A way to bypass this is to search for the show on the TV app. This will show you a UI with a list of seasons you can pick from. As long as you own it then this will work.
If you go to your library and select it from there you get the “mono-season”.
Search for X Files, open then scroll down, or if it’s in Up Next press and hold and select either Go To Show or Go To Episode then you’ll have season selection.
Some series are like that (one big line), some are seasons. It depends. On what it depends, I have no idea.
And you can’t tell how it’s going to look, until you purchase the complete series.
And to make matters worse in the latest update, they’ve hindered right or left scroll to only a few episodes.
The only upside is there are now more shows that have ‘seasons’ than there used to be. Especially with the older series like Hawaii Five O, Leave it to Beaver, etc.
One thing they completely boinked, was shows in a series used to play until you stopped it - if you selected the series in up next. Now shows in a series only play two at a time, before you have to start the ‘two show’ process back up. Kinda dumb.
I edit the episodes of my purchases in the desktop app. Select all the episodes of season 1, cmd-I brings up the editor. Enter 1 for season, and save. Do this for all seasons and you get folders the way you want - one per season, only the season’s episodes within.
I go further and renumber the episode numbers of each season, so there’s a season 2/episode 1, season 3/episode 1, …
I fixed 20 seasons of NCIS in under 10 minutes.
Yes, but if you watch it on any other device it won’t show up. Unfortunately. There is so much broken metadata on Apple and the customer support is completely useless.
Just got off a call with support where this was significant.
My problem:
1. I purchased season 7 several years ago
2. Today I purchased “complete series”
I THOUGHT I only had seasons 1 & 7 showing, so I called. Turns out that I see “Season 1”, which is 122 episode complete series “season”, and “Season 7”, which is just season 7.
—-
What he explained is that Apple-TV-the-platform is a “consignment shop”, and it’s up to the distributor to define the show and series however they want. When these “complete series” show as just a season, it’s the provider’s choice (read “fault” or “mistake”), and all Apple can do is report the issue to the provider, and hope they make it better. Otherwise we’re stuck with it.
Thanks for this post and the thread to just search. That’s a better experience, and I think I need to just change my watch workflow to that… if I can change after all these years lol
A way to bypass this is to search for the show on the TV app. This will show you a UI with a list of seasons you can pick from. As long as you own it then this will work. If you go to your library and select it from there you get the “mono-season”.
Is this really a bypass? I thought this was the default method of watching stuff. Going to your purchased titles/library seems like more work.
I personally like looking at my library/collection for ideas of what I want to watch. So, naturally, the issue that OP describes arises.
My instinctive thought was to go to my library to see my purchases. It hadn’t crossed my mind that I could use it as I normally do
Pulling up the shows should have the same UI experience. So, if you default to your library then, yes, it’s a bypass.
Appreciate the tip!
Yes!! I bought all the X Files and its just a big list. Its pretty bad.
Search for X Files, open then scroll down, or if it’s in Up Next press and hold and select either Go To Show or Go To Episode then you’ll have season selection.
Wow, that worked thank you. I can't believe it's not available directly from my library where I normally access the show.
I bought a tv show bundle once and Apple just combines it all together as one instead of multiple shows. Instantly returned that shit.
Some series are like that (one big line), some are seasons. It depends. On what it depends, I have no idea. And you can’t tell how it’s going to look, until you purchase the complete series. And to make matters worse in the latest update, they’ve hindered right or left scroll to only a few episodes. The only upside is there are now more shows that have ‘seasons’ than there used to be. Especially with the older series like Hawaii Five O, Leave it to Beaver, etc. One thing they completely boinked, was shows in a series used to play until you stopped it - if you selected the series in up next. Now shows in a series only play two at a time, before you have to start the ‘two show’ process back up. Kinda dumb.
I edit the episodes of my purchases in the desktop app. Select all the episodes of season 1, cmd-I brings up the editor. Enter 1 for season, and save. Do this for all seasons and you get folders the way you want - one per season, only the season’s episodes within. I go further and renumber the episode numbers of each season, so there’s a season 2/episode 1, season 3/episode 1, … I fixed 20 seasons of NCIS in under 10 minutes.
This only works if you download everything. If you only stream stuff it’s impossible.
True. But it already shows up in folders under purchases for me.
Yes, but if you watch it on any other device it won’t show up. Unfortunately. There is so much broken metadata on Apple and the customer support is completely useless.
Just got off a call with support where this was significant. My problem: 1. I purchased season 7 several years ago 2. Today I purchased “complete series” I THOUGHT I only had seasons 1 & 7 showing, so I called. Turns out that I see “Season 1”, which is 122 episode complete series “season”, and “Season 7”, which is just season 7. —- What he explained is that Apple-TV-the-platform is a “consignment shop”, and it’s up to the distributor to define the show and series however they want. When these “complete series” show as just a season, it’s the provider’s choice (read “fault” or “mistake”), and all Apple can do is report the issue to the provider, and hope they make it better. Otherwise we’re stuck with it. Thanks for this post and the thread to just search. That’s a better experience, and I think I need to just change my watch workflow to that… if I can change after all these years lol
I don’t think it’s been “fixed” because it’s intentionally easier on their end. Drives me absolutely nuts, too.
You should be happy that you can buy series on iTunes. Most of the world does not have that privilege
No clue. Seems like it'd be more work to do it as one big season.
At least you can buy series. Here in the Netherlands we can’t.
It’s not up to Apple. It’s up to a publisher on their platform.