Q: Slide shows on ATV 4 plays semi random

I interpret it as they took this issues seriously...

But I agree, I've seen this issues in several forums so they must be aware of this issues since early after product launch...

Also please see my answer to edivon.

Let's do some more exorcism... maybe it works?

Well, not because I had any expectations, but I just tried again. I did a system Restore, e.g. restored back to factory settings. So after I reinstalled the apps, manually re-entered all the (blip!) usernames and passwords, all A, B and C issues remain. Not fun... Please send my regards to your senior support guy... LOL

Are you sure you're playing a slideshow vs. the screensaver? The only

sure way to begin the former is through Start Slideshow in Computers -

AND when the option to allow the slideshow to be used as screen saver

is presented, say No - as sometimes the screen saver will take over -

and I've found the results of that can be unpredictable, like perpetually

rotating a small subset of photos in the selected album.  Good luck, Tom

Yes, I'm using the slideshow too, e.g. "Play Slideshow", after selecting Ken Burns and making sure "shuffle" is off

I don't know whether themes, settings, etc. are stored in caches or not

but a simple method to clear them is to simply power cycle the tv. This

means not just a re-start from the menu but actually pulling the plug!

I do think there can be problems due to lack of storage.  Good luck, Tom

I've power cycled it several times. In fact, I do that every time I want to watch my photo albums: I unplug the Apple TV 4, plug back in my venerable Apple TV 2 and everything works. Now matter how we try to sugar coat it, all these are bugs

I've added these and woes of my own to Photos Support email. In

the meantime I'm just exporting stuff as a slideshow and hope tv

will play that as rendered. We'll see . . .  : - )    Tom

So... problem C is back and B was not yet solved...

Problem A seems to be gone...

I will keep you informed about any progress...

Hey CarlAnders, what did you do so issue A (the random slides) doesn't happen. What are your slideshow settings? How many photos you have? In my case, I'm using Ken Burns, with dissolve transition, shuffle photos off, repeat off, each slide 3 seconds (or 5 seconds, or 7 seconds. it doesn't seem to matter).

In my case, no matter what I do, all three issues persist.

Thanks, Carl - your Reset (All Settings) was effective in fixing my problems

with the tv 3 - which were specifically slideshows reverting to a subset of

the album selected - and just recycling through those to the exclusion of

all the others in an 8,000+ album. Now I'm getting true random themes,

fully shuffled pics, no repeats, etc. Yes it's a chore to re-enter all credentials,

etc. but worth it. Thanks for the explicit presentation of the steps you took.

I realize that your rig is a bit different - and some here are commenting on

slideshows off their iOS but it appears that the same algorithms are getting

corrupted over time. We'll see how long this re-set fix lasts.

Tom

Apple TV 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation only cache about 100 photos from your iTunes photo home sharing library and then only randomizes those few photos for screensaver and slideshow...duplicates constantly.  This problem bug is super annoyingly oblivious in Floating screensaver mode.  1st generation Apple TV is the only unit that truly randomizes all your iTunes home sharing photos because it synced all photo's from your iTunes file to its hard drive for use with screensaver.

This is particularly insanely stupid given the new 4th gen Apple TV has a hard drive with lots of space.  An easy software modification could allow the entire home sharing iTunes photo library file to be loaded onto the 4th gen's hard drive and the screensaver program could then truly utilize and randomize all your home photos...just like the 1st gen Apple TV (which has the world's all time best screensaver).

I hope some engineer at Apple will see how stupid the new screensaver operates with home sharing iTunes photo's.  I only have about 2000 photos but I know some people have tens of thousands.  This is the modern digital age where we all have tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of photos...how is Apple not allowing us to display them in the same awesome manner as the 1st gen Apple TV...I am truly baffled by this one. 

I'm returning my Apple TV 4th gen tomorrow (after I was told by Apple Customer Care before purchasing it that it would randomize and display all my home sharing photos in screensaver...wrong!  Only about 100-150 per screensaver session).

Dear TV Fan 1 - that the new unit has a hard drive is news to me - especially

as the two storage options are quoted in units typically associated with flash (32,64).

That being the case, I agree with you that it doesn't seem likely that the "TV" can

store tens of thousands of pics for a slide show. However, my v.3 tv seems happy

showing my 8,000 pic library on a random SS basis - and while I haven't counted,

it seems to reach across the entire spectrum of my library for hours on end w/o

any - or a minimum of duplication. Conclusion: the slideshow is drawing from

iCloud. Why would I think that? Because I can shut my Mac down with no

affect on the show - and the tech specs for V3 don't admit to even ANY

storage - it's a streaming device. My Photos library is almost 70GB -

there's no way an TV could hold it in memory or store it - it must be

streaming from iCloud. That said, I, too was experiencing the same

restriction on displaying all my images - and b/c getting advice on how

the TV actually works is kinda scarce I couldn't fix it until a kind poster on

this board - I think - suggested a re-set. Why that worked I can't say.

Good luck with your efforts to get yours operating as intended.  Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the detailed info.  I only say "hard drive" because thats how apple customer care referred to it today...but of course, it's solid state memory.  I do understand that playing pictures from the cloud is supposed to then utilize all photos for random display on screensaver.  The problem I am noting is in regards to home network sharing of photos from a home computer with iTunes.

Thanks Again!

Matt