Q: Home Sharing not working - iTunes 11.1.2 / iOS 7.0.3

This certainly does work BUT you must restart your router after disabling IPV6 using Terminal.

Was driving me NUTS as everyone was saying disabling IPV6 would work but it didn't for me.  Once I restarted the router and then forgot and reinstated the network on my Apple TV it all clicked into place again.  Home Sharing now working and Airplay icon back in top bar in 10.9.1.

Just in time for Xmas Day!  Phew! ;-)

Thanks -

I fixed it, after trying the answers from this forum. But not after I wasted 3 hours of Christmas time!!

Change the IP setting in Windows to disable the IPv6.

Sad to say, apparently Apple has upgraded iTunes by making it incompatible to ipv6.

I love Apple. I do.

But it seems after Steve's departure, the spirit has gone with him.

For you Windows guys, I can't help you.  But, I did find the solution.  I have a new iMac with Mavericks.  Here's the thing.  As long as you continuously have AppleTV running something, it shouldn't shut down.  What I was running into was that Home Sharing was staying on with all devices but was disconnecting.  So, if I walked away with AppleTV OFF for a few hours, I would get the "Turn On Home Sharing" message.

A little problem solving steps lead me to what was going on.  When I noticed that the Home Sharing was disconnected, my screen was off on my computer.  So, if I just tapped on the track pad and woke the computer up, then went back to my AppleTV and tried to get into my content, BINGO, it worked.

Why?????

Here's the solution:  Go into "Settings", then "Energy Saver" and make sure that the top setting called "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" box is checked.

This worked.  What was the issue???  The F*&^%$%^g computer was going sleep!!!!   That's it!

I did restart the router (Apple Extreme) but still not working - Going crazy here. I am lost in ideas, anyone else has another idea?

I also re-installed itunes, disabled power nap for itunes but nothing....

I just spent 2 days trying to figure this one out, and finally got someone in Apple Support to find the answer to my problem. It's a simple fix, so it may not address your particular issue with home sharing, but it worked for me. There are actually 2 different places that you need to turn on home sharing in iTunes. Under iTunes > Preferences > Sharing the box next to "home sharing" needs to be checked. But you also need to turn on home sharing for the computer by going to File > Home Sharing > Turn on Home Sharing. I went through 2 different support people and a lot of online support thinking that the preferences change was sufficient to turn on home sharing, and nothing worked until a third support person sent me to the home sharing option under the File menu. If you've tried everything else, this might be worth a look.

Apple has decided to change iTunes and not make it compatible with IPv6 any more

Just disable that from your Windows network settings and your shared music will immediately show up on your devices.

The question is "WHY WOULD APPLE DO THAT???"

So, I did a few tests which I would like to share:

1. Got a new Apple TV, old software version installed. Only enabled homesharing -> Not working, still crashing after some time.

2. Got another new Apple TV, new software version installed. Only enabled homesharing -> Not working, still crashing after some time.

3. Disabled IPV6 on MAC mini (and restarted) -> Not working, still crashing after some time.

Seems like the problem is within iTunes, BUG? or setting?

Router: New Apple Airport Extreme

iTunes Version 11.1.3

Maverick OSX

For Windows users, I had the dissapearing Home Sharing as well (sharing from Windows 7 to an Apple TV).  What I found was the Windows 7 laptop was running both its hard-wired ethernet connection AND its wireless adapter.  I don't understand the root caused of this but with two network interfaces and thus two IP addresses active on the computer hosting the share iTunes chose not to share any content, even though it looked as if all was activated.  I deactivated the wireless adapter and all is well.  I have a second PC (Windows 8.1) that is exclusively wireless and it shares just fine.  I just don't think you can have two network adapters active.

Thank you so much.  I followed your instructions (I am using Win 7 64 bit), uninstalled all of the items in the prescribed order and then re-installed iTunes - then Hey Presto! Home sharing is back, the remote button for the Apple Remote App appeared (which I was also having problems with).

Fantastic.

Thanks again.

Just figured out by changing the WIFI network from 5GHZ to 2.4 GHZ the problem disappeared for the moment.

Thanks very much for this, seems to have solved my issues. Have checked on iPhone5s & iPad, yet to check on Apple TV but I'm confident it will have worked.

Cheers

Perfect.  Disabling IPv6 on my network adapter and restarting itunes worked like a charm.  Thanks BraneRift!

Glad it helped !

BraneRift,  thanks for posting your fix about disabling IPV6 on your network adapters.  I have struggling with the problem of Apple TV 3 no longer seeing my itunes library on my laptop that was running home sharing.  Once I unchecked IPV6 on my wired and wireless network adapters Apple TV started working perfectly and my itunes on my laptop now shows that it is sharing my library.

I have spent over 12 hours on the phone with Apple support and with Netgear support (for my router) and have gone through a ton of changes (turning off router firewalls, opening ports on the router, turning off the latptop firewalls, uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes, restoring the Apple TV to its original state, returning my NetGear R7000 NightHawk router and getting a new one, etc).  I had given up on getting this fixed and was being told it was a laptop issue or router issues. All of those actions were unnecessary in the end and all I needed to do was uncheck IPV6 on my network adapter on my laptop.  I guess from Apple's viewpoint they were right when they said it had to be a configuration problem on my laptop (althought they didn't know what it could possibly be) but in the end it appears that the configuration problem on the laptop is related to the update made to iTunes 11.1.2. 

Thanks for connecting the dots for me.