CheckMag | Apple’s Support Forums are a black hole for user feedback

Recently, a frustrated Apple TV user posted a complaint about the platform’s “Next Episode” pop-up — a prompt that appears before an episode ends, even with autoplay disabled. The feedback was direct but fair: why can’t we turn this off? For viewers who care about immersion, pacing, or simply watching credits without interruption, this “feature” feels more like a design flaw than an enhancement.

What happened next is telling. The post was removed within minutes, flagged by Apple moderators for being “not constructive.” The user tried again — several times — each time carefully rewriting the post to fully comply with the community guidelines: no profanity, no personal attacks, just a request for an optional toggle. Every version was removed. No warning, no clarification, no recourse.

This isn’t about one post. It’s about a pattern. Apple’s forums, moderated by internal staff (not volunteers), seem less like a community space and more like a PR firewall — designed to filter out anything that doesn’t align with the company’s polished image.

The irony? These forums are full of loyal customers — people who buy, use, and engage with Apple products regularly. They’re not trolls. They’re not hostile. They’re users who care enough to try and make things better. But Apple’s response is silence — or worse, quiet deletion.

This approach feels increasingly outdated. Companies like Microsoft and Google allow open user forums with public issue tracking and voting. Even Netflix, notorious for its own questionable UX decisions, doesn’t bury criticism in this way.

Apple, meanwhile, points users to its Feedback portal, which might as well be a digital suggestion box at the bottom of a well. There’s no tracking, no visibility, no assurance that anyone is even reading submissions.

The result? Users are alienated. Feedback is stifled. And frustration grows — not just because of a feature like the Apple TV pop-up, but because of how Apple treats the people raising these concerns.

At a time when customers expect transparency, responsiveness, and community engagement, Apple’s support forum feels like a relic of an era where companies could simply delete the conversation and pretend the issue didn’t exist.

Until Apple rethinks this approach, its forums will remain what they are now: a dead-end for real feedback, dressed up as a community.