Apple remote app not working after Catalina update

I just checked. I can see my 4th generation Apple TV, my HomePod, and my Hue bridge on the Home App, but I cannot see the 3rd generation AppleTV, which however, shows up in the Remote App. And so one Apple TV can be controlled by the Home App and the 3rd generation AppleTV by the Remote App.

I've used two iHome iW1 Airplay speakers for some years, and can drive both and iMac simultaneously. Since Catalina, apart from other useful apps ceasing to work, I can't use the speaker remote to move on to another song. These are decent, rechargeable speakers, and I don't feel inclined to trash them just because Apple have updated their OS.

I've found with previous OS versions that the speakers won't connect, then after an update all works fine.

Hopefully this is something Apple are working on, in the same way the first edition of Catalina produced a folder for Recovered files, which couldn't be emptied.

Tried the Media Sharing trick, but no success.

Having the iTunes Remote App stop working after installing Catalina on my iMac also frustrated me, but there is a workaround. If you have home sharing and AirPlay turned out on all your devices you can use your iPhone's Music App to control music on all your speaker systems.

The main downside is that you now control your music either from your mobile devices or from your Mac, but not both. The other downside is that you'll have to up the volume button on your speaker systems significantly more when streaming from your mobile devices than when streaming from your Mac.

Similarly you'll now need to use the Home App to control your 4th or 5th generation AppleTVs. Earlier versions of AppleTV will still work with the old iTunes Remote App.

A small correction to the above post relating to AppleTV. While the 4th generation AppleTV can be seen in the Home App, I was unable to control the AppleTV through it. It's not a big issue for me as I use the AppleTV physical remote or another universal remote with which I control the AppleTV and TV, among other things.

Does anyone know how to control AppleTV, 4th generation now that it doesn't show up on my Remote App (while the 3rd generation one does)?

I cannot even connect to my Mac Music any more, forget about controlling it. Of course I can still send output through AirPlay, but I'm not able to control the streaming through the Remote app on any device (iPad, iPhone, iPod)

I subscribe to Apple Music, but I'm annoyed that I can't use the remote or forward/back buttons on my Airplay speakers, as I could pre-Catalina.

I've lost Fontographer and Agamik Barcoder, plus a few others, now I can't even enjoy my music as I used to.

No need to join/buy Apple Music to use the Music App as a remote. Just bypass the annoying ads (when they appear) and access Home Sharing, then your Library. To make it easier, allow Control Center to be accessed within apps.

Also, as pointed out before, make sure you have Media Sharing turned on. Settings-->Sharing, check Media Sharing, select the Library you wish to share and check Home Sharing (and other options you may need).

Pretty OK with how the new methodology works...it's a tad less intuitive than the old Remote app was, for sure. I have it working with all my equipment and have iPhones and iPads set up. My equipment is fairly new, CA 851N for streaming to my reading room, Marantz 1609 in the wife's sewing room and Apple TV 4s everywhere...new HomePod on the way. Simple setup.

Give the new stuff a chance, it will improve as time goes by...

I understand what you are saying, but I'm talking about using my iPhone to send my music library, which is stored on my Mac, to my music devices around the house. I want to use the Remote app to do this, not do it from the Mac but from the iPhone. That was the whole reason for Remote in the first place. When I try to add a library to the Remote app, it states I need to sync with the Music app on my Mac and gives me an access code, just as it has always been. However the new Music app has no provisions to accept that code so it cannot be added to the Remote app. However, if you have found a way for the iPhone Music app to access my Mac Music library then please prove me wrong. Thanks

I have no problem in playing music on my iPhone or iPad from my audio-visual library and streaming it to all my speaker systems via AirPlay, though not via the Remote App, which now only works on older generation AppleTVs. Do make sure that you have Home Sharing turned on on your Mac and all your mobile devices and that they're all on the same wi-fi network. For what it's worth, I can also play music to my speaker systems on my iMac, but when I do that I can no longer control it from a mobile device--it's one or the other, though I am able to switch between them.

You're correct that you cannot access the Mac Music library from your iPhone anymore, which admittedly is a bit of a drag. What I suggest is that you upload Mac Music library to iCloud and then you use your Music App on your iPhone to access the iCloud library. If you have an enormous library you may need to pay for extra storage, but it'll be worth the convenience.

Nice suggestion but that does not work for those of us with large libraries on a Mac Server.

Besides, streaming from a cloud destroys the quality of the music with a high sampling rate.

Streaming sucks!

Hmmmm...wonder what's wrong with me then?

I access my music library on my iMac Pro on a daily basis, from my iPhone and/or iPad, select playlists or albums from that library to play on whatever device I choose.

I'd surely hate to pay Apple the iCloud fees for my 175GB library, and there are plenty of folks with bigger. Ouch!

I have a nearly 2TB library which is currently useless to me via Apple technology. Plex works just fine. There is no Apple technology (home sharing, remote app, iCloud library, computer app on ATV) which lets me play my terabytes of music at home. Plex, however, works great.

i don’t know how Apple is going to fix this short of giving Remote much more power over connected devices. Remote is going to have to be able to remotely start and execute the various multimedia apps opening a potential world of remote execution exploits. Or, users will have to keep multiple apps running constantly on connected devices just to be able to use Remote.

But that's exactly what Remote used to do. The only difference might be that it has to access more libraries, now they are split up. But Remote has always had the power you say it will need to function. And no app were required to run in order to use Remote. All remote did was talk to your Mac library and instruct it what to do.

I was happy to use my aforementioned kludge of a solution, but the latest Mac OS update killed it. Thanks a lot, Apple. If this issue is not addressed in a meaningful way, and soon, I will look into a dedicated network audio server for my ~500GB music library, and avoid buying another Mac when I need a new desktop computer. I have zero interest in Apple Music, or paying iCloud storage fees for music that I own. Thumbs down.