Apple TV not showing Playlist Thumbnails (Catalina)

Question

Level 1

8 points

Apple TV not showing Playlist Thumbnails (Catalina)

After installing Catalina, I created thumbnails for 25 Smart Playlists in the new TV app for my Home Videos. When viewing via Apple TV on my television, a Playlist thumbnail only shows up after I select the Playlist, defeating the purpose of having thumbnails to help me identify which Playlist to choose (I have trouble reading the Playlist names in the small print on the TV).

There is nothing but cogwheels in the list of Playlists of my Home Videos (first photo of my TV's screen below) although the thumbnail for each Playlist is clearly accessible to Apple TV (for example, see second image below, which is the TV screen after selecting the first Playlist from the list of Playlists). Seems like this should be an easy fix. I remember the days when I loved to show Apple TV off to my friends, but a screen full of empty cogwheels is not what I expect from Apple and, quite frankly, doesn't help its own reputation with my Windows-using friends.

(BTW, the thumbnail of the Playlist in the 2nd image below is a jpeg screenshot of a video, not a video file itself.)

Restarting Apple TV and the TV app was no help (again, it is not an issue of Apple TV not accessing the thumbnail, as evidenced by the 2nd photo below).

Any thoughts how to get thumbnails to show on the Playlist screen on Apple TV? Thanks.

Mac Pro

Posted on Jun 7, 2020 10:46 AM

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Answer 1

Teddy_B

Community Specialist

Jun 9, 2020 12:57 PM in response to housmm1

Hello housmm1

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. From what I am understanding is that you are creating Home Movies in the Apple TV app on your Mac. You are creating a thumbnail image for the single video and syncing them to your Apple TV as a group playlist. The thumbnail is disappearing in the group playlist page and only showing a cogwheel. The thumbnails are appearing once in the single Playlists, correct? Let's take a look into this!

To confirm the troubleshooting step you have already taken

Power all devices off/on
What Apple TV tvOS, macOS and Apple TV up-to-date?
If you add one Home Movie to the Playlists, will the thumbnail appear?

It appears as thumbnails will work once in the playlist, but not as a thumbnail for the group video playlist. Here is an article on steps for creating Apple TV Home Movies: Manage your library in the Apple TV app on Mac

If the issue persists, please don't hesitate to post a reply!

Cheers!

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Answer 2

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Jun 9, 2020 5:04 PM in response to housmm1

Hello housmm1

Based on your description, I would encourage you to reach out to Apple Support directly. They would be able to look at both device and add some more troubleshooting steps: Contact Apple Support

Cheers!

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Answer 3

housmm1 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 9, 2020 3:56 PM in response to Teddy_B

Jameson,

Thank you for your quick reply and suggestion, unfortunately it did not work. I have added another video to the Smart Playlist (see first & third photos below, "Sam&Isabel Soccer 020809," which lost it's poster frame/thumbnail that I cannot seem to restore, which is a separate issue for a number of my videos), and powered down both my desktop Mac Pro (late 2013 running OS10.15.5) and my Apple TV (Model A1842) running tvOS 13.4.6 (both updated to current OS). Still no thumbnails for any of the Smart Playlists in the Playlist screen (photo #2 below). Note that I have created a custom thumbnail for the Smart Playlist since the composite one automatically generated by the desktop TV app did not show up on the Apple TV either, and I wanted to add the title in letters large enough for me to read (see 1st photo below).

As the last photo shows, Apple TV has access to the Playlist thumbnail, but it doesn't show it when you select the list of Playlists (photo #2). Thanks in advance for any additional suggestions you may have.

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