Apple TV 2G not showing iPhoto photos.

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Apple TV 2G not showing iPhoto photos.

My problem is that after I have set up all the sharing etc my ATV2 will now show photos from iPhoto.
I get 'Loading "Michael Thomas's Library"' and the spinner... and eventually (after 2 or 3 mins) it displays a message saying to 'Choose the photos to share' in iTunes on my computer.
I can access music in the iTunes library so I know home sharing is working. My ATV2 is connected by ethernet to my router.

I have done the following steps:
1: Set up Home sharing on the Apple TV.
2: Set up Home sharing on my Macbook pro.
3: Made sure the id and password is the same and is correct in both.
4: I have gone to iTunes and from the advanced menu clicked on 'choose photos to share' and shared my entire iPhotos library (30000 images). Still no change.
4a: I checked each event individually. Still no change.
4b: I unchecked all the events and checked just one event. Still no change.
4c: I checked just one Face. Still no change.
4d: I tried lots of combinations of iPhoto selections. Still no change.
5: As this was not showing anything I also went to preferences on iTunes and shared my whole library. (I didn't think this was necessary and it made no difference).
6: I checked I have the lastest updates for iTunes. I am running 10.0.1(22). This is the latest version.
7: I checked I had the latest version of OSX. Still no change.
8: I checked I had the latest version of all my Apple software. Still no change.
9: I rebooted my Macbook pro. Still no change.
10: I went back the step 4 and chose not iPhoto but the picture folder on my macbook pro. This does display the photos in that folder.
11: I tried sharing iPhoto photos again. Nothing.
12: I rebooted my router. Someone had suggested that might work. It didn't.
13: I checked my firewall. It's not restricting anything.
14: I rebooted my Macbookpro again. Still no change.
15: I reset my ATV2. I restored it. This downloads the latest firmware and resets it to factory settings.
16: I re-setup home sharing. Still no change.
17: I tried connecting via wireless. Still no change.

As being able to display my photos on my TV was the main reason I bought it I'm thinking of returning it to Apple tomorrow. Before I do this does anyone have any other suggestions? they would be very gratefully received.
Thanks.
Message was edited by: Mgbsheep2

Message was edited by: Mgbsheep2

Posted on Oct 5, 2010 3:13 PM

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Answer 1

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 6, 2010 12:11 AM in response to Mgbsheep2

18: Someone suggested via email that I unplug the ATV2 and re-plug it. So I've tried that and still no change.

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Answer 2

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 6, 2010 12:37 AM in response to Mgbsheep2

19: I turned my firewall off completely... just in case.. Still no change.

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Answer 3

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 6, 2010 3:04 PM in response to Mgbsheep2

20: I put the firewall back on but it's not blocking anything. Still no change.

Unfortunately this may have to be returned. Though I'm wondering if there is anyway to rebuild by iPhoto library. Maybe that is the issue?

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Answer 4

Oct 6, 2010 4:42 PM in response to Mgbsheep2

Is that a typo in line 4 ... 30,000 photos?

Have you tried creating a smaller album with maybe 10 - 20 photos to see if that works?

Maybe you're overwhelming the RAM in the ATV2.0 with all the photos??

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Answer 5

HeyJP

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2,399 points

Oct 6, 2010 5:20 PM in response to sneirbo2k7

Two Things:

1. I'm with Sneirbo, create a small iPhoto library with a 100 or so images ONLY, and try sharing it. That will eliminate the library size being an issue.

2. I have 40,000 images in Aperture and mine is SLOOOOOOW too. Although by cutting down to a small number of projects/albums, it helped. Still took several minutes. EVERY time you want to look at images.

3. I've seen other threads with people complaining about photo sharing speed, so there very well may be an issue on Apple's side. So you might monitor the Forum and have to be patient for a month or so and see if a fix comes, in that case.

Jim

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Answer 6

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 7, 2010 1:14 AM in response to sneirbo2k7

Thank you for this suggestion. I'm going to try that later today. I'll report back if successful or not.

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Answer 7

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 7, 2010 1:29 AM in response to Mgbsheep2

21: Created new library (open iphoto whilst holding down the option [alt] key). Exported 30 photos from my old library. Loaded them into the new library. Tried the ATV2.. I can now see 30 photos form my new iPhoto Library.

So this is a successful step in the right direction. It seems I may now need to export the rest of my photos and re-import them bit by bit to see if I find a magic limit. I assume I'll lose the faces etc data...

Not so happy that I have to do this (whatever happened to 'it just works') but at least it may solve my issue. Are there any decent third party library managers out there that can automate this process for me??

Oh and yes it was a typo, I actually have around 45,000 photos. I may take the 'opportunity' to rationalise my collection before moving it across.

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Answer 8

Mgbsheep2 Author

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Oct 7, 2010 2:21 PM in response to Mgbsheep2

22: Checked around and bought 'iPhoto Library manager' as I didn't want to lose all the data associated with photos. Then moved blocks of events across into my new smaller library. Got to 20359 photos before ATV2 stopped displaying them all. It's missing about 324 of my photos from what I can tell but I need to dig around a bit more. I'm not very happy that there appears to be a limit to the number of photos from a library but I guess I'll just have to split my iPhoto Library into more than one.

In summary I think this is resolved in that I can at least see some photos and I now seem to be more or less where others are in that I have hit a limit.

Thanks for your help. It's taken a bit of the shine off what other wise seems to function quite well for me. Though I've concentrated on the photos so I may find other issues now I start to explore the other areas.

Thanks again.

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Answer 9

Oct 7, 2010 2:30 PM in response to Mgbsheep2

Glad you figured it out.

For what it's worth, I've been using the free version of iPhoto Library Manager for several years now. One way to manage it is to create a new Library every year. That seems to be an easy way for me to keep track of which photos are in what library. Want to see photos of that person's great birthday party? Let's see, that was in 2007. . . (open iphoto library manager, select that year's library, open iphoto).

Only down side is that Apple TV will only display what it considers the "current" iPhoto Library. The current one is the last one you recently opened in iPhoto. So if you want to see a different library on your big screen, you have to go over to the computer, open iPhoto Library Manager, pick a library, and open it in iPhotos before Apple TV will see it.

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Answer 10

aasvoel

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Oct 10, 2010 1:29 AM in response to Mgbsheep2

I've experienced the same problem with my Apple TV 2G and have only 17000 photos in my folder. It is disspointing since the Apple TV G1 never had any issues with file sizes or photo limits.

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Answer 11

hyndman

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Oct 10, 2010 11:21 PM in response to aasvoel

I have just found a similar issue. I have approx 35000 photos and many folders. Now i just found that the more recent photo albums are not displayed in the list meaning I cannot see up to 15 directories. This is even more annoying when I have relatives with me and said.. hey lets look at today's photos. Looks like my ATV1 will have to be resurrected as my main box again so we can see the photos.

This is a major bug. Hope the guys at Apple fix this one soon!

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Answer 12

Oct 11, 2010 6:58 AM in response to hyndman

I have the same problem. Nearly 1/3 of all projects don'r appear in the list on my iTV. Very disappointing 😟

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Answer 13

hyndman

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Oct 12, 2010 6:12 PM in response to hyndman

Let me clarify. I have 35 GB of photos which is approximately 15000 photos. I have noted that in iTunes under advanced and "choose photos to share" when I chose to share all photos from my pictures folder (Windows 7) that the folder list is actually incorrect and missing folders at this point.

This leads me to think that it may be an iTunes issue and not an issue with the iOS on the ATV2.

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Answer 14

Gazmaz

Level 1

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Jun 3, 2011 3:45 PM in response to Mgbsheep2

So it seems that Apple have not updated this issue, I have 21,000 photos and am unable to see them via the apple tv, whether it's an iTunes or apple tv issue it needs fixing. Going to try the smaller library process but that seems **** handed as you then have to manage what you want to see, and who knows where a show might end up. Oh well manage the library until a fix, if ever one comes.

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Answer 15

MrPiv

Level 1

11 points

Jul 6, 2011 11:44 AM in response to Mgbsheep2

There is a limit based on the 8GB internal storage on the ATV2. I confirmed this with Express Lane support today. ATV2 will try to load your entire library but will stop when it gets to the limit and does not provide any messages stating that the limit has been reached. This means that you will get roughly the first 20,000 of your library, starting with the most recent.

The work around is to select which albums or folders from iPhoto that are to be synced, much like you would do for an iPod or iPhone that can't fit your whole music or photo library. This selection process is done in iPhoto's Sharing preferences where you select Share my photos and choose the second option to Share selected albums. Note that the list will contain iPhoto folders as well as albums.

Once you reach the 8GB limit, you may also have a problem playing the video files in your iPhoto library that appear to have been synced, as the full videos are not loaded until they are selected for playing. Once that is tried, ATV2 will likely crash as the 8GB limit is exceeded. No harm is done to your library that is safe.

This whole process is not well supervised by the ATV2 system as it keeps the user in the dark.

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