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User profile for user: Lennys26
Lennys26 Author
User level: Level 1
36 points

AppleTv Screensaver Settings

Whats the story with the screensavers? Configuring them has been a long running issue for many many users for years.


When I go to General->Screensavers->Type->My Photos, I have 3 general options — Activity, My Photo Stream, or a bunch of shared albums.


The easy one is the shared albums. It works as expected. Done.


Selecting Activity, I get a random selection of photos, but this selection is always the same. I have no idea how it chose them and it never changes or updates.


Selecting My Photo Stream, I have 2 photos. Thats it. Again, I have no idea how these were chosen but these 2 photos are what is there and these never change or update.


Why is the functionality of the screensaver so cyptic? What I want is that my screensaver choses, at random, pictures from the over 5000 that are stored in my phone and sync’d with iCloud. Simple.


Any thoughts?

Posted on Sep 9, 2022 3:30 PM

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User profile for user: Urquhart1244
Urquhart1244
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
143,046 points

Posted on Sep 10, 2022 10:06 AM

  • ‘My Photo Stream’ should contain images shot on any of your devices, and that have been automatically uploaded to iCloud in the last 30 days. It is from your iCloud Photos collection, i.e. from one specific Apple ID account.
  • ‘Activity’ is photos that have been shared with you, or that you have shared with others, that have activity from the group. It may be more clear in the Photos app on Mac. If not viewed in random order, then it would be ordered by activity (additions to shared albums, comments, likes). If you have multiple albums shared with you, the Activity will contain photos from more than one album. It is not about photos that you didn’t share.
  • ‘Shared’ shows albums that have been shared with you. Just one of those can be selected.
  • ‘Albums’ shows your organization of your own photos into Albums. Just one of those can be selected.

The whole library is not selectable, unless you create a special Album containing all that.


What I want is that my screensaver choses, at random, pictures from the over 5000 that are stored in my phone and sync’d with iCloud.

That is probably too much. Screen saver photos are copied to the Apple TV as cached data, hence the amount is limited. I do not know the exact limit, in number or in bytes. Neither is explained how any subset from too large collections is chosen. (Please share if you find out.)

Do a slideshow in the Photos app instead, to stream directly from iCloud.

At 4 seconds per photo, you can’t show more than 900 photos per hour.

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User profile for user: Urquhart1244
Urquhart1244
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
143,046 points

Sep 10, 2022 10:06 AM in response to Lennys26

  • ‘My Photo Stream’ should contain images shot on any of your devices, and that have been automatically uploaded to iCloud in the last 30 days. It is from your iCloud Photos collection, i.e. from one specific Apple ID account.
  • ‘Activity’ is photos that have been shared with you, or that you have shared with others, that have activity from the group. It may be more clear in the Photos app on Mac. If not viewed in random order, then it would be ordered by activity (additions to shared albums, comments, likes). If you have multiple albums shared with you, the Activity will contain photos from more than one album. It is not about photos that you didn’t share.
  • ‘Shared’ shows albums that have been shared with you. Just one of those can be selected.
  • ‘Albums’ shows your organization of your own photos into Albums. Just one of those can be selected.

The whole library is not selectable, unless you create a special Album containing all that.


What I want is that my screensaver choses, at random, pictures from the over 5000 that are stored in my phone and sync’d with iCloud.

That is probably too much. Screen saver photos are copied to the Apple TV as cached data, hence the amount is limited. I do not know the exact limit, in number or in bytes. Neither is explained how any subset from too large collections is chosen. (Please share if you find out.)

Do a slideshow in the Photos app instead, to stream directly from iCloud.

At 4 seconds per photo, you can’t show more than 900 photos per hour.

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User profile for user: Lennys26
Lennys26 Author
User level: Level 1
36 points

Sep 10, 2022 11:28 AM in response to Urquhart1244

@Urquhart1244 - Thanks for the detailed reply!


  • My Photo Stream == Looking at the photos in my iPhone and online in iCloud I can see all of my photos. The AppleTV is using the same account and I am definitely only seeing 2 photos, and interestingly these 2 photos are NOT in my iPhone, in iCloud or in the Photos app on the Mac.


  • Activity == Ok - It does seem to be that the photos that are appearing here are shared photos from albums (either shared to me or from me).


  • Shared / Albums == Yep. That makes sense also and is what I see.


Additional interesting, and perhaps somehow related info:

Looking into the Photos app on the Mac, which I almost never use, I am noticing photos taken in the past 45 days are NOT there. These photos DO exist on the iPhone (where they were taken) and in iCloud.


The Photos app preferences has "iCloud Photos" and "My Photo Stream" disabled.

  • With "iCloud Photos" disabled, I don't see why the Photos app has anything at all but, hey ho -- more mystery. I was going to enable this, but .... read on.
  • The "My Photo Stream" option would seem to relate back to the AppleTV, as, although still unclear, this terminology is only seen in those 2 places. Since "Photo Stream" says that it only uses photos from the last 30 days, it is of limited value in my case as I dont necesarily have many photos in that range. Either way, I wanted to enable this, but it disappears when I enable "iCloud Photos". I would think that these are fairly unrelated, but WRONG AGAIN.


I am still lost, confused and frustrated with this. I have enabled iCloud Photos...not sure why.

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User profile for user: Urquhart1244
Urquhart1244
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
143,046 points

Sep 10, 2022 12:29 PM in response to Lennys26

Each device can choose to participate in iCloud Photos, or not. With these functions disabled on some devices, then the Photos app on those devices doesn’t interact with iCloud for photo syncing (both ways).

If you activate iCloud Photos, then My Photo Stream is also activated automatically (no separate setting needed). If you keep iCloud Photos off, then you may still choose to activate My Photo Stream by itself.


I can’t think of a reason for the two My Photo Stream photos of unknown origin. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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AppleTv Screensaver Settings

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