Apple TV screensaver tvOS13

Ok, so I found a possible solution for this problem. Mine wouldn't show ANY screen saver except for the Ariel one. This is after YEARS of having a 1100 image folder on my PC that it played from. If I tried any other screen saver, even the built in Apple ones, all i would get is a black screen.

After doing as much research as I could find, one solution suggested uninstalling any new apps. So all I did was uninstall the only App I installed in the last 6 month or more, that being Amazon Video. I rebooted the device and suddenly my Home Sharing screen saver worked perfectly as it has for the last 3 years.

I have no idea why this worked, but it did. This has been the most frustrating thing beyond the thing always forgetting how to connect to my PC for videos, etc... So give that a try and see if it works for you.

Hi greendevil16

Am very up to speed with the selection of Screensavers on the Apple TV Gen 4 Settings

Also the fact that Home Sharing is now found in SETTINGS in the "Sharing Folder" in Catalina.

This same problem is happening to me along with all who have posted.

Selection Made from my own Albums

Preview all fine

Waiting the 2 minutes

Black Screen

Pressed the Menu button on Remote

Goes to AERIAL ????

Have restarted iMac

Have restarted Apple TV

APPLE YOU HAVE A BUG - Get onto it from all those who rely on the stability of "APPLE"

PS: This has been working fine since upgrade a few months ago to CATALINA but only started with problems 48 hours ago.

Cheers Susan in Western Australia

Just an update after upgrading ATV to 13.3. Homesharing is still working for me. Only when I restart the ATV or turns power off/on it goes back to ARIAL. I know that it doesn't help all of you that still have problems, though. It must be a combination of OSX and iTunes together with TVOS13. My MAC is on 10.12.6 and iTunes is 12.6.5.3 and Screensaver settings is "floating"

Still no solution for this problem? I've had to move my old Apple TV 3 to our living room, which is annoying because the interface is not as intuitive on the old device. But my Apple TV 4 no longer works with Home Sharing, especially not the screen saver function using my photo library. I have over 20,000 photos in my library, and having them display as the screen saver on my Apple TV is one of the major reasons I bought the devices in the first place.

It's frustrating that Apple has not come up with a solution.

Wow, did you just copy and paste my post?!

I feel your pain- and have an older ATV as well in another room. Maybe I’ll move it, too, but what a pain. For such a BASIC function that was there from the beginning.

Maybe there could be a third party (tv manufacturers) solution because Apple doesn’t give a rat’s ***.

My Home Sharing Albums from my Photos was working until last weeks update to 13.4.

Now exactly the same problem -- even though all of the Selection Criteria is Spot On and Preview Works

When is goes back to Main Screen -- Black as Black with an Occasional White Screen flashed for a sec the Back To Black.

Have Reset by pulling out plugs

Have Reset by Going to Settings and System Restart

Nothing Works

I totally agree that its Totally Disappointing -- one of the Main Reasons we purchased the Apple TV Gen 4 was the ability to have personal photos as a Screensaver.

APPLE LAND GET IF YOU READ THESE POSTS -- please get your Techies onto it.

Caroline Cairns in Western Australia

Ok .... so the way to get your photo albums to stay up on Apple TV is to use the home sharing version of the method;

switch off the default screensaver - DO NOT LET IT START BY SELECTING “NEVER START” from the Apple screensaver menu

select the PC / computer icon on the Apple TV.

find the photos and let them all start to display in thumb nails.

when most of the selected album is thumb nailed select the photos as the screensaver.

leave the source file open for at least 30 minutes depending on size of file being transferred.

after a length of time sufficient

preview the chosen screensaver to ensure it works as selected.

( I use cascade and have about 50,000 photos)

tune the Apple TV to never turn off.

done

While I appreciate the solution you present, I think you may be missing the point some of us are making: restarting the Apple TV, and the ATV subsequently reverting to the default Apple screensaver, IS THE PROBLEM. Telling us to just never let the ATV turn off is a kludge. This used to work perfectly before tvOS13. Storage for Home Sharing photos appears to be longer persistent, requiring a constant pinned connection to whatever device is supplying the photos.

Yes I agree. It is working to push photos, but Aerial overrides upon reboot which means this is still broken. Also, if you have folders in Photos, unless you sync the entire library, it won’t work. If you select specific folders it won’t sync anything. This is a known issue with Apple since Catalina. Also, check your album covers in Music. Catalina has deleted over half of my album artwork in my library. Just garbage.

NOTHING WORKS -- Apple Techies where are You?

Are the Developers interested in getting this FEATURE up and Running -- would be Marvellous to have this back.

The HOME-SHARING SCREENSAVER was one of the main reasons we purchased the Apple TV ~~~~~ !

Same problem here. Screensaver is lost - BUT - If I go to Photos and play slideshow and select the same effect I had setup in screensaver, the AppleTV plays all the designated photos that I chose from the iTune Home Sharing section. I am still running Sierra so I don't lose my Photoshop CS5 functionality. Current version of iTunes is 12.8.2.3

suggestion that worked for me.

goTo Settings>Users and Accounts

log out of all accounts (iCloud and Home Sharing)

on your iMac

goTo System Preference>Sharing>

stop home sharing

shutdown your iMac and your Apple TV

wait a few minutes then restart the iMac then restart Home Sharing

restart the Apple TV then log into your accounts

this will allow your accounts to sync

Yep - Same issue - Things have gotten incrementally worst with the ATV. Up until a few days ago, I managed to make it work, not sure how, although it would take a reboot or restart to go back to aerial. But out of nowhere it stopped working about 2 weeks ago and no matter what I've tried I get the "black screensaver of death"... I even tried downgrading to TVOS 10.x (using itunes and a cable). Of course it worked under v10. As soon as I updated to the latest, back to the same problem. No screensaver from my home sharing photos, no more ATV. I'll be looking for a Roku or something else.

Can't believe this is a sync problem, because you can see the photo thumbnails scrolling across the tv screen. But when you select Preview or actually enter screensaver mode, the screen just goes blank. I thought I was going nuts until I saw so many others having the same problem.

Same issue here,

It seems everytime the device restarts (power loss etc) it loses the screensaver parameters and defaults to ariel.

I have tried several times in a row.

Removed power simulating a blackout - defaults to ariel

Restart apple tv via settings menu - defaults to ariel

Very very frustrating.