My TV LIbrary is on an external disk attached to my computer. The computer has Home Sharing set to on as does the Apple TV HD. Both are signed in to the same Apple ID. When I click on the computer icon on the Apple TV HD it says that it cannot find the library on my computer.
MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 13.2
Last night, my son, who worked in an Apple store for 8 months 8 years ago, and I did an IM chat in which we shared share shots of our Home Sharing screens. He noticed that his showed his Apple ID next to "Home Sharing", but mine did not.
My screen showed that Home sharing was on, but no Apple ID although I had entered it in order to turn on Home Sharing. I unchecked Home Sharing and then checked it again and reentered my Apple ID and password. This time the Apple ID showed next to “Home Sharing.” That fixed the problem and everything is working as expected on the Apple TV.
Last night, my son, who worked in an Apple store for 8 months 8 years ago, and I did an IM chat in which we shared share shots of our Home Sharing screens. He noticed that his showed his Apple ID next to "Home Sharing", but mine did not.
My screen showed that Home sharing was on, but no Apple ID although I had entered it in order to turn on Home Sharing. I unchecked Home Sharing and then checked it again and reentered my Apple ID and password. This time the Apple ID showed next to “Home Sharing.” That fixed the problem and everything is working as expected on the Apple TV.
For Home Sharing, both devices need to connect to the same home network. Test: If you can use AirPlay/Screen Mirroring, then the home network itself is not the issue for Home Sharing.
For Home Sharing, also have matching Apple ID accounts in the Settings for Home Sharing specifically:
On Apple TV: Settings﹥Users and Accounts﹥Home Sharing﹥[enter Apple ID]
On Mac: System Settings﹥General﹥Sharing﹥Media Sharing ☑︎﹥ⓘ﹥☑︎ Home Sharing﹥[enter same Apple ID]
If there are multiple computers with Libraries available on the network, then verify that each has a unique Library name.
There shouldn’t be more to it than that. If Home Sharing is on on the Mac, then it responds to Home Sharing requests from other devices using that same Apple ID account.
Everything is setup as you suggest and Airplay does work as expected. When the disk containing the libraries is connected to the iMac, which is runniing iTunes with Retroactive, and iTunes is active, everything works as it should. When the disk containing the libraries, is connected to the MacBook Pro, which does not have iTunes, but has TV and Music Libraries in the volume along with the iTunes Library, and TV app is active, the Apple TV says cannot find username Library.
The two Macs would have separate libraries, even for the same media files. The TV app and Music app on the MacBook Pro would need to have the media files on the external disk also added to their own libraries. Can you access the media files through this TV app and Music app on the MBP? Try testing that, if you haven’t already.
Thank you for trying to help. I really appreciate it.
I created TV and Music Libraries on the external disk from my MBP by Option-click on the respective app icons in the dock. The I navigated to the disk and created new libraries there. When I click on the TV or Music app icon in the dock on the MBP, it opens those libraries and I can choose an item from the list or grid and it plays perfectly. And I can stream the content to the Apple TV using Airplay.
But even with those apps activated on the MBP, when I click on the computer icon on my Apple TV screen, it says that it cannot find my library.
The Sharing settings shows Local hostname Elliots-MacBook-Pro.local
The info button reveals that the Library Name for Home Sharing is that same as the one that the Apple TV indicates that it is looking for.
Before we looked at screenshots, I tried to see if Home Sharing was allowing me to see MBP videos on my iPhone. It did not. So that told us that the problem was with the MBP rather than the Apple TV and likely a Home Sharing issue. We only had to look at screenshots to find out what was different between the two of us.
Someone with a Home Sharing issue should figure out which device is the cause and then look at the Home Sharing settings on that device. Then sign out of Home Sharing on that device and sign back in.
This is similar to the way a restart often fixes and issue.
Happy computing!
That’s a great solution. And that would require screenshots to detect, heh.
Enjoy.
Apple TV HD cannot find the TV Library on my MacBook Pro.
