How to Delete Movies from TV App on iPhone or iPad
The latest versions of iOS replaced the longstanding “Videos” app with a new app called “TV” that includes an all new interface to manage movies and videos downloaded to an iPhone or iPad. While the old Videos app made it simple to delete and remove movies from the iPhone or iPad, the new TV app offers a less obvious method of removing video from an iOS device that is unique to deleting things inside the TV app.
We’ll show you two different ways how to delete a downloaded movie from the TV app within iOS.
If you don’t have the “TV” app on your iPhone or iPad it’s likely because you have not updated to a recent version of iOS, or maybe you deleted it. To be clear, the iOS TV app is not to be confused with the Apple TV hardware device.
How to Delete a Video from TV App in iOS
This is the easiest way to erase a downloaded video from the TV app in iOS:
- Open the “TV” app on iPhone, iPad
- Tap on any video or movie you want to delete from the TV app
- Tap on the “Downloaded” button
- Tap on “Remove Download” to delete the downloaded video from the iPhone
- Repeat with other videos you want to delete from the TV app
Obscuring the remove option inside the downloaded text button may seem a little counterintuitive to what many users are accustomed to in iOS, but perhaps that functionality will carry over through other delete abilities in future releases as well.
Deleting Videos from TV app via Settings in iOS
There’s actually another way to delete videos from inside the TV app as well, using the broader riOS Settings app:
- Open the “Settings” app and go to “General” and then to “Storage & Usage”
- Find the “TV” app and tap on it
- Tap on “Edit” and delete movies from the TV app, or swipe left on the movies to delete them directly
You can use whichever method works best for you, both will delete a movie or video from the iOS TV app. This works the same on any iPhone or iPad with the TV app installed, which used to be called the Video app. Of course if you deleted the default TV app from iOS then you won’t have it installed on the device and would not have this ability in general, let alone any videos stored within the TV app.
Man, is this system just STUPID. You can’t just pick a video and delete it? You have to go through Settings and find the app?
Gee, how “intuitive”
Apple literally gets worse each year, but boy do they keep pumping out garbage. Why did I give up on PC products again?
Doesn’t work at all,videos still in the TV app. Maybe just delete the TV app and then reinstall? Bad programing. Anyway, I think I’ve found a workaround, deleted the videos in the I-tunes itself, new sync, then had to restart the i-phone for the videos to actually dissapear.
“Open the “Settings” app and go to “General” and then to “Storage & Usage”.
All very well, but my iPad (iOS 11.2.1) has no “Storage & Usage” option, just “iPad Storage”, with no obvious way to manage videos. Unlike the “music” option under iPad Storage, which lists all the content, and allows deletions. :-(
I wish the TV App kept the feature of its predecessor that would play episodes in a tv series back to back. This was a great feature on long car trips with a toddler. Now each one has to be selected and played separately.
Like the 2 posters above, I don’t have the first option on my iPad … EXCEPT that 2 days ago the button appeared for my home videos. However, since then (after the next load/sync via iTunes) the button has mysteriously disappeared!
Can anyone explain how to make the “Downloaded” button appear???
While it did make the videos disappear from the presentation on the app, it didn’t actually delete the video files. They were still present when I did the next sync. So while this is a really really helpful (and missed!) feature, it’s important to understand that it doesn’t free up space on the iPad.
Thanks for replying to my question !!! greatly appreciate the help!!
iPhone 7, Canada, IOS up to date: no TV app. Still have Videos, which can not delete captured video at all.
?????
I am in the UK, have the latest version of IOS on my iPad but, like other of your followers, do not have the TV app. I have searched for it in the App Store but to no avail. You might want to publish an amendment to your article.
Still Video in the UK.
I would like to know when we’ll be able to delete “Up Next” entries on the Watch Now page. If you’re in one of the linked apps and happen to click on a show and then decide you don’t want to watch it, it still shows up as Up Next and never goes away.
TV app is not available. I have latest iOS and video app. Can’t even search TV app.
I guess it’s not in Canada??
The first method doesn’t seem to work for the home videos content (my movies I’ve transferred from a sync via iTunes), or am I missing something?
I have successfully removed those via the second method (manage storage).
But I don’t seem to get a “download” option when looking at the Library\Home Videos content.
Same here, I see no way at all to delete from the TV app. At least the Videos app would allow me to delete my downloaded movies from the app.
I can’t believe how bad Apple’s internal apps are in comparison to others. They really seem to miss the boat, I wonder if someone else submitted this to the app store if would even be approved.
Just having to find and click on the downloaded button is cryptic in itself.
ugh
It’s Dec 2017, I’ve just bought a new ipad and searched google to find out how to remove home movies from this new TV app, and obviously there is STILL no actual answer to the question y’all posed in Feb 2017.
“in Mail”, not insolvent.
Thanks for this article. Now we need a replacement for the delete all email insolvent. Doing it by checking off each one before mass deletion is ridiculous. Thanks for a great site!
Has the “TV app” not made it to Austrralia yet?
Apple really needs to hire someone who does a proper job of naming things. Their names for stuff are rediculous. Do the bigwigs their just call their kid, wait for it, Kid?
They called their original video player app “Videos”. Their picture managing app is called “Photos”.
Apple is about security and simplicity* (*when possible and doesn’t interfere with security).
Microsoft calls their picture app “Photos” too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯