Apple recently allowed game emulators on the App Store, prompting users to wonder when these would reach the tvOS App Store for Apple TV.

This happened last week with RetroArch’s release. However, users quickly noticed that games were being deleted unexpectedly. This is not a bug but a result of an operating system restriction. Apple imposes strict limits on storage usage for tvOS apps.

According to App Store documentation:

“The maximum size for a tvOS app bundle is 4 GB. Moreover, your app can only access 500 KB of persistent storage that is local to the device.”

This means that Apple TV apps can only permanently store 500 KB of data, enough for basic settings and save files.

Additional data can be downloaded but is treated as temporary and can be deleted by the system at any time.

Developers have expressed frustration with these constraints.

Berlin-based developer, Ole Begemann, commented on Mastodon:

“It’s unacceptable IMO that tvOS apparently doesn’t allow apps to use persistent storage. For instance, the new RetroArch game emulator has to store all your savegames, screenshots, ROMs in the Caches directory, which the OS may purge at any time without warning.”

Riley Testut, creator of the Delta emulator, cited this limitation as a major reason for not developing an Apple TV version of his emulator. It stands to reason that many other developers have also been deterred.

The rationale behind this limitation may be linked to older Apple TV models that started with 32GB of storage.

However, current models start with 64GB and include a 128GB option.

There’s hope that Apple may lift this restriction for future models.

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