Confused about iTunes and home sharing

My family of 4 has been using iTunes for a number of years with our iPhones (4 iPhones) but this home sharing has me confused and maybe I have been doing things wrong. Right now we have four different PCs, iTunes is installed on each computer. Each computer has it's own library. Each iPhone is synced with a different PC with its own library. Each of us have our own iTunes account with a different email address (so 4 different accounts), the two kids have their own credit card associated with their own accounts (I do not want to pay for their purchases), my wife and I have the same credit card with our two different accounts.
So when I try to set up home sharing it wants me to put my wife's account into the home sharing on my machine and her machine so does that mean you can only share across one account? So she could not see items on my machine but I could access items on her machine? Does that mean the kids cannot share their purchases with both of us via home sharing? Perhaps my wife and I should start sharing the same iTunes account since the money comes from the same credit card.
In the future I may purchase a laptop in addition to my desktop. So I would install iTunes on it and it would start with a different library than my desktop (although I believe I could copy the desktop library to the laptop initially) Does the laptop need a different iTunes account or could it keep the same one that I have on my desktop? How do I easy keep the libraries in sync and can I sync my iPhone with either my desktop or laptop and not get the iPhone or me confused.
Please help thanks

The iTunes/AppleTV/iOS comms system does seem to get easily confused at times even when it's worked peefectly for months.
I've never felt these services which detect each other automatically are particularly good at re-establishing lost connections without restarting one or several components and as you suggest may be linked to IP addresses changing and devices still looking for each other on old IP addresses which have changes.
Try restarting the Time Capsule - I had issues out of the blue last year, iTunes restart helped temporarily but the fix was a router power down and reboot (it had been on for months).
Recently since 5.3, one of my AppleTV 3's has been very flaky with wifi - drops Home Sharing while loading a film then instantly finds it again once the film has stopped - wifi strength listed as full strength - might be interference but ethernet has fixed it for now.
AC

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Hello tollgater,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
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Hi All
I have a Windows 7 PC with iTunes installed and Home Sharing turned on. I also have an IOS 6 Ipad (New or 3) with sharing enabled. They are both on the same wireless network.
After a total uninstall and fresh instal of iTunes on the PC, all sharing works fine with all albums and artists displayed, and it plays tunes perfectly. Within a couple of days, the iPad only displays a small number of my albums, and they wont play. The 'loudspeaker icon' in 'Music' just skips down the list of songs, playing none.
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Anyone know what is happening. I did only notice this after the compulsory download of IOS 6....
Regards
SjH

I had the exact same problem between my two Windows 7 computers when I updated them to iTunes 10.1 - the shared library would show up on the side in iTunes, but when I attempted to open it, it would say it was loading for a while and then disappear.
I solved the problem by first turning off Home Sharing on both computers Advanced->Turn Off Home Sharing (act name).
I then deauthorized the iTunes account associated with my home share on both computers Store->Deauthorize This Computer...
I then reauthorized both computers Store->Authorize This Computer...
I then turned Home Sharing back on for both computers Advanced->Turn On Home Sharing
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Is anybody else having problems with iOS 7.1 and Home Sharing?

I have two iPhone 4's - one I recently upgraded to iOS 7.1 and the other running 6.3.1. The phone upgraded to 7.1 will not connect to my (rather large iTunes library) on my Mac Mini (running 10.9.2). The 7.1 phone does see the library - and attempts to connect - but the progress indicator stops at about 50%.
I've tried de-activating sharing on the Mini and then re-activating. I've tried restoring the 7.1 phone from a back-up. No change.
Also - now the 6.3 phone will connect to the library - but the playlists have no entries and 99% of the library is missing.
Before the upgrade - the phone now running 7.1 never had any issues with Home Sharing.
Anyone else out there having issues with iOS 7.1 and Home Sharing?

I've had no problems with Facebook on my iPhone 5 but here are a couple of suggestions.
1. Quit Facebook like I describe then reset the iPhone. Double click the Home button to show the screen with running and recently used apps. Each app icon will have a sample page above it. Flick up on the page (not the app icon) and the page will fly away and the app icon will disappear. This quits that app. Then reset your device. Press and hold the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. Let go of the buttons and let the device restart.
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That's a change in behaviour from Snow Leopard; I used to be able to sleep my mac and then wake it over wifi using either my iPad or iPhone to access all of my home shared libraries. The mac screen used to light up for ten seconds and then go dark again, but it served me the files.
Lion seems to go into a deeper sleep which it can't be woken from. If I attempt to wake my mac from my iPad within about ten minutes of putting my mac to sleep then home sharing seems to work and lets me use the home share libraries, but if I leave it any longer than that then the mac seems to fall into a coma and can't be woken. The weird thing is that I still see a "shared library" folder on my iPad, but when I click on it nothing happens. I think my Time Capsule is listening for wifi access and issuing the magic packet to the mac, but the mac just ain't listening.
I'm using a Time Capsule in bridge mode from an ADSL modem and I've accepted a TC firmware update last week and I'm on lion 10.7.3. I've tried using Ethernet to connect the mac to the TC (and temporarily disabled the wifi connection) but that still doesn't work. Also, note I'm NOT suffering from the problem that 10.7.3 seems to be giving a few other people - my mac reconnects to my wifi just fine when I wake it up manually. For the record, This was an upgrade, so there's still a tick in "wake on network" in power settings and home sharing on iTunes is still configured the same as it was before.
Does anyone have any suggestions about how I can get home sharing to work when my Lion mac is asleep please?
Jon

Jonathan:
The reworked release of the Combo came available the 2-nd or 3-rd of Feb, if you downloaded 10.7.3 complete after that date it will be OK already, no need to instal the Combo. But you can see the exact number of 10.7.3 in System Information/ Software panel: it should be 11D50b.....
fzahn:
I understand, I have TC and Extreme also, no need to set anything. And indeed I understand that it may be important for (as it is for me),
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I have read over the past week the problems people have been having configuring their Apple TV and Home Sharing. I was experiencing the same issues as others....until tonight. I finally got it to work with an Ethernet connection. Previously, I was only able to get it to work via wifi and home sharing would drop after awhile.
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DMZ is off
Device discovery is disabled
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The wifi is setup and functional using DHCP. Lease time is 1 week.
RESET ROUTER AFTER ENTERING CONFIGURATION.
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spma3,
Appreciate your further message. As you say "it's not fixed", but at least your solution appears to be a viable workaround!
My Cisco RVS4000 Router will permit me to forward ports for up to 15 applications. Of these, thirteen already have default entries added, although none of these are presently Enabled. For example, here's just 2 lines...
Application           HTTP        NTP
External Port          80           123
Internal Port           80            123
Protocol                TCP          UDP
IP Address            No entries at both
and the Enabled box for both is unchecked. In fact none of these 13 possibilities is Enabled.
To do what you are advising, I would need to...
1) Enable the above Port 123 entry, changing it from UDP-->TCP.
2) Add new entries for 3689 UDP & 5353 UDP... using the two free slots at the end of the table.
3) Select three of the default entries, and reconfigure them for 80 TCP; 443 TCP; 53 TCP, all as per your guidance. And Enable them.
Now, my present setup here has...
1) My PC is wired straight to Port 2 of the Router, and has a Static IP Address set.
My new ATV2 is hard-wired into the same subnet, albeit thru a series of switches, and again a Static IP is set. My understanding is that hard wiring an ATV automatically disables its WiFi.
3) My wife's iPad2 is set for DHCP, so it can pick up an IP Address when on the move. It connects into the LAN using one of two WAP4410N Wireless Access Points. Ch-1 & Ch-6, with same SSID and security stuff set up on both. The WAPs in turn are wired in, again with Static IPs set. So depending where she is in the property she can connect with excellent signal strength, reaching the ATV2 by WiFi+LAN.
On the Router DMZ is OFF, Port Range Triggering has no entries, nothing is Enabled, so is OFF. No idea about Device Discovery!
Home Sharing is ON for the PC, ATV2 and iPad2, with the same Apple ID/Password set for each. It does work, just not consistently as it should.
So to fully implement your idea, all I need to do is to enter these details. But I am unclear which IP Address I should put in at each new Single Port Forwarding entry field. Certainly not the iPad2, as its DHCP allocated value will change. Is it the ATV2 or the PC? Not sure, please clarify.
BTW, I have no plan to deactivate my AVG Firewall on this PC. It is happy to pass all traffic related to iTunes, so cannot see this as a factor. Time zone same on all equipment.
I tried with just 3689 UDP and 5353 UDP yesterday, and things were definitely better. I used 192.168.20.227, the IP Address for the ATV2.
Look forward to your answer.

Airplay and home sharing does not work with my 2nd gen apple tv

though my 2nd gen apple tv with version 7 and my iphone 4s with ios 8.0.2 are connected to the same wifi network, airplay and home sharing doesnt show up in my itunes nor in my phone! what should i do?

Hello there, Ashwin.
The following Knowledge Base articles offers up some great steps for troubleshooting issues with both AirPlay and Home Sharing, respectively:
Resolve issues with AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring from iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4215
and
Troubleshooting Home Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2972
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
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iTunes 9 Home Sharing does not work on Windows 7 x64.
Getting the following error message:
Home sharing could not be activated because this computer is not authorized for the account "iTunes account." Please authorize this computer and try again.
This is a bug since my computer is authorized in iTunes and there is only 2 computer authorized for my iTunes account, so I have 3 more left till I should get this message.
I've just upgraded my iPhone to OS 3.1 using it this morning.
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Ivan Farkas
<edited by host>

I am using Windows 7 x64.
I am running iTunes 9.0.2.25
I am running Mcafee.
I can see and play music from the iTunes installation on my Windows 7 machine, but I CANNOT access the library to copy songs from this computer to other computers on my network.
YES, I have enabled "Home Sharing" using my iTunes account. NO, I have not authorized more than 5 computers on this account.
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I CAN set up Home Sharing on two other (host) computers in my home network and it works. These computers are XP and a MacBook Pro. I CANNOT access my Windows 7 machine x64 to COPY music from one autorized library to another. Please help!!!
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Message was edited by: turcott

Can I copy a tv show to my iTunes using Home Sharing?

My son bought some tv shows with my account. They are in his library. I'm am trying to copy them to my iTunes using Home Sharing. Why is Home Sharing saying I can't copy them because my computer isn't authorized (when it is authorized). This is frustrating. Thanks. . . Jim C

Jim_ Crawford wrote:
My son bought some tv shows with my account. They are in his library. I'm am trying to copy them to my iTunes using Home Sharing. Why is Home Sharing saying I can't copy them because my computer isn't authorized (when it is authorized). This is frustrating. Thanks. . . Jim C
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in order to play content bought with another iTunes account, the destination machine must be authorized to that account. so, you need to authorize your iTunes to play content purchased with your sons iTunes account.
that's basically very easy. all you have to do is +log out+ of one account (click on the account name in the Store window and select sign out from the pop-up dialog) and into the other, and then they will both be authorized. (be sure to just *log out*, not de-authorize ).
any help ?

HT4437 What is difference between air play and home sharing if you just want to show iPhoto's on HD tv through apple tv (just purchased MacBook Air and Apple tv)

What is difference between air play and home sharing when wanting to show photos on HD tv through apple tv? Just bought Mac book air and apple tv.

You would have to use home-sharing if streaming from a computer. Computer would need to be on and running iTunes.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4352
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Be sure that all devices are on the same network.
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hope that helps.

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I am running Windows 7, 64-bit.
All mobile devices are up to date with ios, including 2 apple tvs (2 & 3), iphone 4s and 3gs, ipad1 & ipad2.
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Yes, you guessed. After some rebbots it stopped working again .So it seems it is not a Firewall issue. Kept looking and found a suggestion in a forum to disable IPv6, apparently iTunes for Windows doesn't work well with IPv6. So I did, and after several rebbots and tests, both Home Sharing and Apple TV 1st Gen are working. To disable IPv6, follow this link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852
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http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2972
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