Apple Tv can't locate Library on laptop

Basically, I have an iMac with itunes etc on it. I have a laptop with itunes on it. All versions are current, OS software is bang up to date, the TV is fine for use.
I have one itunes account on that i/we the family buy music etc from.
When I start up Apple TV, under computer I can see the name of the library on the iMac and the name of the library on the laptop. Only the Imac will show up and let me use Apple TV as intended. if I try the laptop link, I get a message that Apple TV is loading the library but never makes it.
I have done everything I can (even with the help of a useful Mac chap called Alex) turned everything off, turned everything on, booted, prodded and kicked everything on offer but still it won't function.
My music is on a separate hard drive which I believe is not an issue.
Anybody got any idea why it won't work. I would like to know something/anything so that I can feel happy to send the Apple TV unit back to Apple for selling kit that doesn't do what it says on the box.

Are you using Home Sharing? Make sure all computers you want to connect to the Apple TV are using the same iTunes ID/Username for Home Sharing.

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Multiple iphones each with an apple id - can i use the same laptop and itunes for back up, restore and updates?

We have two iphones each with a different apple id - can i use the same laptop and itunes for back up, restore and updates without risking having my apps overwritten. Basically does itunes keep the two iphones as two separate entities ? Does iTunes differentiate between the two devices and keep two different SYNCs ?

Yes, you can use the same computer for BACK UPS, RESTORING AND UPDATING. But that is it.
You cannot, however, use it to sync the different devices. iTunes will only recognize one device to sync with and if you sync any other devices with that iTunes library, it will replace what is on the phone with whatever is in the library. It cannot differentiate between devices. At most, it will jsut recognize that the phone has been synced with a different iTunes library.
So if you would like to use the same computer for backing up, restoring and updating, just make sure to turn of Automatic Syncing in your iTunes Preferences.

TS2972 my apple tv devices and other apple devices can access my library but using my library, i cant access any of the apple tv devices through airplay

my apple tv devices and other apple devices can access my library but using my library, i cant access any of the apple tv devices through airplay

Home sharing isn't working either
Which is why you can not use the remote app. Did you turn on home sharing on your computer and on ATV?
eve though they have the same Apple ID.
Did you enter the ApplieID in the home sharing login though? Or just in for the iTunes store, or iCloud, or photo sharing, or something else?
Home sharing isn't working either, I can't play or transmit any video from my iPad to the Apple TV because it doesn't recognize it
That would be AirPlay, not homesharing. THey are not related. Did you enable air play on all the devices?
Have you run the network test tools on ATV? Can ATV access the iTunes store, Netflix, etc?

ITunes can't locate library on external hard-drive

I have had my iTunes library in a folder on an external E hard drive for some time, and it worked fine.
After I downloaded the latest version of iTunes - in response to a prompt from Apple - it now can't locate any of the tracks. The library is still displayed in full in the iTunes screen, but each track has an exclamation mark next to it, and if I try to play a track, iTunes tells me I have to locate it manually. If I locate a track manually, it plays, but that's obviously not ideal. Also, it won't sync my iPod, but just tells me that the named tracks can't be found.
I looked in the `iTunes music' folder in `My Music' on the C drive, and it has a handful of tracks in it. Those tracks play in iTunes as normal.
Going via Edit-Preferences-Advanced, the `iTunes media folder location' is set as the folder in my E-drive which contains my music library. I had understood that that was all I needed to do in order to enable iTunes to find my library, but I guess there must be another step I've missed.
I suspect that I should be using File-Add Folder to Library, but I'm not sure what the result will be if I do this. Will it copy the files from my E drive onto my C drive (and swallow up all the memory space on my laptop)? Will it duplicate all the tracks in the iTunes display so I have two versions of each track - one with an exclamation mark and one without? Should I delete all the tracks from iTunes before adding the folder?
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Have you assigned E: to the exHD permanently? Because Windows can change USB drive letters on you, if you don't assign them.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
That is the most common reason for itunes suddenly unable to find files.

IPhoto has hidden my iPhoto Library- photos there, but can't locate LIBRARY

*Here's a bit of a strange one!* I have iPhoto 7.1 (not yet 7.1.1) on my PowerBook G4-12" and last week I imported 6700 photos from my Kodak EasyShare Collection (which had a total of 16,000+) - and it all worked great.
*I setup about 20 EVENTS-*- some with 4 photos-- some with 800! I transferred 6098 photos to my iPod Touch (16gb) and SUPER!! +(OK the iTouch puts the first dated photo in each event as the KEY photo-- doesn't accept the "KEY PHOTO" I assigned in iPhoto-- but otherwise super).+
*OK SO TODAY:* I have 132 new photos to import from my digital camera. _FORGOT TO SAY THIS:_ The 29 gb iPhoto Library is located on an *external 48 gb HD (LaCie 300 gb with 3 partitions - on the 48 gb partition).*
So I imported the photos directly to iPhoto and all the events are gone and just the new 132 photos (1 event).
WHAT?!?!?!!!!!!!!!
So I then plug-in the HD to my MacBook and opent iPhoto 7.1.1 with the option key down and choose the iPhoto Library on the External HD and all is there, all OK-- Whew!
I now open iPhoto 7.1 on the PBG4 and the photos are there!! - *but the external HD is not connected!!* Somehow iPhoto has transferred them to the internal 100gb HD on the PBG4-- BUT WHERE?!?!? Even with a SPOTLIGHT or EASY FIND search, _I cannot locate the iPhoto Library!!!_ I even deleted the photos that were similar in the Kodak EasyShare folder thinking it was referencing them, but nope-- it still opened with 132 photos and where they are located, I have no idea!
I would like to transfer these 132 photos to the MAIN iPhoto Library on the 48gb HD - but I don't know where they are! (I've gone to where it should be-- in Users/Steve/Pictures....)
But I see them!
Can I DELETE this single event? But what then, is that "invisible Library" still about?
At this time, I really don't want to connect the HD to the PBG4 since I don't want to risk it corrupting the 6700 photos in that Library.
(((Of course I'll backup that iPhoto Library first-- so if I "wreck" one, I'll have a backup))); and of course I have the photos themselves via the wonderful Kodak EasyShare program which plays videos in slide shows (but without "EVENTS" or the easy ability to transfer to the iTouch)--
Thanks for any comments!
Steve-- Sunday 3 February 2008

Stephen:
Do a search on the PB for a file titles "Library6.iPhoto". Every library has one and you can find the library by finding that file. Once you find the library open it like this and drag out the Originals folder to the desktop.
Now connect the external HD to the PB, launch iPhoto with the Option key depressed and, when asked, select the option to Find Library and open the one on the external HD. Now you can drag the Originals folder from the desktop into the open iPhoto window to get those 132 photos into that library. When done delete the library and originals folder from the PB.
What may have happened is that iPhoto was launched with the external HD disconnected and, not finding the library, created a new one. Using iPhoto Library Manager to manage and open your library will avoid that problem as it will tell you that the library is not available.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Apple TV can see iTunes library but can't load content (intermittently)

I have intermittently been experiencing an issue where the Apple TV shows my iTunes library, but when I select it, no artwork appears for any of the categories (Music, Movies, etc.) If I select a category, it says it is loading, but never does. It shows the loading page for an extended period of time.
Connectivity otherwise seems fine. My iPhone/iPad remote apps still find the Apple TV, although they can not select my iMac library separately to play content through the Apple TV the way they should be able to, even though they see the library. My iMac and Apple TV are both connected by ethernet. I use an AirPort Extreme as the router, but the Apple TV has a wired connection through that router. My network/router situation has been pretty solid. I had (different) issues with my 1st gen Apple TV and as part of the troubleshooting for that totally reworked our setup and gave the computer and Apple TV both a wired connection. It didn't help that problem and I don't think it's related here.
I tried closing and re-opening iTunes, turning on and off home sharing including not pressing "done" as people here have suggested for other issues, and rebooting the computer. I tried with a MacBook Pro also, and I have the same isue. When this happens, it affects the iTunes libraries on both computers. Finally I reset the router and rebooted the Apple TV itself. It then started working again. I'm not sure which of those helped since I did them at the same time.
Once when this happened to my husband, he just gave up, and several hours later (presumably after the Apple TV and iMac had both gone to sleep and woken up), it worked again without rebooting or resetting anything.
Message was edited by: medgirl (to add router information)

Hi All,
Same issue here. Just upgraded (?) from the previous version of Apple TV, to the new Apple TV2. Like others here, my main problems seem to be with unreliable streaming from iTunes 10 on my PowerMac (Quad G5, Leopard OSX).
My original AppleTV had no issues w/the wireless network, or synching w/my PowerMac.
The network connection from the ATV2 are fine, and have no issues accessing the Apple Store (for movies, TV shows), or accessing Netflix. The access to the internet from my ATV2 is quite robust.
My problems are with keeping a constant, reliable wireless connection to my PowerMac, via an Airport Extreme wireless router.
I have tried multiple restarts, reboots, reset ATV2 to original settings, tried different wireless channels on the Airport Extreme, verified I have Home Sharing properly enabled in iTunes,etc, but no luck so far.
What I'm seeing is when I access my iTunes on my computer, I can see my library, and then if I start to "shuffle songs" I may get 1 to 3 songs to play fine, but then the music stops, and I can no longer access the music/movies/etc in iTunes any longer. When I then go to my PowerMac, it has lost most bars of signal strength on the wireless network (although all other devices show strong signal strength), and I have to Turn AirPort Off, then Turn AirPort On and I then am reconnected to the wireless network with good signal.
I then go back to the ATV2, connect to my iTunes, start my music, and then 1-2 songs later it again stops playing, and I go through this all over again.
It seems as though there is something on the wireless network between the ATV2 and my PowerMac that causes it to lose connection, and I have to manually start again. The problem is that the connection is not robust, and only lasts a few minutes.
Hope this gets solved soon.
Regards
Tom

Apple TV can see my library but won't play movies

I've been using my Apple TV for a couple of months now with no issues. I just installed a Harmony Link, which is working fine, but now i can't play movies on Apple TV. I'm not sure if the two are related, but i happened as soon as i had it all hooked up. I can see my library and scroll through the movies, but when i select one to play it says that it's not available and to try again later. I have less than 10 devices connected to WIFI through my Airport Express, so i assume it's not that, just not sure what it is.
Anyone come across this?

Here I come with more suggestions you've probably already tried.
1. You've probably already verified that you can still play the movies in iTunes on your computer.
2. You've probably already tried rebooting the AppleTV by pressing and holding both Down and Menu on the original remote until the white LED on the AppleTV starts flashing rapidly. Even once the main menu appears it'll take a little while before the AppleTV starts responding to the remote control (it's still busy booting).
I forgot to ask...are these movies purchased from the iTunes Store? If yes, continue to step 3. If not, there is probably some other reason why they aren't playing and resetting your settings (below) is unlikely to solve the problem.
3. Have you tried logging out of your Apple ID on the AppleTV and logging back in? Shouldn't be necessary but it's worth a try before the next step (which is even more unpleasant):
4. If that didn't work, try resetting the settings on the AppleTV: Settings, General, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list, Reset, Reset all settings. Doing that will require you to re-enter all your accounts and passwords on the AppleTV, including your wireless network password. And after all that trouble, your problem still won't be solved and you'll really hate me (sorry).
Anyone else have any better ideas?

IMac receives message "Cannot connect to Apple TV" - Apple TV can see iTunes library and can mirror with iPhone.

Hi all.
I have an iMac (mid 2011) running OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 and an apple TV that my little brother just gave me (I believe it's 3rd gen from serial #).
I can successfully mirror my iPhone 4S with AirPlay, and the Apple TV can see the iTunes lib from my iMac, but when I attempt to connect to the Apple TV from the icon in the tool bar it gives me the message "Could not connect to Apple TV."
Spent some time on the phone with a really super tech, he had me go through the paces with restarting the router, the apple TV, my iMac, checked all the network config etc - no dice.
I even reinstalled OS X.... still no dice.
Has anyone experienced this issue?
The second tech who called me back thought it might be hardware related. I brought this iMac in for a new hard drive less than a year ago after it randomly began throwing kernel panics and finally it just wouldn't boot. I don't do very much with my computer so it's kind of odd that it would have these issues unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the way it was put together. It doesn't take any abuse - not like my macbook!
Thanks in advance.

Had my iMac taken in - RAM replaced & video card replaced. Able to mirror in the store. Restored my iMac with time machine backup and restored apple TV. Still getting the same message. Could it be some network setting I'm overlooking? I tried it while the apple TV was connected via ethernet as well - no dice.

Ipod back from "diagnosis" by apple - now can't load library onto ipod

My ipod - 5th generation color screen - recently completely stopped working, no matter what self help i tried.
i sent it away to apple to be repaired [ it's still under warranty] it came back with the all clear - they had installed firmware on it - thats all they did. it now "works" ie. doesn't freeze and the battery life is ok. however, when i try to synch my 2,500 songs from my i-tunes library back on to the ipod it gets stuck at track 315 and won't go any further.
my pc also slows down dramatically and the coloured wheel ie. "it's thinking" stays on the screen for ages and ages until i lose patience and end up having to "force quit".
any ideas or suggestions?
thanks in advance
melanie
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I am not too sure, you can use the repair permission on the disk utility.
If you cant find them, try to move 20 songs each time to a special playlist to update with your iPod. You will have them with error message during the update

My apple tv2 can see my library on my new Mac but will not connect to it.

I just made the move from PC to Apple Mac. Home sharing worked great on my PC but not on the Mac.
I have been through the recommended checklist.
My library appears beneath the "Computers" tab but when I try to connect I just get the spinning wheel

Yeah. You, me, lots of people.
The error message isn't helpful, as you've discovered. You begin to wonder such things as, "if iTunes 'wasn't running', then how can the AppleTV see its library? If iTunes or OS X wasn't up to date, why wouldn't the Apple TV do a quick version check on it and let me know?" And so on.
I started having this problem a few months ago, sometime around iOS 4.3. It's been a widely-reported bug here for quite a while, with usually a range of obscure things that work for some people and well, no one else.
So with that big caveat in mind, here's what works for me: reboot the Mac.
Here's what hasn't worked for me:
1) Restarting the ATV2
2) Restoring/updating the ATV2
3) Staying current with OS X, iTunes versions etc.
4) Rebooting the router, a 5th-gen AirPort Extreme (wired connection; the ATV2 isn't on WiFi.)
5) Logging out of OS X
6) Restarting iTunes
7) Turning off/re-setting up Home Sharing
Mine has a curious twist however: We normally keep our Mac running with two OS X users logged in and each iTunes running. The Apple TV2 sees them both but only can connect to whichever library was first opened. To "switch" to the other iTunes library in ATV2 we have to reboot the Mac and make sure the relevant user's iTunes gets launched first.
Our original AppleTV has never had this problem.

Apple TV can see library, but can not reach content after adding Roksbox on a Roku in another room.

I have my iTunes library on a power mag g5 running leopard. I have an Apple TV I have been using to access the content. I have since added an older Roku in a different room. I installed an app called Rokbox on the Roku that is able to stream content over the network. I had to start the web server and create soft links to the music and movie directories where the iTunes content resides. Now the Apple TV can see the library on the network but can not see the content. Please help.

Hi All,
Same issue here. Just upgraded (?) from the previous version of Apple TV, to the new Apple TV2. Like others here, my main problems seem to be with unreliable streaming from iTunes 10 on my PowerMac (Quad G5, Leopard OSX).
My original AppleTV had no issues w/the wireless network, or synching w/my PowerMac.
The network connection from the ATV2 are fine, and have no issues accessing the Apple Store (for movies, TV shows), or accessing Netflix. The access to the internet from my ATV2 is quite robust.
My problems are with keeping a constant, reliable wireless connection to my PowerMac, via an Airport Extreme wireless router.
I have tried multiple restarts, reboots, reset ATV2 to original settings, tried different wireless channels on the Airport Extreme, verified I have Home Sharing properly enabled in iTunes,etc, but no luck so far.
What I'm seeing is when I access my iTunes on my computer, I can see my library, and then if I start to "shuffle songs" I may get 1 to 3 songs to play fine, but then the music stops, and I can no longer access the music/movies/etc in iTunes any longer. When I then go to my PowerMac, it has lost most bars of signal strength on the wireless network (although all other devices show strong signal strength), and I have to Turn AirPort Off, then Turn AirPort On and I then am reconnected to the wireless network with good signal.
I then go back to the ATV2, connect to my iTunes, start my music, and then 1-2 songs later it again stops playing, and I go through this all over again.
It seems as though there is something on the wireless network between the ATV2 and my PowerMac that causes it to lose connection, and I have to manually start again. The problem is that the connection is not robust, and only lasts a few minutes.
Hope this gets solved soon.
Regards
Tom

My aperture library lives on an external hard drive that is corrupt and I can not locate the library. I do have it backed up with TM. How do I safely restore the library from TM to my laptop? I am using the newest version of aperture on my macbook pr

My aperture library lives on an external hard drive that is corrupt and I can not locate the library. I do have it backed up with TM. How do I safely restore the library from TM to my laptop? I am using the newest version of aperture on my macbook pro.

Hello Sandra,
The article linked below details how to go about restoring items from Time Machine in Snow Leopard.
Mac OS X 10.6: Recovering items using Time Machine and Spotlight
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH6379
Sincerely,
Allen

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive and then tried to transfer it to my iMac. My music skips like a scratched cd now and I can't add any to my iPhone. Help please!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive right before my old mac laptop died and then tried to transfer it to my new iMac. Now when I try to play my old music it skips like a scratched cd. Also, now I can't add any music to my iPhone unless it was purchased recently through itunes and downloaded through icloud. I tried to "Organize" my library in hopes of correcting the problem but my iMac just ejects my external harddrive part way through. Please help!

Ejects the harddrive?
Of what did your old Mac die?
It sounds to me like you have some file corruption somewhere. Either in the transfer of your library to the external or the external itself is flaky if it keeps ejecting.

TS3376 can i use my dell laptop to locate my apple ipod if i have this app downloaded on both the laptop and ipod????

can i use my dell laptop to locate apple ipod

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
You can do that. Go to http://www.icloud.com, login with your Apple ID and choose Find my iPhone

Terrance Devlin answered a question about iPhoto (4-2012) re:copying iPhoto Library to an ExHD, and losing all the albums. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button. Can anyone help?

I tried to move my images (over 25,000) to an External Hard drive to open up some memory, hoping to make my computer run faster. It took three hours to move the images and I see them all in the mac's menus. However when I try to open them with iPhoto now, none appeared. and when I tried to import them back to the main HD they come in to iPhoto just fine, but not with the albums nor any of the massive organization i'd created in the original. this represents years of images, and I can't imagine that I'd have to recopy them into folders/albums again.
Terrance Devlin answered a similar question back in April of last year. He said to make sure the ExHD is formatted to MAC OS Extended (Journaled) and to move the library to the ExHD and then open iPhoto with the option button and select "Choose Library" from the resulting menu.
Command "I" tells me that the new drive is formatted correctly. I can't locate the "Choose Library" when I open iPhoto with the opt button.
First, I wondered if the application needs to be on the same drive as the Library. I sure would like to know if I can find out how to restore all the folders I had them in. Terrance's advice helped the user that had asked the question.
Here's the url for that archived discussion: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3849933?start=0&tstart=0
Can anyone help? I'm using iPhoto 5. My MAC is an OS X version 10.4.11.
thanks, brokenlom

Here are Apple's instructions:
If you are using iPhoto ’06 or earlier, you will need to follow these steps to tell iPhoto where the Library is now located:
Hold down the Option key on the keyboard and open iPhoto. Keep the Option key held down until you are prompted to create or choose an iPhoto Library.
Click Choose Library.
Locate and select the iPhoto Library in its new location.
(from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229 )
Below (in the link below) is what you should see when holding down the option key and opening iPhoto. Keep holding down the option key until this dialogue comes up. You want to select the Choose Library button.
http://appleclinic.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/change-default-dir-iphoto/

Apple Tv can't locate Library on laptop

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