ITunes Home Sharing - iOS Devices & Apple TV

Greetings All
For the first time since iOS 5 (yes... iOS 5), I have successfully conquered the conundrum with using home sharing from my iTunes library to my iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 8.2. It has been YEARS since I've been able to successfully share my library to my iPhone.
First might I add that I have a fairly "large" iTunes library, consisting of close to 30,000 songs of which 25k are encoded using Apple Lossless, resulting in songs with a larger file size than ordinary by comparison to a library with songs encoded with the default iTunes Plus format. I also have my iTunes library on an external hard drive which is connected via USB. I do believe that the size of the library.
As you can imagine, I've seen the many, many updates of iTunes along the way as well as the iOS updates to match. I have not successfully been able to connect to my library since I had my iPhone 4 using the first update introducing Home Sharing until around the iOS 5 mark. The issues I've endured prohibiting me from using this feature include:
- Shared library appears in 'Shared' on the Music app however it doesn't connect successfully; i.e. loads only a half circle, fails to load at all, unable to load home sharing.
- Unable to see the shared library at all, which is usually due to a minor omission such as failing to ensure the device is on the same network as the shared library, incorrect password etc.
Many have suggested that this feature fails to work due to network settings, however I have tried home sharing on completely different networks, routers and even COUNTRIES. Yes, once in Australia and now in the United States, all of which failed.
Here are some steps for my workaround:
1. I renamed my computer: System Preferences > Sharing and then restarted my computer (Mac Pro mid-2010). This problems seems to help with Apple TVs.
2. I reset my network settings on my iDevice: Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
3. I also (at some stage) logged in and out of Home Sharing in iTunes: File > Home Sharing
I'm not sure if any of these steps were able to clear the issue, however the following steps were what solved my issue:
1. I turned 'Auto-Lock' to 'Never' on my iDevice
2. I then attempted to connect to my shared library in the Music app: More (bottom right) > Shared > Shared Library
3. I patiently allowed the circle to load which took around 30 minutes (yes slow... like watching paint dry) and completely avoided touching my iPhone to exit the app. Turning off the Auto-Lock feature also prohibited the iPhone from locking while this was loading.
4. The trick here is to be PATIENT. Once it showed that it was connected to my shared library, I went to send and gently scrolled down to allow all the artwork to populate to my phone.
Avoid playing any songs until this has been done. Again it takes a very long time but the trick is to allow your iPhone to successfully load your iTunes library as it tends to take a while to gather all the necessary information. Attempting to play a song will most likely mean that the song will just skip to the next, and the next, and the next... and the next.
With some patience and if you're still alive by this point, you'll find that you're able to scroll through playlists and songs without a glitch.
Again, it does take a very long time but it ultimately does end up working.
Good luck!

After playing around one more time i was able to restart homesharing and get the apple tv to see my movies and music from the itunes on the imac (where itunes reads from the media server and manages the libary). The question now is ...
does the media get routed over the router over multiple hops from media server --> router --> imac/itunes --> router --> appletv or is home sharing intelligent enough to read the file from the media server?

Similar Messages

Home Sharing and Airplay: fall 2011 major trouble in iTunes to APTV, IOS devices - detailed run-through.

Dear all, and dear Apple - as you know flagged trouble regarding Home Sharing to devices and to APTV has grown exponentially this fall and it is high time Apple calmly regained control over the situation. Get a grip, this is a fundamental "it just works" reputational issue.
Having read lots of community posts I am struck by how many crosschecks I have done and still cannot get Home Sharing to ´just work´ anymore.
Symptoms of my troubles include:
(1) In iTunes the Home Sharing house icon is nowhere to be found on the left hand side even though I have turned it on several times.
(2) Airplay icon was visible in the lower right corner of iTunes for about two minutes last night but then vanishes.
(3) My iPhone4S cannot find my shared library (under "More" or anywhere else).
(4) And APTV will occationally load my Mac library to play a purchased tv episode but is highly unstable. 1 in 4 attempts succesful.
Ah, you say, "this all sounds like your home network is either faulty or the signal is not strong enough", or "you have not set up Home Sharing right".
OK, let´s see...
The Airport Extreme station is right next to APTV, and is itself connected via ethernet to my router - and besindes my Mac can still find a strong signal via wifi. I access internet on my wifi-only iPad2 easily throughout the house, nice and strong signal. The APTV menu tells me the signal strength is excellent, and, most importantly - it worked a couple of weeks ago with no change in settings. I played my iTunes Library on my iPhone via Home Sharing, and I watched APTV TV episodes streamed from my Mac upstairs.
So far I have triple-checked the following settings:
Home Sharing on my Mac turned on under Advanced? yes. (House icon appears - until I press the "Done" button, then it vanishes).
Even though the House icon is nowhere to be found, is Home Sharing still "On" under iTunes Advanced setting? yes.
Under Preferences, Sharing, all ticks are carefully turned on? yes.
APTV Home Sharing: the same ID details, correctly entered? yes. And for a little while, or on occation we have access to my library on APTV (but not the other mobile devices). Then it vanishes again (Computer menu on APTV telling me to turn on Home Sharing with ID etc.)
Mobile devices, under Settings/Music, are the Home Sharing details the same as those on your Mac/iTunes? yes.
All software on APTV, iTunes, OIS and Lion up to date? yes, as of 18/12 2011. For iTunes I have 10.5.2 (11)
I also reset Factory Settings on my APTV, which enabled us to watch a TV episode last night, but this morning it is gone again.
Within limits of how many devices I can share my library or iTunes with ? yes, 2 computers are authorised on my ID, and 3 devices are authorised on iCloud (iPad2, iPhone 4S and this Mac).
Have you tried the degrading, not-up-to-Apple-standard way of unplugging APTV/Airport Extreme/Mac power, and restarting your iPad/iPhone4S? Yes.
Does Airplay work from devices to e.g. APTV? yes it does.
Can I access the internet or rent a movie on APTV? yes.
Is this a strength issue with my Mac? Is my Mac fast/strong enough? Yes; it is a 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, running 8GB/1067 MHz/DDR3. 100GB of available harddrive space.
Dear community - what have I forgotten to do, please? Any ideas?
And Apple: please help your repeat customers with these issues - clearly there are some room for improvement here!?
Regards and best wishes for the Season.

I seem to have a similar problem. I have a Macbook and a PC, both running the current version of iTunes. On the APTV (also running the current software version), only my Macbook library shows up under "computers". Home Sharing is turned on for both and my Macbook library shows up under "Shared" on the PC, but the PC iTunes library doesn't show up on the Macbook or the APTV.
My question then is: How is it that my Macbook iTunes library can show up on the PC and on the APTV, but the PC iTunes library doesn't show up on either? If the PC can see the shared libraries, doesn't that mean it's on the same network? Along those same lines, "Shared" libraries do NOT show up on the Macbook. Again I ask, how is it that I can see the Macbook library on the PC, but the Macbook doesn't show any Shared libraries?
All of this worked just fine before the upgrade to iOS 5 by the way. I had no issues seeing any library on any devices and the APTV found both computers.
Please help. This is really annoying!

Home Sharing between 2 Apple ID accounts on separate PCs...can our iOS devices access both?

Hi All
Hope someone can help. My wife and I have separate iTunes accounts with separate Apple IDs on separate PCs.
We both have HomeSharing turned on and can access each others music libraries from both PCs which is great. However when I try to access the home shared libraries from our devices (I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2, and my wife has an iPhone 5) when connected to the home network I can only see my own shared library on my devices and my wife can only see her own shared Library from her iPhone 5.
Just for background we are both running the latest iTunes and are on win7 PCs, my iPhone 4 is on iOS7, the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 are currently running iOS6
Is there a way to see each others shared libraries on all our devices when we connect to the home network through wifi?
Many thanks!
Chris

Hello Chris G Shirley,
In order to do this, you would need to switch between the two Apple IDs used on each system in Settings > Music.
On iPhone, go to Settings > Music, then log in to Home Sharing using the same Apple ID and password.
iPhone User Guide - Home Sharing
http://help.apple.com/iphone/7/
Cheers,
Allen

I have to restart iTunes every day to access my home sharing on my Apple tv

I have to restart iTunes every day to access my home sharing on my Apple tv, Apple had me turn off the firewall on my computer that did not help This happens on all my 4 Apple TV's only 2 are wireless but it mainly happens on my wired Apple TV's. the rest of my network works fine

Exact same problem since a long time. Started after an ITune upgrade 6 months ago if I remember correctly.
Im using Home Sharing. I have IPad,IPhone and 2 Apple TV one 2nd (Wifi) and one 3rd gen. Wifi provided by Apple Express. Home sharing work great on all device without interupting playback and/or disconnecting until I leave iTune server hosting Home Sharing idle for something like 2 hours. I have tried many time to access Home Sharing from any of my Apple device before that said 2 hours idle and it connected properly. Like you, it mostly happen overnight while iTune is idle for a long period. When it happen, all devices stop detecting ITune Home Sharing. Remote Apps and/or Music Home Sharing can't connect. Doing of one of the points down below temporarly fix problem on all devise and they connect right away until everything is idle again.
1) Turning OFF then ON Home sharing temporarely fix the problem (Until next idle).
2) Closing Itune also temporarely fix the problem.
Since long time (Before this problem started) I have ITune installed in a VMware virtual machine running Windows XP SP3 32bit on top of an VMware ESXi 5.0 host. First I though it was more of my unusual setup causing the problem. I have tried a lot of things. Scratch reinstall, removing firewall, removing all kind of power features on host and OS it self.No anti-virus, no other software installed. Running out of idea. Now glad to see some else have the exact same problem.
Will keep looking and post if I find anything.
What is your setup hosting iTune ? PC, Mac + version ?

HT202213 I have a new computer we set up with itunes home sharing. Can I add music to this new computer sync my iphone and ipod to it instead of the original computer. I'm not sure if it makes a difference if I have a different apple id than with our orig

I have a new computer that we set up with itunes home sharing and I need some assistance. I also have my own apple id and would like to make the new computer the one I use for my music. Should I set up a whole new itunes library/account or still work with the home sharing?

Correct. When you update via iTunes all synced media that is not in your iTunes library will be lost.
As IO said before:
You can redownload most iTunes pruchases by:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
I do not think it included audio books.

HT202213 Have newest version of ITunes and a new AppleTV. ITunes File Home Sharing only shows option to turn off home sharing. No home sharing icon and Apple TV claims home sharing is not turned on. Where is this advanced menu?

Cannot get home sharing to work with my new apple TV. Have the latest version of ITunes and the apple TV is connected to my wi-fi network. The instruction page says to go to the Advanced menu option of ITunes and choose Home Sharing. This option does not exist. The closest I can find is under the File option>Home Sharing where my only option is to turn off home sharing. There is no home sharing icon and Apple TV insist that the home sharing is not turned on.
I must be missing something obvious here.

Cannot get home sharing to work with my new apple TV. Have the latest version of ITunes and the apple TV is connected to my wi-fi network. The instruction page says to go to the Advanced menu option of ITunes and choose Home Sharing. This option does not exist. The closest I can find is under the File option>Home Sharing where my only option is to turn off home sharing. There is no home sharing icon and Apple TV insist that the home sharing is not turned on.
I must be missing something obvious here.

Can't sign in in to iTunes (home sharing) after reset and update apple tv3

can't sign in in to iTunes (home sharing) after reset and update apple tv3

I'm experiencing the exact same thing. Netflix, Youtube and everything else works perfectly, but I'm unable to wirelessly stream anything from my Mac, iPad, or iPhone. All on same wireless channel, all new updates, all have home sharing turned on. Never had a problem the last 2 years.

Home sharing on the apple TV only shows itunes purchased music,not my whole music library.

Home sharing on the apple TV only shows itunes purchased music,not my whole music library. I can not find any settings to fix this issue.
How do I get home sharing to see the entire library?

AppleTV 2 and 3's main icon Music section is a shambles.
There should be a Music store as there was on AppleTV1. Crazy you can't access Purchases unless subscribed to itunes Match.
As Winston says you are probably not looking in the correct place for local streaming of your music library.
AC

Can itune home sharing support slide show from 3 or more apple tvs simoutaneously ?

Can itune home sharing support slides show from 3 or more apple tvs simoutaneously ?

In theory yes provided your network is up to it - more likely to be stable on a wired connection.

Home sharing problems since Apple TV update

Hello everyone;
I have a Apple TV 2, an iPhone 4S, an iPad 2 and a Macbook pro 17" on the same iCloud account. Syncing of data between the computer and two iOS devices has been rock solid. Kudos on this system architecture, it is exactly what I have come to expect from Apple.
I recently purchased the Apple TV2 - but am now past the warranty period - to stream music and videos to the stereo from my Macs, either the iPad or computer mostly. It has been an excellent digital sound source, since most of my music is encoded full quality.
For the past two years the performance of this system has been flawless. I have the Remote app for my iPad, which is an awesome way to control an Apple TV for music playing, since you can build the 'Up Next' menu really easily, and having the iPad keyboard for inputting passwords and search items in the youtube browser is very handy.
About three months ago my Apple TV requested an update. When it was done my home sharing network was not working, would drop out, would shut off suddenly and disconnect my devices. I searched the forums and all I could find was the suggestion to make sure iTunes and both iOS devices had the latest updates. Sounded a bit cliche, but reasonable, so that was done. Still no joy with the network. Could not get it to connect.
Found another link that recommended updating the firmware on the modem. Tried that, and voila, the home sharing was back. Didn't last though, the next time my Apple TV went to sleep, it was gone again. I realized the modem rebooting may have been what did it, so I tried it again, and voila, the home sharing was back… and stopped again after a while.
Now I have to reboot the router every time I want to connect and it doesn't last. This is a pain in the arse that disrupts everyone on it, and is flatly incompetence on the part of Apple to release an update that screws up the main reason anyone would buy their product. The Apple TV is half a device without streaming. It should be said that Netflix and the internet are perfect on the Apple TV throughout this whole ordeal, so obviously there's no problem with the internet, the wireless, or the hardware. It plays music and video perfectly through whatever source is available. It just won't home share with the rest of my stuff. Literally wile I typed this my iPad just lost its connection to the Apple TV while the remote app was shuffling my music in the background.
So this is my rant. I've been a happy Apple consumer and advocate since my first Powerbook 140 bought in 1991. It's been great to watch the evolution of this company, and I'm always impressed with the user experience they provide, until now. Purchasing an Apple TV was a no-brainer for me, since everything else was seamless, and originally that's exactly what it was until this update ruined it.
I tried to contact Apple for help, or to find a tech note that would lead me to the solution, and was told I'd have to pay for the call. They did this, not me, so why do I have to pay them to fix their mistake? Does a company have the right to ruin a product you've already purchased, then ask for money to help you fix it? That is a strange business practice.
If there's something I need to configure or reset, so be it, but where can someone find that out? Literally in 10 minutes of what should be an innocuous update, I have lost my music box through no fault or mistake of my own.
If there is someone from the Apple tech support community or genius bar on this forum I invite you to support your product and let me know if there's a solution to the problem Apple created. They've made their own product look like crap. This is very un-mac.
speakerman65

I had variations of all the issues described after my firmware update to Apple TV software 7.0.2(6915) And all my iOS devices to 8.0.2. Had Home Sharing turned on on all devices and Apple TV. Initially AirPlay icon disappeared completely from Control Center but mysteriously appeared overnight. Prior to that I tried all standard Apple Support advice I can find including resetting my Apple TV which was really frustrating especially when it did not solve the issue. Even after AirPlay icon appeared this morning, I am not able to AirPlay my home screen from Control Center - every time I select AirPlay and turned on Mirroring, it reverted back to my iPhone. Even Remote App did not work though Home Sharing was turned on.
Then I tired this out of the blues - went to my iPhone 6 Photo Stream and selected a video clip I took and then flip up Control Center and then tried AirPlay and mirroring again to Apple TV and then everything started to work! All my other devices started working again as well. Remote App is able to connect and pair with AppleTV. Seems like Apple TV needed a jolt after firmware upgrade from some media app like Photo Stream. Very strange.
Hope this helps others on this thread. Most important of all, if there are any Apple support personals or engineers reading this, I hope this might help in troubleshooting this annoying bug and provide an important fix.
Don't mean to vent but I am a long time Apple fan since Mac Classic days and pretty much have everything Apple from computers, tablets, phones, to AirPort Extreme. I have always been bragging to my friends and family on how seamless and trouble free Apple products are but you can imagine how embarass I was when I had friends over for Thanksgiving and I was touting Apple TV/AirPlay until this happened under my very nose. This gave some an opportunity to brag about the competition. Apple please do us proud again - we still want to brag about you.

Switching home sharing between one apple ID and another

If I turn off home sharing with one apple id, will I lose all the music linked to it in my itunes library?

but I would like to be able to dowload content to the Ipad as well.
I'm afraid that you can't sync content to an iOS device via Home Sharing (you can only stream it to an iOS device via Home Sharing).

Issues with iTunes Home Sharing using iPhone 6 Plus

Hi guys,
I'm having problems with streaming music and video on my iPhone 6 plus from my Macbook Pro (mid 2010 model) using iTunes' Home Sharing . I am able to stream without any issues using my iPhone 4S and my Apple TV, however.
I am using iTunes version 12.0.1.26, iOS 8.1.2, and OSX 10.9.5.
Using my 6 plus, I am able to connect to my iTunes library, both music and video. Album art shows up for music but no cover art for the videos. So, all in all, I am able to see the contents of my library.
However, when I try to play songs, a couple things may happen. First, nothing plays for about 10 seconds; then a second or two of the song plays followed by silence again, appearing as if it's buffering. Second thing that may happen is that a second or two plays immediately followed by silence. If I press next to play the next song, what usually happens is that nothing plays, although the song title does appear.
As seen in this video, I don't have any issues with my WIFI connection or internet speed, as demonstrated using the iPhone 4S and Apple TV.
I have no clue as to why this is happening.
Hopefully someone could shed some light with this issue. Please feel free to comment. I'm open to and appreciate any suggestions while Apple tries to find a solution. Thanks.

UPDATE
So, after working with the guys at Apple, they were able to provide a solution. Now I have no problems using Home Sharing with my iPhone 6 Plus!!!
(I should add that I have the Linksys Advanced Dual-Band N Router (E2500))
The issue was fixed by giving one of the wi-fi channels a different name, thus splitting the channels into 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Then, I connected my iPhone to one channel (2.4 GHz) and my MacBook Pro to the other channel (5GHz). In this configuration, I have had no issues streaming my music and video.
It seems that the problem is some kind of interference between both devices when using the same channel (i.e., when both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channel share the same name).

Does the iTunes home sharing limit of 5 apply to iPads?

I have one PC and 6 iPads in my home. I have managed to get iTunes Home Sharing working with the PC and 5 of the 6 iPads. Any suggestions as to how to get it working on the 6th? I do have another PC that I can add to the mix... I would love to make sure I can use the same Apple ID though. Thanks in advance for any ideas!

The page that you posted from applies to computers only, iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches) aren't authorised - so at any one time you can have your account authorised on up to 5 computers.

ITunes Home Sharing for video on iPad with different account

My husband has a separate iTunes account from mine, however I run our media servers at home where I have a library of movies running through iTunes which we view via Apple TV and other devices.
He has his iPad set to - Settings/Videos/HomeSharing/His-Apple_ID
The question is - if I CHANGE THIS to - Settings/Videos/HomeSharing/MY-Apple_ID
(so he can view my iTunes library)
Does this mess up his usage/connection to his iTunes account - in any other area of the iPad?
In other words - can the Home Sharing Apple ID be different than one's personal Apple ID on an iPad for purposes of viewing?
It would actually be nice if we were allowed to keep multiple accounts to connect to for this for moving to different locations and sharing...

Hi there,
The article below has some more information for troubleshooting Home Sharing that you may find helpful.
Understanding Home Sharing
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3819
-Griff W.

How to properly embed album art work into TV/Films itunes: home sharing lag

My setup is a simple apple home sharing network.
I have a mac mini running OS X 10.6.8 and itunes 11.0.4(4) it hosts a lot of music, DVD's that have been re-encoded and paid for content from itunes.
The mac mini is conntected to the network over a very good gigbit lan and has 4 apple TV3 (latest gen) hanging off the network, and multiple PC/Mac/ipod/ipad devices hanging off the network.
I connect to the itunes home sharing service with the apple TV service using the "remote" application on the ipad.
When I select Music/Albums TV Shows or Films from the menu of the itunes library the album art work loads (quickly) over the grey boxes as I scroll down. However this takes a few seconds for each "scroll" I do on the ipad (it has thousands of items in there).
The exception to the rule is any paid content, when I open Music/TV/Films menu on the ipad the paid content (especially for TV and Films) the artwork is already there, and doesn't have to load it.
How is the artwork for paid content contained differently than the artwork for content I've manually put into the itunes library.
If I look at the itunes library locally on the machine hosting the itunes data, the artwork is there straightaway, no loading, pull up the items info with "get info" and click on art work, the artwork is there, and I can see no different in the art work settings for paid content or for content I've manually updated/loaded an image for.
So why/how does the paid for content have artwork on the ipad the exact second I open it over the network, yet the non-paid for content take a few seconds per screen to load it.
Is there something different in how the art work is embeeded, or is it a caching setting ? whats the difference.

Dang You Autocorrect.
You don't saw what size and resolution the embedded artwork is. This could be part of the issue. Artwork on movies you purchase from the iTunes Store is 667x1000 at 72 DPI so if yours is larger than this is could be causing the delay.

ITunes Home Sharing - iOS Devices & Apple TV

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