How to enable Automatic Downloads for Apple TV apps

In this quick tutorial, we’ll show you how to use Automatic Downloads on your Apple TV so that the universal apps you download on your other devices also download automatically on your TV.

tvOS 10 App Store Apple TV Siri Remote teaser 002

Apps like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Spotify, and more are available on both iOS and tvOS. Chances are, if you enjoy watching Netflix on your iPhone or iPad, you will also love to watch it on your TV.

Now, you can always manually download apps from the Apple TV App Store. But to make things smooth, you can turn on a simple setting that will automatically download supported apps on your Apple TV, if you download them on your other Apple TV or your iPhone, iPad, provided an Apple TV version exists for that app.

Note:

  • If you use the Family Sharing feature, Automatic Downloads won’t automatically put family members’ universal apps on your Apple TV’s Home Screen.
  • Make sure you use the same Apple ID on your Apple TV and your iPhone and iPad.

Turn on Automatic Downloads for Apple TV apps

1) Open Settings and navigate to the Apps section.

tvOS Settings Apps Apple TV screenshot 001

2) Set Automatically Install Apps to “On”.

tvOS Settings Automatically Install Apps Apple TV screenshot 002

Now, when you download a universal iOS app to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, it automatically downloads to the Apple TV as well.

By default, Apple TV apps are automatically updated when new versions are released. If you’d rather manually check if any updates for your installed Apple TV apps are available in the App Store, set Automatically Update Apps to “Off.”

tvOS Settings Automatically Update Apps Apple TV screenshot 003

Your Apple TV will no longer silently update apps in the background. If you prefer automatic app updates to be turned on, you can see which updates have been installed recently under Purchased > Recently Updated in the App Store.

tvOS 10 App Store Recently Updated Apple TV screenshot 001

Seeing the availability of tvOS versions of iOS apps

If you dislike Automatic Downloads or don’t want every single universal iOS app to appear on your Apple TV’s Home Screen, feel free to disable Automatic Downloads and check for tvOS editions of your iPhone and iPad apps manually.

This is very convenient because apps that you currently have on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that lack Apple TV support may become available for tvOS in the future without you even knowing it.

1) Launch the App Store on your Apple TV and highlight the Purchased tab at the top of the screen.

2) In the lefthand column, highlight a section titled Not on This Apple TV to see a list of all the universal iOS apps you downloaded that are not on this Apple TV. Select an app to download it on your TV.

tvOS App Store Not on this Apple TV screenshot 003

Re-download previously bought Apple TV apps

You can download your previous Apple TV app purchases at any time

1) To see the apps that you previously bought through your Apple TV, launch the tvOS App Store and highlight Purchased at the top of the screen.

2) Click the All Apps option in the lefthand column to see a list of your past purchases. Next, select an app you wish to re-download to this device and use the download arrow.

tvOS App Store Purchased Apps All Apple TV screenshot 001

Do you use Automatic Downloads on your Apple TV, and if not, why?

I find this feature to be quite useful because I blog about apps for a living and want to ensure that any iPhone and iPad apps that are also available on tvOS automatically download to my Apple TV’s Home Screen.

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