Q: Home sharing does not work with iTunes 12

Same issues here. Since upgrading to Yosemite, iTunes 12 and OS 8.1 Home Sharing between my 2013 iMac, 2012 Air and 2 Gen 3 ATVs has become useless - and they are all linked via an Airport Extreme router supported by an Aiport Express configured to extend the network. Everything was fine before the software 'upgrades'. Additionally the presence or absence of the computers in the 'Shared' section of the Finder seems cmpletely random (but now always absent when not on the same network) and it feels as though this is something that is quite fundamental to the networking processes - not just Home Sharing. I'm sick of continually turning options on and off and rebooting only to see things work for a few hours before stopping again. And to think that I  used to believe a benefit of Apple was that 'it just works'.....

Same boat...

Got a new rMBP here and the latest appleTV. And just did an upgrade to Yosemite and now iTunes 12 and appleTV have no more home sharing.

This is ridiculous Apple should fix this pronto.. I've found one way here by renaming sharing in the sharing settings but it still seems tricky and not working as advertised: http://ios-update.com/notes/fix-home-sharing-problem-between-appletv-and-yosemit e

There seem to be a lot of issues with Yosemite, wifi, itunes, mail, safari

This release Yosemite should have been tested more throughly  :-(

... where is the 'it just works' ?

andigitalOct 25, 2014 5:58 AM Re: Home sharing does not work with iTunes 12
Re: Home sharing does not work with iTunes 12in response to biochemiker

I had the same problem after updating to iTunes 12 and using my iPhone 6.

I have solved it by doing these simple steps:

1. Turn off Home Sharing in iTunes. Close it.

2. In your iOS 8 device, Turn on Home Sharing: Settings/Music/Home Sharing

3. Open back iTunes

It looks like in one of the updates, possibly iOS 8.1, had signed off Home Sharing completely.

^^^^^^

Thank you... This solved it for me !

Not sure why. But here's what I did and what fixed it. Not sure which of these fixed it, maybe it was a combination of both?

- I also renamed my Computer Name in Mac OS's System Preferences under Sharing.

- I unchecked "Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts" from iTunes --> Preferences

Then I turned off and on Home Sharing from File --> Home Sharing --> Turn Off/ On ....

That fixed it for me so far. Hope it helps someone.

I too had this awful problem, had given up after trying all of the fixes.

Went at it again today, trying all of the suggestions, what worked for me was changing the name of my Apple TV.  Worked instantly after that change.

Had stopped working completely a couple months ago. Back in business.

Thanks! That has worked for me! (name change of the computer)

I'm having this problem too with the Mac Mini I just got (10.10.1).  The library on my old Mac Pro running Snow Leopard has been working fine, and I can see its library shared from the new machine, but not vice versa.  Well I'd been leaving the old one running until now to feed my media to the Apple TV boxes (G2 & G3) however it just crashed and looks like a hardware failure so now I no longer have any way to stream media, and most likely will have a monumental chore is getting my ipod to resync from a new library now that all my metadata is lost.

First of all, it's really irritating that I should have to log into anything outside of my house just to share things on my own network.   Life's too short to jump through a gazillion hoops on this, and at this point if there is no quick fix, then I will simply dump all of this Apple hardware on EBay for a DLNA solution under Linux, and it will most definitely be the last time I buy any Apple "solutions" ever again as this is ultimately the heartache of going with anything that's not standards-based.

this is the solution. It works! and belie me after weeks of frustration, I am please to have it solved in 10 seconds

Follow these instructions if your Apple TV can't play content from Home Sharing after you install Yosemite.

If your Apple TV can't play content from Home Sharing or you see a “Could not connect to [Library]” message, follow these steps. You might need to update the name of your Mac.

1. On your Mac, open System Preferences from the Apple () menu.
2. Open the Sharing pane.
3. Double-click the name of your Mac in the Computer Name field.
4. Press Delete.
5. Type a new name in the now blank Computer Name field.
6. Close the Sharing pane. System Preferences automatically saves the new name.
7. Go to iTunes.
8. Quit iTunes and then launch it again.

After you complete the steps above, try playing Home Sharing content through your Apple TV.

I've looked over several threads on this (it appears to have been a problem for generations,), and no it hasn't worked for me.

At this point, I think it's time to dump all my Apple gear and go back to Linux, and judging from the steep decline in the quality and attitude at Apple, it may be time to dump my stock too.

"This release Yosemite should have been tested more throughly  :-(

... where is the 'it just works' ?"

No kidding!  If I wanted to put up with this kind of headache, I'd just go back to using Mincrosoft Windless.  At least then I can build a better machine at 1/3 the price using commodity hardware.

I had the same problem. Logging out of iTunes sharing and back in iTunes 'File-Home Sharing' was the solution. It is nice when solutions are that simple

Tried that, no success

I Have tryed everything. Today finally I've foud solution for my problem. I had multiple IP on Ethernet interface of my Windows 7 PC running iTunes 12. I leave just one IP and the problem gone. Now my iPad and iPhone on iOS 8.1.3 access to home sharing library perfectly.

It looks like a major bug in 12.1.0.71, best bet is to roll back to 12.0.1.26 following the Apple uninstall instructions - in the specific order and downloading the older version such as here: https://secure-appldnld.apple.com/iTunes12/031-08059.20141016.FrPFF/iTunes64Setu p.exe

I am running iTunes 12.1.0.71 in Windows with latest generation ATV 7.0.3 (6917), and have had major problems getting the ATV to access my library.  I tried all the ideas I could find on this forum and the only way I could get it running was:

• Turn OFF HS in both iTunes and the ATV
• Log out of the iTunes store
• Restart iTunes
• Log into iTunes store
• Turn ON HS on ATV
• Turn ON HS in iTunes

There is no doubt it has been worse with the iTunes 12.1 upgrade but I was having the problem before, although it couyld usually be fixed by simply turning HS OFF and ON again in iTunes - not any more.