Cannot get old gen appleTV to sync with iMac any more

I may have an answer. Ran into the same issue as I could only see a streaming option. It was because I had selected share iTunes library. Do not select "Add Shared iTunes Library" as this will only allow streaming.

The top option on the menu says connect to iTunes. I first made sure I was disconnected by all other methods and the Apple TV did not show up in the device list on iTunes. I them selected connect to iTunes with the 5 digit code, Apple TV shows up in iTunes, enter code and there it was. Default option was to auto sync so I selected "custom sync" (very important) and all of the folder options were back. Of course with the recent changes in iTunes all purchased movies/tv shows are available in the cloud and can be redownloaded anyway. ATV1 can not take advantage of iCloud so will aways be tethered to iTunes unfortunately. It did delete the ATV1 without warning so that is a drawback.

I also own two ATV2 units, one is the new 1080p version. They have come a long way from the original but hate to discard the ATV1 since we dropped some serious cash back in the day. It is unfortunate Apple has ignored the early adopters and left us with non existent support for such issues.

I'm just glad the on board hard drive of the original ATV is still useable at this point.

After followng an earlier posted suggestion that ended up wiping out all of the synched items on my older ATV, we ended up restoring the factory settings. Still have to resync everything, but all of the options and tabs on the summary are there. It's works just like it did when we originally purchased it with none of this streaming bs. Be sure to avoid any "sharing" options and decline all software updates. Thanks Apple for keeping me up well past my bedtime trying to fix something that worked great in the first place.

JoeDaddy's post should be moved to the top of this thread.

After turning OFF sharing, you can sync directly to ONE computer, even a brand new Mountain Lion computer.

Lost all my stored content first, but at least I had it on the desktop, so it restored fine. Now all my purchased content is back on the hard drive.

Thank JoeDaddy

I am totally disgusted with Apple and would like a refund if I am unable to use my apple TV 1 as it was designed to be used. ie having content synced on to the harddrive.

I DO NOT WANT TO STREAM CONTENT THATS WHY I HAVE THE APPLE TV 1 SO APPLE GET THIS SORTED OR START REFUNDING

all is not lost

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4620602?answerId=20654798022#20654798022

We can sync again

From all what I've read here of everyone's input it seems as though you're screwed if you upgrade the OS on your Mac or just the iTunes as I have done. Now my ATV 1st Generation will not be seen by iTunes and unlike in the past, I can no longer copy films I've purchased across to my Mac, which is a real pain as when my ATV 1st Generation gets full up, what am I supposed to do? Or if the ATV retires from life I've lost films I've bought!! Not impressed. Who does Apple want as customers, those who have more money than sense and are quite happy to buy a new Mac every year and ATV etc, thereby finding everything works all the time, or those of us who liked Apple products with a passion but do not have the budget to keep upgrading all the time and actually, realistically, expect computers and other devices to last and work for a number of years?!!! The only other option, apart from reloading the original OS and all your apps (what a mega pain that is!!) is to take the hardrive out of the ATV and copy across the films to a computer. But who wants to have to do this??!!

😠