User level: Level 1 (16 points)After starting the TV App I can place one episode or movie. Then trying to play any other content and only a gray box (the player window) opens and nothing happens. The app has to be stopped and restarted. Then one episode or movie can be played, followed by having to close the app again.
Does anyone know of a fix for this issue?
Posted on Sep 21, 2026 12:46 PM
User level: Level 2 (354 points)Nov 7, 2026 11:06 AM in response to maxx_mc
The one-play-per-launch pattern is the clue: the first playback session starts fine, so this is not the files or your account outright; the playback/authorization state is failing to reset for the second item. The fixes in the order I would try them:
1. Refresh the media sign-in. In the TV app, use the Account menu to sign out of your media account, quit the app, reopen it and sign back in. Protected playback keeps a session token that can go stale exactly like this.
2. Re-authorize the computer. Account > Authorizations > Deauthorize This Computer, then authorize it again from the same menu. Second-play failures on purchased or rented content are a classic symptom of a damaged authorization, and this rebuilds it without touching your library.
3. When the gray box appears, a workaround that avoids restarting the whole app: open Activity Monitor, search for VTDecoderXPCService, quit it (it relaunches on its own), then try playing again. That is the shared video decode process, and a hung one gives you a player window with nothing in it.
4. To find out which side of the fence it lives on, try the same two plays in a fresh user account on the Mac. If the second play works there, the fault is in your account's TV app data; if it fails there too, it is system level, and a Safe Mode start is the next test, because third party display and capture drivers (DisplayLink docks especially) are known to interfere with protected video after the first stream.
Originally posted at discussions.apple.com/thread/256362173