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Level 1

0 points

Home Sharing not working as expected.

I have setup home sharing through iTunes 10 on my desktop pc (Windows 7) and MacBook Pro however it doesn't seem to be working as expected.

I can browse all of the laptop media and play it without any issue when I'm on the desktop machine, but when I try to access the desktop's library from the laptop the home sharing doesn't appear in the iTunes shared area.

I've tried disabling home sharing and re-enabling (many, many times) and all this has done is to cause the home sharing to (occasionally) re-appear on the laptop for a few minutes. If I'm quick enough and click on it before it disappears I can establish a connection. As long as I keep streaming content all is well, but if I let it go idle for even a few minutes, I'm back to square one, and the sharing disappears.

Even stranger; even though the shared library has disappeared from iTunes on the laptop, it often reappears after about ten or fifteen minutes, but I'm still unable to connect to it. Clicking causes it to disappear again.

I have also disabled all firewall software on the desktop and laptop to eliminate that as a cause for the problem.

Finally, no matter what state the shared library is in on the laptop (hidden, connected, showing), it has no effect on being able to access the laptop's media from the desktop. Also, the problem seems to be worse when I'm using the laptop wirelessly. That is to say, the desktop shared library disappears quicker, or doesn't show up at all, when I'm wireless.

I'm out of ideas on how to fix this, and I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Added more details

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Sep 13, 2010 1:19 PM

40 replies

Nov 17, 2010 5:31 PM in response to notanumber

My father had this same issue (Windows Vista / iTunes 10 / Netgear Router), but he is only using Home Sharing for Apple TV. This was the solution we came to (based off of a previous post in this topic):

"On the Windows PC, click Control Panel, Network and Internet, then select Firewall Settings. Under "Allow a program through Windows Firewall", make sure the box for iTunes is checked."

ADDITIONALLY, make sure "Routing and remote access" is enabled.

After 1 1/2 hours on the phone with Apple, this was the only solution we could come to (and it was just us fussing around, no help on Apple's behalf).

JudgePam

Level 1

4 points

Nov 21, 2010 2:38 PM in response to notanumber

Suddenly homeshare has stopped working for me as well. I upgraded to the new Itunes 10+ and no longer can see a windows xp machine and apple tv (both of which I previously had homesharing working) I have a Windows 7 64 bit machine I got the proper 64 bit Itunes --I have uninstalled/reinstalled Itunes, uninstalled Bonjure and reinstalled, made sure proper ports open on firewire, made an an exception for the UDP port for Bonjure and its program to run in virus checker, etc. etc. The one thing I have not tried to do is uninstall all Apple software ie quicktime, safari in addition to Itunes and Bonjure. I also recently upgraded my Netgear wireless router but cannot see machines or apple tv either wireless or through ethernet. Really frustrating. I dont' know why apple does not do something --there are way too many people with problems.

jtcomin

Level 1

0 points

Jan 22, 2011 9:10 AM in response to notanumber

I have been using the original Apple TV for a couple of years without problem until upgrading to iTunes 10. The solution for me was to make sure the Apple TV and my Mac were on the same network - when my Apple TV was connected to my home network via ethernet cable and my Mac was connected wirelessly Home Sharing would not work. However by having the Apple TV and my Mac both connected wirelessly all worked well.

attfuzz

Level 1

0 points

Jul 27, 2011 6:09 AM in response to jtcomin

I've been struggling with this for a few days now myself. I'm guessing that the culprit is a firewall issue. I did finaly get it to work, at least for now. My set up is a MacBook Pro, Windows XP laptop, and a Windows 7 HTPC. The Mac could see and transfer from both machines. The Windows machines saw nothing. The fix: I'm not using the windows firewall and have it disabled on both machines. I use Comodo for firewall and anti-virus. The 2 files to allow all requests, are of course iTunes.exe and mDNSResponder.exe. So, in the firewall settings. add these files as trusted applications. The mDNSResponder.exe file is located the the Bonjour folder. Hope this helps!

tcsadmin

Level 1

31 points

Jul 27, 2011 6:12 AM in response to notanumber

Not to worry - my Apple TV is the best thing I ever bought. Stream stuff from my iMac - no problemo. In fact, I just bought a 3TB WD External DD to hold all my movies and stuff. Haven't used that yet, but don't expect any problems.

Jul 28, 2011 6:30 PM in response to willyu

Thank you this worked for me! I am not one to try to troubleshoot for too long. I did exactly what you said. restarted both of my computers and both are now on with home sharing. I am on two PC with windows and fixed the firewall with bonjour and iTunes. Perfection!

Aug 13, 2011 11:29 AM in response to notanumber

I have a similar problem now and i have tried everything and nothing works. I have been so frustated

Sep 19, 2011 3:26 PM in response to notanumber

I have a similar problem and am hoping to find an answer. I am running itunes on a mac mini, hardwired to the current Airport Extreme (802.11n), yet when I Home Share to either my iPhone 4 or iPad 2, it takes about 10mins to load the library on each device! Of course if I leave the home sharing or open another app and come back, I have to go through the process again. Is there a way to save the cached library on my devices? Is this how slow iCloud will be? On the iPad it is just as slow with Music and Videos. I have about 160 Gig worth of music and about 1.4 TB in vie (tv and movie), ripped DVD collection. I would LOVE some guidance as to how to have a seamless interaction with this content over my wifi.. Thanks!

Sep 19, 2011 5:50 PM in response to ringonbob

I don't know how much help I'll be since I stream all my stuff through my Apple TV and it works flawlessly - well, sometimes I have to reboot my iMac. Since the iPhone and iPad have limited space, I doubt they are going to cache much stuff. It would seem to me you'd be better off synching with your Mini, but, of course, then you're not going to have access to your entire library.

Here's my layout - iMac + 3TB External HDD on which resides my iTunes library of about 250GB of music and movies. I'm still in the process of ripping my DVD collection so that will increase. When I hit the 3TB limit on the drive, I'll move to a RAID array of, by then 20+TB. The RAID box I'm looking at has a built-in iTunes server.

I am waiting to see what iCloud holds. I suspect that's going to be your answer, though, because your entire library will reside in the sky and you'll pull down exactly what you want to play on any device. No need for cached content since it will be, in effect, on demand. It will be interesting, however, to see how they handle ripped movies.

eordonez

Level 1

0 points

Oct 23, 2011 8:52 AM in response to notanumber

Hello all, Ive been struggling with the same issue, no homesharing, also no wifi sync to my iphone 3gs.

My system specs are as follows:

- Windows 7 64

- Avg internet Security

- Itunes 10.5

- Apple TV 2

- Iphone 3gs

- PC is connected through ethernet to the router

Iphone sees the apple tv through my wife, I can control the apple tv and airplay works. The problem is with the PC, the pc doesnt see the devices, nor the devices see the PC. Ive done most of the suggestions I read on this forum without any luck. Home sharing is enabled. symptoms:

- No Iphone wifi sync with pc

- Apple tv doesnt recognize the pc library

- Iphone apple remote doesnt work for the pc, works for the apple tv

Any new suggestions? BTW sorry for the thread hijacking..

Home Sharing not working as expected.