cheluto2

Q: Apple TV 4 photo issues

I am on my second day with the new Apple TV 4.  I am not happy with it.

I use my Apple TV a lot to have music on while displaying my pictures when I have people over.  I was hoping that with this new generation Apple would have fixed the issue where pictures repeat themselves way too often and not all pictures in my library are shown.  Instead, it's worse.  I have home sharing on, and I have about 1100 photos shared. On my ATV I choose the shared images folder to be my screen saver.  However, after about 40 images or so, they start all over again and display in the same order again.  This is very annoying.

So I tried going to the shared folder and pressing "Start Slideshow", instead.  What happens with that is that 7 images are shown and then it goes back to the first image and that image stays on the screen until I press something.  I tried it at least 10 times with the same results each time.  The pictures were different each time, but the behavior was the same: after 7 pictures it shows the first picture and leaves it on the screen.

 

Is anybody else experiencing this?  Is there a way to get the ATV to randomly show ALL my pictures as a screen saver instead of cycling through 40-50 images and then repeating them in the same sequence again?

Apple TV, tvOS, Apple TV 4

Posted on Nov 5, 2015 7:36 AM

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Q: Apple TV 4 photo issues

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  • by CMParma,

    CMParma CMParma Jan 17, 2016 1:27 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2016 1:27 PM in response to cheluto2

    I'll chime in on this thread and say I've had the same disappointment. With our old ATV2, we'd set up a 5,000 photo album as our screen saver and have it running while playing music all day long. We'd often spend good deals of time watching the screensaver. We purchased a new ATV4 in the hopes that he increased hard drive would allow us even more space for photos. How wrong I appear to have been! Now, I've found that we have the same 100 photos appearing, and repeating about every 15 minutes. It's a huge disappointment to us. If I still had the box, I'd return this ATV4.

     

    Please, Apple, allow full access to larger photo albums.

  • by amg1632,

    amg1632 amg1632 Jan 17, 2016 2:56 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 17, 2016 2:56 PM in response to cheluto2

    Having the same problem here. I created a new shared album with fewer pictures (~250) hoping that would improve things, but now I am only getting ONE image to play when I set the album to screensaver. Incredibly frustrating.

  • by Andynaples,

    Andynaples Andynaples Jan 21, 2016 8:23 AM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2016 8:23 AM in response to cheluto2

    I am glad that I am not alone. How disappointing.  I would even be tempted to go back the 1st generation ATV which I still have if I did not have to dismantle the whole audio cabinet to do it......

  • by NielsvV,

    NielsvV NielsvV Jan 21, 2016 12:03 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 21, 2016 12:03 PM in response to cheluto2

    Exact same irritating problem here. I have a few 1000 photos I want to randomly show with music playing. One of the main reasons I bought the ATV! How dissapointing that a simple shuffle function doesn't work. Never had this problem with ATV1 and never understood why next gens didn't have an ATV1-like HD Installed. Apple please help here!!!

  • by matthew o-b,

    matthew o-b matthew o-b Jan 25, 2016 12:47 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2016 12:47 PM in response to cheluto2

    Great Ceasar's Ghost, I think the tvOS 9.1.1 update may have fixed this... Still testing, but I've noticed the screensaver is cycling through all 1200+ photos in my album with next to no repeats (if there are any, they're many many minutes apart). Keeping my eye on it...

  • by mandrieu,

    mandrieu mandrieu Jan 25, 2016 5:29 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (7 points)
    Jan 25, 2016 5:29 PM in response to cheluto2

    I just ran the update to tvOS 9.1.1. As far as I can tell, all issues related to slideshows remain exactly the same, unfixed. Using Ken Burns, with 3 seconds between slides, after 20 or 30 pictures, the repeats start, then it shows a few more pics, more repeats, and so on. I have about 20,000 photos so I haven't had the time to test the screensaver to see if there's any improvement though. But the podcasts app is there now... pathetic.

  • by jldesign,

    jldesign jldesign Jan 25, 2016 7:48 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jan 25, 2016 7:48 PM in response to cheluto2

    I will also add that it appears the 9.1.1 update doesn't help a thing in regards to repeat photos. Style cycling through the same 30-40 pictures even though I have over 900 in the selected album. Come on Apple, shouldn't this be a quick fix?

  • by matthew o-b,

    matthew o-b matthew o-b Jan 25, 2016 7:52 PM in response to mandrieu
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 25, 2016 7:52 PM in response to mandrieu

    Yup. I jumped the gun. Let it play through a few times, and it's still repeating the same 80-ish photos. Ugh.

  • by Apple TV 1 Fan,

    Apple TV 1 Fan Apple TV 1 Fan Feb 2, 2016 10:38 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 10:38 PM in response to cheluto2

    Yep, this is something that has progressively gotten worse with each model released with the floating screensaver.

    1st Gen ATV: All photos from the local library randomly shown, no duplication. (Remember no option for home sharing or shared iCloud photo libraries on 1st Gen ATV - all synced via iTunes)

    2nd / 3rd Gen ATV: Only about 100 photos from a home sharing library displayed however a shared iCloud photo library did randomly display all photos with no duplication.

    4th Gen ATV: Both local home sharing library and shared iCloud photo library now only show about 100 photos.

     

    I thought with the expanded storage on the 4th Gen ATV we may get back to some of the functionality found on the 1st Gen ATV (all photos from local library can be randomly displayed), but not only did that not happen they also killed the "workaround" of the iCloud shared library. Disappointing.

     

    Come on Apple...fix this really stupid bug...use the units GB's of memory for this most useful feature!

  • by Lost in Asia,

    Lost in Asia Lost in Asia Feb 3, 2016 11:08 PM in response to Apple TV 1 Fan
    Level 3 (630 points)
    Apple Music
    Feb 3, 2016 11:08 PM in response to Apple TV 1 Fan

    For what it's worth I'm finding that the screensaver with my Apple TV 4 seems to be changing each time. It only seems to play around 50-60 photos each time, but when the screensaver starts again after a period of time, it plays through a different 50-60 photos. (If I stop the screensaver and restart it right away, it'll still be the same 50-60 pictures). Still not what I want, but better than showing the same 50 or 60 every time.

     

    I'm using Home Sharing to a smart album in Photos (not using iCloud Photo Library or whatever it's called).

     

    EDIT: And to be honest that's pretty much the same way as the screensaver on my iMac has always worked (or not worked, depending on point of view). Each screensaver batch is only a few dozen pictures, not the whole set in the designated folder. That's not the way I like it, but for whatever reason it's how it's set up.

  • by SIBoyd,

    SIBoyd SIBoyd Feb 8, 2016 6:29 AM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 8, 2016 6:29 AM in response to cheluto2

    Photos on the new Apple TV is certainly a failure. I've turned on and off and on again everything associated with iCloud and Photos on both my Mac, my iPhone and my Apple TV 4 in an effort to fix Photos on the Apple TV, but to no avail. Photos library on the Apple TV shows about 2 dozen photos, many of which I had deleted from my iCloud Photo library as job site photos that I didn't need any longer, but there they are on Apple TV and I can't dlete them from that (at least that I have found).

  • by stv823,

    stv823 stv823 Feb 24, 2016 2:59 PM in response to cheluto2
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Feb 24, 2016 2:59 PM in response to cheluto2

    I don't understand why apple has not addressed this issue.  I have three apple tv version 3 with the same problem. This is the reason I upgraded to Apple tv 4.  Lucky, I only bought one, because it has the same issue with repeating the same photos over and over. Apple Fix this. Thanks

  • by Conrad Olson,

    Conrad Olson Conrad Olson Mar 7, 2016 10:33 PM in response to stv823
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 7, 2016 10:33 PM in response to stv823

    I am having the same issue. Regardless of the style of screensaver I chose I am only getting the same 60 or so photos from my selected iCloud album, which has 660 photos in. This really isn't good enough.

  • by Winston Churchill,

    Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Mar 8, 2016 3:26 AM in response to Conrad Olson
    Level 10 (103,845 points)
    Apple TV
    Mar 8, 2016 3:26 AM in response to Conrad Olson
    I am having the same issue. Regardless of the style of screensaver I chose I am only getting the same 60 or so photos from my selected iCloud album

    This is how it's supposed to be. If you want to see all your photos watch a slideshow.

  • by Conrad Olson,

    Conrad Olson Conrad Olson Mar 8, 2016 9:06 AM in response to Winston Churchill
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 9:06 AM in response to Winston Churchill

    This is how it's supposed to be. If you want to see all your photos watch a slideshow.


    I find that hard to believe

    • This was not the case on previous Apple TVs.
    • Why would it be designed like that? Please point me to the documentation that describes this 'feature'.
    • Even if this was the case surely it should get a different 60 photos each time.

    If it is in fact true, that this is a feature, then consider this a feature request, not a bug report.

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