Apple TV playing music from macOS

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Level 1

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Apple TV playing music from macOS

I’ve worded my topic like this because I’m seeing or noticing something new. I use my ATV4K to play music via the ‘Computer’ App from my Mac mini with an iTunes library (now a fresh install of Catalina and Music App, not an upgrade). I’ve done this for years and have always loaded iTunes automatically when the Mac boots, both it and the ATV have family sharing on with the same userID.

I’ve always assumed that ATV saw the iTunes library via an advertised network service made available when the iTunes/Music App was loaded. Recently however I’ve been testing a different player and haven’t been loading the Music App, however ATV can still see and play my music, leading me to believe that it is accessing the file system directly and not going through a library service. Possibly it’s always worked this way and I’m just becoming enlightened?

So my question is, does ATV use the AppleID to gain access to the file system and play directly from there? Has it always worked this way? Or could the SMB access i granted the Infuse App to this filesystem be in play here? (nice pun eh?)

Now that the Remote App is broken there is little reason to load the Music App for this purpose and I’d like to keep that option open should I chose.

Thanks for your help

Edit: I meant this to go in Apple TV, but also identified AppleID, I’m on macOS 10.15.1 & tvOS 13.2.

Apple TV 4, tvOS 9

Posted on Nov 2, 2019 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

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vazandrew

Level 8

40,486 points

Nov 2, 2019 11:48 AM in response to A07570

The Apple TV uses home sharing, which is setup with an Apple ID, for discovery and then streams the content over your local network. It has always worked that way.

The Computers app is the only app that utilizes this function, where the Music app is strictly for accessing purchases, iCloud music library and Apple Music content.

You would need to be using the Infuse app to access content from that directory, and it would not support iTunes purchases.

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Answer 2

A07570 Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 2, 2019 4:26 PM in response to vazandrew

Thanks for your reply. So are you confirming what I now believe, that the computer app accesses the macOS filesystem (via the network), not the iTunes/Music App service? (as the Remote App used to) When I say Music App, I mean macOS, I don’t buy from or listen to the ATV Music App. When you use the term “stream” it implies to me the Music App service is delivering the music, as opposed to the Computer App “pulling” the files across the network (as it now appears to me). It could just be we use the terms differently. Thanks.

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Answer 3

vazandrew

Level 8

40,486 points

Nov 2, 2019 5:08 PM in response to A07570

The computer app has always accessed the content over the network. It has never worked any other way.

With the MAC OS update iTunes was separated into the Music, TV and podcast apps and as such home sharing is managed from system preferences. However, it works in exactly the same way as it did previously.

I was referring to the ATV music app in my previous response, which accesses its content from the cloud.

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Answer 4

A07570 Author

Level 1

61 points

Nov 2, 2019 10:59 PM in response to vazandrew

So yes, I understand ATV works on a network, however networks use protocols and services. I had been under the impression that the ATV Computer App accessed my iTunes library via the iTunes service (made available when iTunes is running), but instead it accesses the iTunes library and music files via the Family Sharing service (which I thought was just for permissions), iTunes does not need to be running. It appears the now defunct Remote App also uses Family Sharing.

Note, I said ‘iTunes’ above though I’m now using the Music App, as this part hasn’t changed (except Remote). Thanks for helping to clarify this.

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Apple TV playing music from macOS

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