Apple TV shows "Not Playing" even though music is playing.

Resetting the Apple TV did not fix the issue. I thought it did but after a few songs and when the screen savers turned on, my music stopped playing. Then, when reconnecting to the Office Apple TV I get "Not Playing" again even though music is playing.

Also, I did notice the checkbox next to the Office Airplay in iTunes will sometimes have a - instead of a check. I'm not sure what this means, but I found many articles online of this issue where people were having very similar issues to me.

I believe this is an AirPlay bug, Apple TV bug, and/or iTunes bug.

Articles I found:

Homepod disconnects or stops playing musi… - Apple Community

More Apple TV Airplay Woes : appletv (reddit.com)

Windows iTunes to Homepod Airplay issues : HomePod (reddit.com)

The only way to get music to display on my Apple TV again is to reboot the device. This is not a great solution as I'd have to reboot the device every 5 minutes....

I will try to disable the screen saver, reboot the device, and see how long the Apple Tv plays music. Maybe the screen saver is the issue.... That didn't work either, still eventually created the dash and stopped playing, then when re-playing it's back to Not Playing.

Here's a bit more detail in a series of photos. Here you can see I have Office selected and the Not Playing album artwork matches the artwork in iTunes. Also, audio is coming out of my TV even though it shows "Not Playing."

iTunes:

Apple TV (side bar menu):

When selecting "Not Playing" in the side bar:

Now here's what happens after an Apple TV reboot (for a limited amount of time):

iTunes after reboot:

Apple TV Side Bar after reboot:

Apple TV Now Playing after reboot:

In the middle of song 2 the music stopped playing and seemed to disconnect from AirPlay. Once that happens when I reconnect the Now Playing will always say Not Playing, even though the music does play through the TV.

Very weird, but hopefully this extra research/documentation is helpful.

I can hear the music, but the now playing shows "not playing." When I reboot the Apple TV the now playing feature works for about 1-2 songs, then shows "not playing" again even though the music will continue to play.

My Apple TV is connected to my 5G wifi network while my PC is connected to the LAN directly. I have 1GB up/down internet and the wifi router is also located in the same room as the Apple TV.

Hope this helps and thank you for responding!

Yes, I have.

I have even tried turning home sharing off and back on to fix the issue but the only thing that seems to fix it is an Apple TV reboot, granted again, that only fixes it temporarily.