Q: Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

Yes. 

The data here and on the Apple TV->AirPlay list clearly shows that some units have problems, but this thread and the AirPlay one have turned up no consistent and lasting fixes. One of the key issues is the number of people for whom it worked for a time (ranging from days to months) then had it quit on them - there is nothing wrong with their set-up or it would never have worked in the first place.

Take it to your nearest Apple store, ask the genius bar to show you it working, and when it doesn't, get a new one or your money back,

When it works it is a great peice of gear - voted the best iPhone accessory in this year's TUAW poll.

Wow!!! over 600 posts and no solution!

Apple products at their best

It's almost been a year now.  First it worked and then it didn't.  The Genuis Bar just performs a Hard Reset and declares it "fixed" but it isn't.  Then, Netflix streaming started to suffer...  My ATV2 (hard wired) no longer works for much other than Airplay and even that has had hiccups along the way.  As long as Apple publicly declares ATV to be just a "hobby" why should purchasers expect reliability?  There are lots of other solid products out there that actually work, don't require iTunes, and let you get back to WAN and LAN content streaming instead of fretting over the fact that Apple  doesn't care enough.  I know because I use them and they work great!  Who will be the first to purchase an ATV3 - not ME!

HAHAHA!!!! I Love IT!!!!

Yet another ATV2 dropout - now my WiFi password doesnt even work.  whutdaf@ck.  Worst Apple product in recent memory.

Anybody wish to donate their useless POS ATV2 to me? I'll pay the postage! Just think how much better you'll feel once you're rid of it! : )

Seriously, my first one had to be replaced (for free) months ago. And the replacement didn't start to act right until the iCloud update. I have to say it has been working flawlessy since, so there is hope.

P.S. A small USPS flat rate box is only $6.

15 Min into the video and it dropped again. Everything on iMac is good, firewall off, no file sharing, no password screen saver or sleep, wake on Ethernet on, never sleep enabled. Airport Express up to date, everything on Apple products. Yet ATV continues to drop Home sharing. Time to hit RESTORE again as done previously for the umpteenth time!!!

I've read through much of this but there is one thing that I can't seem to make sense of....I got mine for Christmas and it worked perfectly. I took it to a friend's house for a few days, connected it to his network, no problem and I used it last night there and was able to use airplay mirroring, no issues. I brought the unit home today, plugged it back in and reconnected it to my network and I now have all the issues described. The homesharing keeps dropping after seconds, it won't connect to netflix or to my music in the cloud, but it shows the ATV connected to my network wirelessly with a strong connection. I can't even restore factory default! It says it has to download something, but then it can't connect so I can't figure out how to reset it to factory defaults. I tried changing the time zone to manual and automatic, no change and I've adjusted the sleep function. I think it's also odd that when I use the "remote" app that lets me control my ATV from my iphone 4s or Ipad 2, the connection comes in and out without me adjusting anything. Sometimes my home network sees is and sometimes it doesn't. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I'm seriously kicking myself for ever having moved it!

Not sure if this is the same, but figured maybe someone here can help as I am having a Home Sharing issue. My issue isn't that it drops out. When it's working, it works fine, no drop out. It's getting it to work that is my issue. What I mean is, if I sleep my ATV2 over night, generally the next day it will not recognize my library. However, I've found a fix; reboot the ATV2. Once I reboot, it recognizes my library right away, every time. That seems ludicrous to me that I need to reboot ATV2 to get it to work. Incredibly tedious. So what could be causing that? Why would it not recognize it initially, but then upon reboot it would recognize it right away. It's thoroughly frustrating.

Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, just tried doing exactly what I described above and it again worked. All morning I could not get my library recgonized on ATV2. Tried rebooting computer. Tried restarting iTunes. Nothing worked. Just rebooted ATV2, my library showed up immediately. Weird. And frustrating.

Cory, I have the same issue.  When it's working, it works perfectly - no drop outs.  My issues is that, despite saying it's connected to my wireless network, it doesn't appear on the remote app for iphone.  I can still control it with its own remote control, but it won't stream anything or show up.  No idea why.  It seems to drop out when it or the mac goes to sleep.  It'll be fine one evening, then vanish the next morning.  Incredibly annoying, especially when you want to show people how good it can be....occasionally!  Sigh.  Hope they fix it soon with an update.  So odd.

Cory and Matthew

I have exactly the same problem: when the ATV is connected to my router wirelesslyand I'm using it to stream music via Airplay it will drop out after a time--not always the same. If it drops out, or when it goes to sleep overnight, there is no sign of the connection at the ATV end when I try to reconnect. Stopping and starting Home Sharing on iTunes and/or the ATV makes no difference; restarting iTunes or the PC makes no difference; only rebooting the ATV restores the connection. Then it will work just fine until it sleeps or Aiplay drops and around we go again.

I solved this problem early by connecting the ATV to my router by ethernet cable rather than by wireless. Now it always seems to pick up the connection when it has been asleep. Very occasionally--for instance when there's an update of the OS--I try the wireless thing again, but the problem recurs so I go back the ethernet connection. I'm lucky I can I suppose.

I've never had trouble streaming video over the internet to the ATV (say from the iTunes store); I did once have trouble streaming from iTunes on my computer--the program stopped after about 10 minutes and it took a while to restart it. But it was while I was testing the wireless connection. When I plugged in the ethernet cabnle it all worked happily.

I have also downgraded the OS on my ATV to 4.3 to get around an Airplay problem (needing to stop and restart Airplay to get any sound) documented in this thread https://discussions.apple.com/message/17212201#17212201.

Like Matthew I have also discovered problems with the remote app on both an iPhone and an iPad. It will work happily but then suddenly will not be able to find the connection. Restarting the app makes doesn't help; I can fix it only by restarting the iOS device. So, for example, last night I wanted to stream some video through an iPad app to the ATV, but it refused to see the ATV until I restarted the iPad. Then it worked flawlessly.

Go figure.

My layman's analysis of these posts is that there's really a whole range of problems with connectivity of the ATV being set out here--people are not all talking about the same problem. Although it does seem that the ATV will remain pretty happily connected to the internet in most circumstances and the issues and solutions here are about Home Sharing connectivity. I say again: I'm a layman, but that does tend to suggest a Home Sharing software problem in iTunes or the ATV.

Sadly for anyone who reads this, my relatively low level technical knowledge means the only way I'll find a solution is if I luck on it. But, given the apparent expertise of some of the posters, I retain an certain optimism that a solution will appear.

I've said this before, though: experts should not having to be searching for clever setting in the bowels of routers or software firewalls to make this thing work. Apple sells it on the basis that you can take it home, plug it into a power outlet, connect it to home sharing and, hey presto, it will work. There's 41 pages of posts here that say it doesn't. That's probably not quite good enough on Apple's part.

It seems to me the problem is exacerbated by Apple. We posters have no idea whether Apple is on to this; there may well be many earnest geeks in Cupertino tearing their hair out trying to find the bug and every bit as frustrated as we all are. Alternatively, as some of the unhappier posters here suggest, the said geeks may be cacking themselves laughing knowing it will never work and will soon be superceded. I'm a kind soul and would incline to the former view.

Even though the ethernet-connection-solution works for me, I'll keep following this post. It's impressive seeing how much time people are prepared to give up to finding and sharing solutions.

I think I solved it. No drops since Jan 15. Everything I'm using is Mac at this point. I took the Airport Express and factory default it. Set up my wireless network again as straighforward as possible and all is well. Mind you there is no port forwarding, MobileME, Back to Mac, SNPS, Airplay, Printer Sharing. Just your routine setup. ATV2 is happy. No drops, fast loading and streaming "G" from the old first gen INTEL iMac. It's the 18th and still no sudden Home Sharing Drops anymore. I guess that fixes it. I don't want to enable anything else at this point.

My issue is slightly different than everyone else I believe. It seems, if I've narrowed it down correctly, that my ATV2 will lose it's connection if I have the screen saver going while streaming music. Any ideas on this one? The ATV2 will still have it's power on, but my TV screen will go blue (indicating no signal). Restarting the ATV2 fixes it (down and menu till the power light strobes) but only for me to turn off the screen saver. My plasma would prefer the screen saver rather than the album art flipping back and forth.