New Car in the top right search box. Tap “Search” on the virtual keyboard and you’ll see the film in question:
ipad itunes movies mikes new car

Tap on the movie graphic and you’ll get a larger summary of the film:
ipad itunes movie summary

Lots to notice here, but you can do that on your own time. Instead, tap on “Preview” and you can watch a snippet of the film:
ipad itunes movie preview mikes new car

Looks great! Let’s jump back to the movie info page again (tap “Done” in the top left corner or wait until the preview ends), then tap on “Buy $1.99”. That button changes to:
ipad itunes movie buy film

Tap on it one more time to actually buy the movie and it’ll pop up a request for your iTunes password, a nice hurdle if you are otherwise afraid friends– or kids!! — might grab a bunch of films on your behalf:
ipad itunes movie enter itunes password

Once you’ve entered it correctly, you’ll see the film start to download:
ipad itunes downloading movie

That’s it. Now, to actually watch the movie, you’ll want to go back to the home page and tap on the “Videos” icon:
ipad icons videos

and…
ipad videos movie list

There ya go. You can see the other films I have on my iPad too. An eclectic mix! 🙂
Enjoy your movies. Let us know what you find the most enjoyable on your new Apple iPad too.
If you’re here, odds are very good you’re looking for iPad Help, and that’s just what we aim to offer, so if you have a question about your iPad that you haven’t seen answered here, please do submit it!

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Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

25 comments on “How can I buy a movie on my Apple iPad?”

  1. Blackrose says:
    January 22, 2013 at 5:08 pm

    Please, my IPad doesn’t have that movies icon u talked about. The 1 on ITUNES. What do I do??

    Reply
  2. Karee says:
    January 8, 2013 at 1:11 pm

    I too just downloaded. Moi on iTunes n it is not in my mo ion. What went wrong. I showed up in iTunes n I can view it there ith wifii . But no where else.
    Thank you karee

    Reply
  3. Melissa says:
    August 21, 2012 at 1:00 am

    I bought a movie in iTunes, it shows in video icon, plays fine with wifi, but how can I play/watch it on airplane with no wifi or other connection? It appears that it is downloaded to iCloud which does me no good w/out connection. Apple store guy checked my version of iTunes, plenty of memory , etc. HELP! Thank you

    Reply
  4. Paula says:
    May 16, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    I did most of what you said, except i used iCloud to download my already purchased movie on itunes. I download it 2 times. Can not fine it on my New iPad. Where is it. I did not keep an eye on it, because it takes a long time. hours. When I saw it was done and not there anymore, i looked for it and could not fine it. help. It never downloaded or i missed something????? Help
    Thank You for helping us Newbee’s.
    Paula

    Reply
  5. chaddy41 says:
    April 28, 2012 at 3:02 pm

    how did you take screenshots on an iPad Doyou know THanks!

    Reply
  6. vi walsh says:
    March 10, 2012 at 3:52 pm

    Can I change/select the language of the films I download? I want to watch in English. Because I live in Spain and opened my account here (I don’t have a UK billing address), it looks as if I only have access to Spanish language products.

    Reply
  7. Kathy says:
    November 21, 2011 at 7:44 am

    I am have a problem. Please help!! I cant buy movies from itune in itune hong kong. what can I do?
    Thank you.

    Reply
  8. zma says:
    July 17, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    But if it takes 2 minutes to download a short film that is 3-1/2 minutes-how long does it take to download a feature length film? Might seriously reduce your battery life and increase your boredom if you’re in flight.

    Reply
  9. Tarina says:
    April 10, 2011 at 12:42 am

    Hi, Please help me. I have a new ipad and have rented a few movies for the kids using the iTunes store on my computer. I have then synced the ipad but I canot find the rented movies on the ipad. Are they supposed to be in ‘videos’with bought movies? If so they have not been put on the device.

    Reply
  10. Annik says:
    March 5, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Hi,
    We are a French Canadian family with 2 young children (2 and 4). My children don’t understand English yet and I am looking to get French children movies on my iPad. Is there a way I can change the language of movies I would like to download (just like I do with a DVD)? I tried finding French movies on iTunes, but can’t find any.
    Thank you, Annik

    Reply
  11. John says:
    March 4, 2011 at 7:25 pm

    I recently purchased a movie from itunes on my ipad and I wanted to start playing the movie before it completed the download. However, I couldn’t find a way to do this. I didn’t appear in “movies” Any advice?

    Reply
  12. Linda says:
    January 25, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    I have tried to download iTunes movies several times on my iPad and I always get an error message after several minutes. I was charged for the movies but they do not show in my download cache.

    Reply
  13. Robin says:
    December 28, 2010 at 8:52 pm

    Hi Taylor
    I have an Norwegians iPad because i live in norway. But i don’t got that movies icon in my iTunes. Any ideas?
    Thx

    Reply
  14. Dave Taylor says:
    December 20, 2010 at 11:07 pm

    Jen, I don’t think that the films purchased on Amazon can be played on an iPad that’s offline, though if you rent a film in iTunes, it *should* work if it’s downloaded. I’m with you: this is all darn confusing.
    Carla, yes, most assuredly. When you plug your iPhone into your computer, go to “movies” within the iPhone config area, check the box adjacent to the new movie, then “Sync” it up again.

    Reply
  15. carla says:
    December 20, 2010 at 2:52 pm

    Thanks! I have the movie on my ipad now, can I also put it on my iphone?

    Reply
  16. Jen says:
    November 29, 2010 at 8:26 pm

    Dear Dave,
    I normally want to watch movies on my iPad when streaming/Netflix isn’t available (airplane, airport with poor wi-fi, etc.). I am frustrated because most of the movies I would like to watch are not available for purchase on iTunes (e.g. The Motorcycle Diaries)!! Is there another way to purchase movies? If I purchased the The Motorcycle Diaries on Amazon could I watch it on my ipad?
    Help!
    Jen

    Reply
  17. Bruno says:
    October 20, 2010 at 6:37 am

    Itunes sucks !
    It works only for the US.
    All over Asia, you can’t buy either music or movies, or books.
    Basically, all you can do with an Ipad is surfing the web.
    Thank you very much Apple!

    Reply
  18. Arshad says:
    September 23, 2010 at 1:28 pm

    In iTunes I don’t have the “movies” button. Any ideas ?

    Reply
  19. Orsetta says:
    September 23, 2010 at 4:15 am

    Hi,i’m writing f rom italy. I did what you said about movies for iPad but here iTunes doesn’t work as you said !!! Is it possibile?? How can i buy movie s for my iPad so??

    Reply
  20. Paul Peng says:
    July 29, 2010 at 8:44 am

    Hi, Dave. Is it worth to get a “Movies HD” ?

    Reply
  21. Paul Peng says:
    July 27, 2010 at 10:16 am

    I’m glad to ask you about Netflix. Will rent or buy movies from iTunes Store for watching it on iPad when I travel. It will work on airplane flight, right?

    Reply
  22. Dave Taylor says:
    July 27, 2010 at 9:50 am

    Pretty sure that won’t work, Paul, as Netflix is a streaming service…

    Reply
  23. Paul Peng says:
    July 27, 2010 at 9:48 am

    Thanks Dave. Are movies rented from Netflix to IPad be able to watch on airplane flight, specific International flight,?

    Reply
  24. Dave Taylor says:
    July 27, 2010 at 9:17 am

    Paul, I wish there was, but I haven’t found anything similar. I just use the Get Info capability in iTunes to copy and paste movie posters as the icons for movies before I sync them on my iPad (which isn’t an issue if the only movies you have are bought in the iTunes Store, btw)

    Reply
  25. Paul Peng says:
    July 27, 2010 at 9:10 am

    Thanks, Dave. Could you tell me “How to organize movies on IPad?” Is there anything like “iBooks”, I can display movies?

    Reply

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