Apple TV2 doesn't work with Home Sharing

Question

Level 1

8 points

Apple TV2 doesn't work with Home Sharing

Internet works great (can access Netflix and rent movies on iTunes) but I can't connect to my computer. (I'm using Windows 7) Here's what I've tried...

1)Made sure I'm running the current version of iTunes.
2)Uninstalled Norton and made sure no firewalls are blocking anything.
3)Opened the two ports on my router that iTunes uses.
4)Reset my Apple TV.
5)Turned home sharing on and off and tried opening and closing iTunes.
6)Made sure all sharing is on in my iTunes preferences.
7)Plugged my Apple TV directly into my computer.

Can someone please help? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I haven't been able to find anything on the apple forums that have any sort of solution that works.

Thanks a bunch!

Apple TV2, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 12, 2010 11:48 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 12, 2010 1:30 PM in response to FlakBait01

Reinstall itunes

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Answer 2

FlakBait01 Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 12, 2010 7:21 PM in response to richardya

I just reinstalled it. Apple TV still can't see my computer.

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Answer 3

Nov 7, 2010 1:22 PM in response to FlakBait01

Same problem here. In fact the only thing I've found to work on AppleTV2 is Netflix and Flicker. Youtube and Pay Movies don't work. Homesharing doesn't work. I can't get it to work with either Windows or other Macs. So far I'm pretty un-impressed with Apple's ability to get anything right.

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Answer 4

Nov 7, 2010 6:32 PM in response to Littlewar

I have been able to get the Home Shares to work from Windows 7. Seems I had an issue with my wireless router. Belkin HD600 as Access Point didn't allow me to see the Home Shares. Regressed back to my old linksys 802.11g router as access point and home shares showed up on Apple TV. I still haven't been able to get YouTube or pay movies to function yet.

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Answer 5

Nov 14, 2010 5:33 PM in response to Littlewar

same issue. i have win7 pc. apple tv won't recognize it on homeshare. my wife's mac laptop shows up fine, its just windows. ive been on the phone with apple all day. they cant figure it out. i even spoke with my ISP regarding firewall ports, etc....nope, that aint it either. basically apple tv doesnt work with windows 7 regarding homeshare.

also, youtube favorites on your youtube account also won't work with apple tv.

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Answer 6

rdelat

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2010 2:06 PM in response to FlakBait01

I've got the exact same situation as FlakBait01... ANy suggestions???

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Answer 7

erazoner

Level 1

0 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:00 AM in response to rdelat

In iTunes, Edit>Preferences>Sharing>Share my library on my local network

I saw this was unchecked, and checked it.

Why this is not automatically checked when turning on Home Sharing, or added as a step in the Setup Guide, I do not know.

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Answer 8

newagemac

Level 2

245 points

Dec 27, 2010 8:45 AM in response to erazoner

I don't think turning that on is necessary for home sharing to work. They are different things.

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Answer 9

BBULLARD

Level 1

0 points

Dec 27, 2010 10:25 AM in response to FlakBait01

Same issue except with Windows Vista 64 bit. It reads my wifes computer (Windows XP) but not our main computer with all of our files....

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Answer 10

erazoner

Level 1

0 points

Dec 27, 2010 3:59 PM in response to newagemac

From http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4352:

"Once Home Sharing has been turned on, Apple TV will automatically find iTunes libraries on your local network that have Home Sharing turned on using the account name you entered. The shared libraries will appear in Computers on the main menu of Apple TV."

The implication is that a "shared library" must exist on the computer that has Home Sharing turned on in order to be found.

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Answer 11

Twillers

Level 1

0 points

Dec 27, 2010 5:58 PM in response to erazoner

I find that AppleTV will only recognize shared libraries on my computers--regardless of OS--if they are connected to my network via WiFi rather than Ethernet. Haven't talked to Apple about it but I'm assuming they'll tell me to get a new (Apple) router.

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Answer 12

Dec 28, 2010 11:44 AM in response to Twillers

Same problem, with a Windows XP machine hard-wired to a DLink router. I can get everything to work (including YouTube) both wirelessly and when I connect the AppleTV box to a local wireless bridge (also DLink). The only thing that doesn't work is home sharing, in either configuration. I assumed my Bridge router had to be configured to let the AppleTV see my main router and PC, but it didn't work wirelessly (direct to the main router) either.

What's strange is that I can get the remote function to work on my iPhone and hook up to my iTunes no problem via Homesharing, going thru the same router.

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Answer 13

Dec 29, 2010 9:55 AM in response to Pete_in_LongBeach

Update: OK, so I found a post about iTunes using TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353. I set up my DLink router to forward these ports to my Dell computer, but still no joy. Everything I've found on the subject basically says to make sure your wireless (or ethernet) is connected and it should just "appear". Like many of those posting on these threads, I'm starting to lose my faith in Apple as 100% seamless and effortless.

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Answer 14

Dec 29, 2010 10:13 AM in response to Pete_in_LongBeach

Last Update: I finally tried my wife's MBA. Once I enabled HomeSharing on the same AppleID, it instantly appeared on AppleTV and worked like a champ. While her laptop can see the Dell's library, Dell cant see the laptop's.

Somewhere I read that this whole homesharing thing only works if the computer you want to share is hooked up wirelessly, not via a hardline to the router (which is my configuration). Ok, so for now I have a workaround to play the Dell's library, just go thru the wireless laptop.

Please, Apple, do something about this. It's not like you to have such Windows-like configuration problems!

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Answer 15

Beeso79

Level 1

8 points

Jan 15, 2011 1:35 PM in response to FlakBait01

my case looks like similar, as my library does not appear on appletv.
after several tries to figure out the problem I found the solution in the security mode of the router, the previous mode was WPA2 it seems too high for appletv to stay connected to itunes so the connections drops due to the standby mode and it needs to turn the router off and on to recover,changing from WPA2 to WPA personal may solve the problem.

good luck

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