Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

@Frobo, I'm anxious to hear if your home sharing stayed connected or not over night. If it did, then I'm going to give mine a try with 10.4.1. I've already downloaded it, just waiting to install. I suppose if I downgrade though that I will lose itunes Match since it did not come out until 10.5?

@Spidermonkey, It worked this morning no problem with 10.4.1. I'm going to stick with this until there is a resolution. One thing to note is that we do not know what exact version it broke in because I went from 10.6 (broke) down to 10.5.3 (broke) to 10.4.1 (working). There are a few 10.5.x versions in between. If you are feeling lucky you coudl try 10.5.0/1/2 and see if it works.

At least we know that 10.4.1 is ok for now.

The very strange thing here is that 10.4.1 came out 7 months ago. I update iTunes regaularly and I would have seen this problem way before 3 weeks ago. So my theory is that it is an iTunes problem along with a later iOS or possibly connecting the newest AppleTV to my wired network. I don't think it is just iTunes.

Happy but frustrated for now...

So what are you going to do about syncing your iDevices and other such things that can only be done with itunes 10.6? Do you have the most recent version on another computer? I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to go about doing this and still be able to sync my iPad/iPhone and use itunes match.

Another option that worked for me it to set your ATV not to sleep.

All three of my ATV's are set not to sleep. Unfortunately, this does not solve the problem.

I really want to give this a try as it makes sense and seems to be a solution.

Only problem is, I can't seem to find iTunes 10.4.1 for Mac OSX anywhere...

Can anyone who's found it post a link?

Frobo, from memory there was a recent itunes update and within a day there was also an aTV update. I installed both, unfortunately I didn't try using homesharing between the two after the iTunes install and before the aTV update so I cannot be sure. But after the two updates it was definitely broken. Before the two updates it was definitely working. (Well it did drop connection sometimes when the computer or aTV had been asleep but a restart of iTunes and/or the aTV sorted that and it then worked for long enough to watch whatever I wanted to watch).

So it was either the last iTunes update 10.6 or the aTV update that came out at the same time, or the combination of the two that has fundamentally broken homesharing.

Btw sorry but I haven't got round to re-installing iTunes yet, will post back when I do get time..

It has to be more than just the ATV update, as when the home sharing connection has dropped, I am unable to connect to it with my iPad/iPhone either. In other words, the dropouts are not specific to the ATV.

Weird.

Is anyone here getting this problem that has NOT done the recent aTV update, just iTunes 10.6?

@Spidermonkey. Yes it is more than ATV. My iPhone and iPad will not connect either. I'm also using a dedicated laptop as my hone shar server that I do no sync with anything so this isn't a problem for me to have an old iTunes on there.

@laurieknoght. I think (but really not sure) it was a recent iOS update along with iTunes 10.5x and greater. If it was just an iTunes problem I would have seen this issue occur montha ago.

@pagemakers. I have more than just an ATV that will not connect so perhaps you have a different problem.

@Frobo, are your files actually located on the laptop or do you store your media elsewhere? In other words, does the library file of iTunes on the laptop link to the laptop or to a different computer? And then do you just manually add new movies or shows to iTunes on the laptop? I'm just wondering how you will keep the library on the laptop updated with new content?

@spidermonkey I have a small SSD drive in my laptop then a 2TB USB drive hooked to it where all my media is.I have my separate machine where I manage my music and movies. I use Microsoft's SyncToy utility to keep both music and movies in sync. I keep two separate libraries mainly for backup purposes.

Keeping it update is a manuall process for me sadly.

@laurieknight, I have a brand new ATV2, and just upgraded to IT10.6, and I also get a crash after 30 seconds. Only restarting the ATV fixes the problem.

I am having the same problem. My apple tv quit working yesterday. It is not working today. It tells me to turn on home sharing on my computer. I did that and even turned off home sharing and then turned it back on. When I try to get on apple tv it says my username and password are incorrect. This is wrong. It is the same username and password that I used on my computer and worked just fine on the mac.

SpidermonkeyCVO - I was having all the same problems people are posting here (home sharing not connecting, having to restart the ATV, having to restart iTunes, having to log off home sharing and log back on in iTunes. All of it. Interestingly though, I am up to date on all versions of iTunes, OS and ATV software and I am still not having any more issues. So while I agree that there was a break somewhere between versions of iTunes that they need to fix, making the necessary changes to allow the flow of data to travel from the internet, to iTunes and then through to your other devices is in my opinion the key to this. There were other small configurations I had to make to my iMac and ATV as well.

On a side note, I have read awhile ago about someone discovering that if they had their iPhone or iPad set up to wirelessly sync, that it caused a communication breakage when one would have it activated and went to upgrade to the newer version of iTunes. They had to remove the sync via wifi, uninstall iTunes. Reboot. Re-install iTunes. Once they did that, the communication breakage wasn't there anymore.

My ATV goes to sleep and when I wake it up, my library is there. Renting a movie and streaming it from iTunes works in about 30 seconds. I don't have to restart iTunes ever. My iPads and iPhones can see the iMac library and play everything from it. I can mirror my iPhone and iPad to the ATV. Essentially, everything works they way it should without any compromises.