Home sharing is definitely activated on both ATV2 and iTunes (v10.0.1.22), as the option to Turn Off Home Sharing is given in the Advanced tab in iTunes. However, the Home Sharing does not appear under "Device" in iTunes and the two are not linking up.
The account is set up correctly on ATV2, as I have made purchases from Apple Store through it.
I turned off my routers QoS protocol by going into my NetGear router features. Did your router come with a disc or anything, that will usually give you easy access to the features, or type the routers IP address into a browser window.
I have done EVERYTHING as well... reset Airport Extreme, all iOS devices and Macs have the latest software, etc. I always have to turn on/turn off Home Sharing for my iTunes library to be seen on Apple TV, then within a few minutes, my iTunes library is lost again from AppleTV2. I summed it up as this... Something is wrong with iTunes 10, and they have to fix the bug in the Home Sharing option.
Thankyou! This was driving my husband mad! Read your reply and sorted in no time with a few changes to anti-vandal and firewall settings in Intego VirusBarrier X6. My husband couldn't believe that I could fix it! Apple should be paying commission to you as you've probably prevented lots of returns of Apple TV! Thanks a million!
Hello,
Had same problem when initially activating ATV2. My daughters had no problem using home sharing, one with windows seven and one with vista, but both had opened new accounts and downloaded iTunes 10.1 from the beginning. I however had upgraded from iTunes 9 and believe that was the problem. So my remedy was to uninstall the iTunes program and the re-install as 10.1 64 bit from Apple website and worked like a charm. My iTunes library was not deleted from the hard drive when I removed the iTunes program and everything re-installed smoothly. Might give this a try. Hope it helps someone.
Thanks,Steve
Well seems like a real common thing this iTunes not linking with my AppleTV, same thing here, had it for about three months working fine with my iTunes and now, nothing.
So I have not idea what a Qos is on my router if it has that, can't see any buttons or switches of that name, have tried everything everyone else on this forum has tried, still nothing, I don't know about that VirusBarrier, i don't think I have that on my computer. Any other ideas, this *****!
After experiencing this problem myself and reading through this post I think I've (kind of) figured out the problem. I'll preface my answer by saying I'm no expert in networking, but this seems to be the root of the problem.
I don't use an Airport Extreme network, rather a Netcomm router for our home wireless network. Occasionally this router drops out and needs to be restarted, which is where the problem with Homesharing begins.
After re-starting the router, AppleTV maintains the original IP address from the network that it has been dynamically given. To check what this IP Address is, have a look at Settings > General > Network. You should see an IP address for the Apple TV as something like 192.168.1.x Your Router address should be 192.168.1.1. If your Apple TV IP address is different to this and the Router Address is left blank, then this is the problem.
To check this, have a look on your computer and check its IP Address (under System Preferences > Network. There should be a description under your Status telling you if your connected and what the IP address is. 192.168.1.5 for example).
In short, all computers (including laptops, iPhones, mainframes, etc) on your network should have an IP address beginning with 192.168.1.x. The last number changes for each machine connected to this IP address.
To get all the machines talking on the same network I resulted in turning everything off - AppleTV, laptop's, mainframe, etc; re-starting my router; re-starting my mainframe; re-starting my laptop; re-starting my Apple TV, then making sure all had the same IP address. When this was achieved, Homesharing was restored and my Apple TV now talks happily with all my Apple and non-Apple computers.
Note that some computers didn't immediately revert to the correct IP address the first time and needed to be restarted a couple of times for the address to be created dynamically.
I'm sure there's other network savvy people out there who can explain this better than I can, so please feel free to correct my explanation.
Well stupid me, my laptop was on the wrong wireless network, why I didn't bother to look I don't know, but switched it to my original network and everything is working fine!
After reading this thread and trying multiple things I simply shut all my components down: shut down itunes, unplugged my Apple TV, and hard restarted my router. Once everything rebooted my iTunes media was on synced to my Apple TV. Good luck to everyone else.
This is really frustrating. ATV2 will link up with iTunes just fine (for a while). After an hour or two, ATV2 starts to go senile -- it stops playing music, but shows the songs. If I choose another playlist (which it still sees), it tells me the playlist is empty. Then it totally forgets the computer it's shared to and tells me to turn on Home Sharing, which is already on. Sometimes, after rebooting the Mac, unplugging the ATV2 and cycling the router, I can get everyone talking again, but only sometimes.
(sigh)...I've never had so much trouble with an Apple product.
I wonder if it's a problem with iTunes or the ATV2 because Netflix seems to work fine even when ATV2 forgets the home share.
I have a similar issue. Everything worked fine using my D-Link DIR-655 wireless router. I recently upgraded to a new router/modem. It's a SMCD3Gn which I need here to get faster internet sdervices with Rogers Internet. Now it'll work for an hour or so (Apple Home Sharing). Then the ATV2 or the iPhone or iPad can't see one another until I reset the router. I go back to my Dlink and everything works as it should. I've tried changing wireless channels, disabling firewall, disabling QoS. I even exchanged the router thinking it was defective. It just doesn't play well with that router.
seveer71 I thought the same thing, but eventually home sharing stopped working using my old router as well. Plus, people using every configuration possible seem to be having these issues.
I notice there haven't been any updates to this thread in about a month. How are things working with everyone's ATV2's now? I tried various fixes and was able to get the home sharing working for brief periods. But eventually it just stopped working again. The most frustrating part has to be how random it is. I will work fine for a day, but then will cut out right in the middle of a movie and not work for another couple of days. I have never been able to trace what actually gets it running again because I turn so many things off and on before it actually works that it's impossible to figure out. Then it may only work for an hour.
There have never been any issues with any internet functions. Netflix, Youtube, Radio etc have always worked great. It's strictly an issue with home sharing.
I had a similar problem (things worked for a while, the couldn't see anything under computers on the apple tv). I had some old intego software (Net barrier X5) that the subscription had run out on. Anyway.. somewhere along the line it decided to start blocking homesharing access. Uninstalled everything and things work like a charm again!
Thank you, thank you for the suggestion of turning off QoS on the router!
I, like others, lost home sharing on ATV2 after an update and tried every suggestion on every forum with no luck. Turning off QoS was the only thing that has worked.
I have a Linksys E3000 and the setting was under Applications & Gaming, on the QoS tab. I disabled WMM Support.
It's been a long night.. major disappointment after tonight's updates for ATV, iPad and iMac with no fix for this problem. I was determined to get it working one way or another.
