Archive 2016 - 2018 Resources

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16 comments:

  1. Please read everyone! This is an important message from LarryG

    LarryG has left a new comment on your post "Resources":

    Note: The following instructions apply when viewing the Amazon Prime Video website on a personal computer.

    Here's my suggestion for one certain way to find Prime expiring titles with a Last Day to Watch of Oct 30 and Oct 31. Amazon Prime Video will begin to post the end-of-month Orange Expiration Date Notices in the Pop-Up Info Windows of movies and TV shows in Your Watchlist on their usual 28-day advance notice schedule in the next two days.

    Normally the date displayed in the Orange Expiration Date Notice of "Leaving Prime on Date" is the date the title will be REMOVED from Prime. So that means the Last Day to Watch the title is the DAY BEFORE.

    Note: This blog follows the convention of listing the DAY BEFORE Last Day to Watch for a movie or TV show.

    The problem is that Amazon Prime Video does not follow this simple, clear policy consistently, and in particular at the end of each month. While HALF of the titles will have a Last Day to Watch of Oct 30 and HALF of the titles will have a Last Day to Watch of Oct 31, ALL of the Orange Expiration Date Notices will say "Leaving Prime on Oct 31, 2016". So, to be safe, we usually have to say that the DAY BEFORE is the Last Day to Watch, which will be Oct 30 this month. But the Nov 1 expiring movies will have an Extra Day to Watch on Oct 31.

    Now here's my tip: Go through your entire Your Watchlist tomorrow Monday Oct 3rd searching for all titles with the Orange "Leaving Prime on Oct 31, 2016" Notice. These titles will be expiring in fact on Oct 31 [Oct 3 + 28 = 31], and so DEFINITELY will have an Oct 30 Last Day to Watch.

    Use the trick of clicking the "Remove from Watchlist" Button in the Pop-Up Info Window of the expiring movie and then clicking the "Add to Watchlist" Button in the same Pop-Up Info Window to move ALL of these titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist. Note: This procedure only works when Your Watchlist is set to "Sort by: Most Recent Addition." The Sort By setting is found at the top right-hand side of Your Watchlist.

    Any and all other Oct 31 expiring titles you may find elsewhere on the Amazon Prime website on Monday Oct 3rd, like under the "Customers Who Watched This Item Also Watched" heading, will also DEFINITELY have an Oct 30 Last Day to Watch.

    You can post these titles with confidence as having an Oct 30 Last Day to Watch. I suggest that you indicate that these titles are "10/30 - Watchlist Checked - Confirmed Last Day to Watch" when you post them to this website in the days ahead.

    Note: This is the time-sensitive part of the procedure. You will ONLY have this ONE DAY to search with any certainty for titles with an Oct 30 Last Day to Watch.

    When finished searching on Monday Oct 3rd, also click the "Remove from Watchlist" and "Add to Watchlist" Buttons in the Pop-Up Info Window for one of your previously expired September titles to make it a place marker at the top of page 1.

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  2. Please read part 2 of LarryG's comment!

    PART 2 - CONTINUED:

    Then beginning on Tuesday Oct 4th, go through your entire Your Watchlist again searching for all titles with the Orange "Leaving Prime on Oct 31, 2016" Notice in the remaining balance of your list. Any NEW Orange Notices that you find in Your Watchlist on Tuesday will be for those titles that are in fact expiring on November 1 [Oct 4 + 28 = 32 or Nov 1], and so DEFINITELY will have an Oct 31 Last Day to Watch.

    You can post these titles with confidence as having an Oct 31 Last Day to Watch. I suggest that you indicate that these titles are "10/31 - Watchlist Checked - Confirmed Last Day to Watch" when you post them to this website in the days ahead.

    Note: There is no urgency to search for these Nov 1 titles on Tuesday Oct 4th. You can search any day after Oct 4th and any NEW Orange "Leaving Prime on Oct 31, 2016" Notices you find in Your Watchlist will DEFINITELY have an Oct 31 Last Day to Watch. The time-sensitive part of this procedure is that you MUST start on the first day of Monday Oct 3rd to separate all of the Oct 30 Last Day to Watch expiring titles found in Your Watchlist first. You will only have this ONE DAY to find and separate the Oct 30 titles from the rest in Your Watchlist.

    Be sure when finished searching Your Watchlist on Tuesday Oct 4th, or days thereafter, to also click the "Remove from Watchlist" and "Add to Watchlist" buttons in the Pop-Up Info Window for one of your previously expired September titles to make it another place marker at the top of page 1. Now you will know with certainty that the titles in your first group of expiring movies have a Last Day to Watch of Oct 30 and the titles in your second group have a Last Day to Watch of Oct 31.

    Unfortunately, there is no way to distinguish the new Orange Expiration Date Notices found on titles in the other areas of the Amazon Prime website on Tuesday Oct 4th from those added on Monday Oct 3rd. So, these titles will have to be posted once again as Oct 30 Last Day to Watch to be safe.

    Until Amazon Prime Video comes up with another expiration date method, this 28-day advance notice technique should work to identify SOME of the expiring titles found in Your Watchlist that have an EXTRA DAY to watch at the end of the month.

    WARNING: Do NOT click the "Remove" link BELOW THE MOVIE POSTER in Your Watchlist and the "Undo" Button to move your titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist. Some of the time clicking the "Remove" and "Undo" Button will result in the REMOVAL of the Orange Expiration Date Notice from the Pop-Up Info Window in Your Watchlist. This is due to the way Amazon has programmed the HTML code for the Your Watchlist webpage. To avoid this problem, you should ALWAYS click on the "Remove from Watchlist" Button and then the "Add to Watchlist" Button found in the title's POP-UP INFO WINDOW.

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    Replies
    1. Please ignore my WARNING above.

      It is now SAFE to use the "Remove" link below the movie poster in Your Watchlist and then the "Undo" button. Amazon has fixed the problem. The Orange Expiration Date Notices will no longer be lost this way.

      So, now you can use either method to move the expiring titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist.

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    2. ALSO, after testing, I have found that there IS a way to distinguish the new Feb 28 Orange Expiration Date Notices found in the other areas of the Amazon Prime Video website on Wednesday Feb 1 from those added on Tuesday Jan 31. See my Jan 2 Comments below for an explanation of how to do it in steps three and four.

      This method CAN be applied to the "Customers" Listings as well as to the different posters displayed in groups on the Amazon Prime Video homepage.

      And if you follow steps three and four, you should also repeat the check again on the third day Thursday Feb 2 to find the Mar 1 Last Day to Watch expiring titles there as well. That would make this step five.

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  3. Here's a tip for scanning Your Watchlist faster.

    Searching for Orange Expiration Date Notices in the Pop-Up Info Windows in Your Watchlist can be a very tedious, time-consuming process. You move the mouse arrow over a movie poster, wait for the Pop-Up, move the mouse away, then move the mouse arrow over the next movie poster and wait for the next Pop-Up to appear, etc.

    Normally when you look at the first row of movie posters in Your Watchlist, as you hover the mouse arrow over a movie poster the Pop-Up Info Window appears to the RIGHT or the LEFT side of the poster, and often in the way of the next movie poster.

    Here's the tip: If you first scroll up the Your Watchlist webpage so that the first row of movie posters is chopped off at the top of your browser window [that is, the top edge of the movie poster is NOT visible and only A PORTION of the movie poster is visible], then you will find that the Pop-Up Info Windows appear BELOW the row of movie posters.

    Now you can simply move the mouse arrow from left to right along the row of partial movie posters and the Pop-Up Info Windows will appear faster BELOW the posters.

    Further, since you are only looking for the Orange color of the Expiration Date Notice in the Pop-Up Info Windows, there is no need to read the Pop-Ups. Resist the urge to read the Pop-Up Info Windows. Just move the mouse along the row of posters scanning for the Orange color to appear. Then scroll up the next row of movie posters and quickly move the mouse along it. Repeat. You should be able to go through a page of Your Watchlist a lot faster now.

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  4. What we were seeing over this past weekend was not the removal of the Orange Expiration Date Notices, but rather the website was not recognizing our Prime membership Active Status when it displayed the hover-over Pop-Up Info Windows in the Your Watchlist and elsewhere on the website.

    Instead we saw the same Pop-Up Info Windows that non-Prime members see when hovering their mouse over a movie poster on the Amazon Video website. They cannot see the Orange Expiration Date Notices.

    Fortunately, this glitch in the system has been fixed for now, and hopefully we won't see it again.

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  5. Part 2 from LarryG's comment:

    On another issue, I found while examining the Your Watchlist webpage HTML code that Amazon has fixed the problem with the Remove link and the Undo button.

    In September, I found sometimes when clicking the Remove link below the movie poster in Your Watchlist and then the Undo button to move an expiring title to the top of Your Watchlist that the Orange Expiration Date Notice was removed from the Pop-Up Info Window. This was due to the way Amazon programmed the Your Watchlist webpage HTML code.

    As a result, I advised everyone to instead click the "Remove from Watchlist" button in the Pop-Up Info Window and then the "Add to Watchlist" button in the same Pop-Up Info Window to move your expiring titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist.

    Well, it looks like someone from Amazon Prime Video may be reading this blog and taking note of our comments.

    It is now Safe to use the Remove link below the movie poster in Your Watchlist and then the Undo button. The problem with the Your Watchlist webpage HTML code has been fixed. The Orange Expiration Date Notices will no longer be lost this way.

    So, now you can use either method to move the expiring titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist.

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  6. To find even more Jan 30 and Jan 31 Last Day to Watch expiring titles with certainty, follow steps three and four below.

    On Tuesday Jan 3, once you have moved all of the Jan 30 titles to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist in step one, Step Three is to go to the movie detail webpage for each Jan 30 title in Your Watchlist.

    Open the first movie in a new tab and then scroll down the page to the "Customers Who Watched This Item Also Watched" Listing. Now move your mouse over each title in the Customers Listing looking for more Orange Notices. Add to Your Watchlist any new Jan 30 titles you find that you don't already have. Click the right arrow in the Customers Listing to see more titles. You can usually click two times for more titles.

    Then go to the movie detail webpage for each of the new Jan 30 titles you find in the Customers Listing and search the Customers Listing on that webpage for yet more new Jan 30 titles.

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  7. As you can see, this procedure can spiral and spiral leading you to find many more Jan 30 titles than just the ones you started with in Your Watchlist.

    Note: Step Three is time-sensitive. You will only have this one day Tuesday Jan 3 to search the Customers Listings for Jan 30 titles.

    When you have finished checking all of the Customers Listings on all of the Jan 30 titles in Your Watchlist, be sure to move a previously expired title to the top of page 1 of Your Watchlist. This title will be your bookmark to mark the place in Your Watchlist where the Jan 30 titles end.

    Most important of all, before you post your Comment with your list of Jan 30 Confirmed Last Day to Watch titles, please alphabetize your list. You can use the Sort feature in Word or Excel, or just copy & paste the titles yourself into alphabetical order in Notepad.

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  8. Step Four -- On Wednesday Jan 4, after first searching Your Watchlist for new Jan 31 titles as explained in step two, you now go back to the movie detail webpage for each and every Jan 30 title and check the Customers Listing again.

    Now any new Orange Notices you find in the Customers Listing of Jan 30 titles will DEFINITELY be Jan 31 Last Day to Watch titles.

    Note: This will ONLY work with those Jan 30 Last Day to Watch titles whose Customers Listings you first checked on Tuesday Jan 3.

    You cannot check the Customers Listings of any new Jan 31 titles you find for more Jan 31 titles with any certainty. If you do check the Customers Listings of Jan 31 titles, you will have to list any new titles you find as Unconfirmed Jan 30 titles to be safe.

    However, you can apply this Customers Listing technique to any earlier expiring Jan titles in Your Watchlist provided that you also check their Customers Listings on Tuesday Jan 3 for any Jan 30 titles first.

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  9. Question: how do we know what's COMING to prime? Usually some of the entertainment sites (Vulture, Collider, etc) post this but there's been nothing as of this writing for March 2017.

    Where do they get their information?

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    Replies
    1. It looks like the press release just came out today for March 2017! Most of the streaming services (Amazon, Netflix, Hulu) release a handful of upcoming titles at the end of the month.

      Another good resource for new Amazon content is instantwatcher.com. It lists every new title for Prime Video, and it is updated on a daily basis.

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    2. Thanks! I noticed the press release like an hour after I posted go figure.

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  10. Does anyone know what happened to the orange expiration notice in the pop-up window? Disappeared as of yesterday. Noticed the pop-up window had changed appearance; are these two things related? Called, and finally got through to, technical support. The first guy insisted Prime titles never expire; asked to speak to his supervisor who was clueless, but promised to find out and call today. Have not heard from him.

    This is very frustrating since I have 13 pages of titles to potentially watch. Three times a month, I go through my Watchlist to see which titles are expiring and move them to the top of the list. Without the orange expiration notice, I won't have a clue as to what is and is not expiring. The expiring titles list on this site is invaluable, but we need the orange expiration notice too. Any help/info is greatly appreciated.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Lynn. I am having the same problem. I messaged customer service yesterday, and the rep assured me that nothing is expiring (which we know is not true).

      After that, I started a discussion thread on Amazon's website. One person suggested that I try a different browser. I normally use Chrome, and I did try Internet Explorer. No luck for me yet. Another person (from the Amazon thread) tried Firefox and Opera. No luck for him either.

      I am thinking that because the pop-up window has changed, maybe Amazon is just updating and maybe the expiration notices will come back. I hope they fix this soon. I usually have 20 pages of stuff on my Watchlist, and I need to know what to watch first.

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    2. I have been told that expiration notices are no longer a part of Prime video.

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