Apple TV homesharing keeps dropping out ...

I am also having same problems. I have iMac, and apple tv2, all on wifi.. I select Apple TV in the iTunes top menu, turn on Apple TV, it takes awhile but the libraries load up. I can select a movie but of If i pause the movie and come back to it later Apple TV will not find the libraries again. Same with the music libraries. Everything seems to time out. any answers ?

Join the club. Last night I tried to watch a movie from ATV and my Home Sharing and it wouldn't load. When I selected "Computers" it just showed the message telling me that I had to login to iTunes with Apple ID "xxxxx@xxxxxx.com". I said screw it and chose Netflix and watched about 3 hours of a TV show.

When I came out of Netflix I selected Computers again and there were all my videos in the thumbnails along the top! So I thought, OK, it has decided to actually see my iTunes library again. So I selected one and tried to play it, and of course it didn't. Just stayed on the "Loading xxxxxxxx's Library".

So apparently over time Apple TV and iTunes Home Sharing will partially reconnect themselves.

Just plain weird.

My problem from 2 firmware's ago is back.

I did not have drop outs mid-movie. My problem was the number of connections to my iTunes server would sprial out of control - I have multiple ATV 2's and 3's - and my ATV's would not be able to connect to the iTunes server (on Windows).

Previously, when I executed a "netstat -an" on my iTunes server I would see 100's of open connections from my ATV 3's. I had to shut down iTunes and start it back up to clear the issue. It would return the next day as the connections built back up. In October I updated to 5.0.2 (I think) and the problem went away. After upgrading to the latest firmware the problem has come back. Last night I saw the same issue - lots of ESTABLISHED connections on my iTunes server on port 3689.

ARGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! This is getting frustrating. I don't really feel like downgrading as I have quite a fe ATV's in my house.

All brand new Apple kit - Apple TV - 27" iMac - BT hub that's worked fine for years. I have to reboot everying on a daily basis otherwise ATV cannot see my computer, iTunes pauses mid play or SWOD.

This is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. If I had bought this hardware from a shop 10 years ago, I could take it all back and demad a refund or get someone to fix it. These problems happen everytime Apple updates its software.

TEST YOUR SOFTWARE BEFORE RELEASING IT IN THE WILD & SORT THIS HOPELESS MESS OUT.

or am I being unrealistic in expecting anyone from Apple to actually bother to read their own forums?

Not sure if this helps had a similar problem with my Apple TV when playing music from ipad it would play ok till the screen saver kicked in 5 mins this is since the latest update on Apple TV was fine before after a bit of head scratching I turned the screen saver on Apple TV off and this fixed the problem. In the past music would play then after 5 mins screen saver would kick in pics as well now I just start music on ipad then click on slide show in pics this has fixed the issue for me. Hope this helps

Thanks for the suggestion (and apologies for the obvious anger in my original post)

I've just set the screen saver to none and left iTunes running. Gone back and checked and it had paused 33 seconds into the fourth song. Pressing pause again continued the track from where it had stopped (which normally fails) - however, I had been out of the room for a while so it might have 'caught-up' whilst it was left alone, whereas normally I woud get the SWOD when trying to un-pause a stuck tune.

Unsolved.

Similar problem here I think.

Apple TV 2..hard wired connection. Haven't had any problems ever with it.

Did the latest update the other night..but then didn't get a chance to use it till last night.

Watched a movie on Netflix..no issues. After went to stream some music, halfway through the song the unit shuts off..for maybe five seconds, then comes back on. Only to do it again..and again..and..

Is this because of the software update?

Will rolling it back fix the issue?

It amazes me that people still post "me too" comments. These issues everyone has been having have been the same issues for over 2 years now, going back to the original ATV.

I have (3) ATV's; one ATV2 and two ATV3's, connected ethernet cable to same home network with iMac running iTunes. Once I configured my settings for my iMac, the router and ATV's, I have not had one issue for over a year now (with several software updates). No drop outs, pausing, lost connection with Home Sharing, nothing. Works great.

What settings did you configure on the iMac?

My ATV3 is wired but my Retina MBP is wifi. And I have a System Preference > Energy Saver setting of Computer Sleep set to Never when on Power Adapter.

I believe the problem comes from iTunes as the computer no longer appear on my iPhone's Remote app (after 30ish minutes), but the ATV still does

Maybe you'd be kind enough to share those settings with the rest of us seeing as how you've got it all figured out?

Solution for Apple TV 2, Xfinity router, Ethernet connection and Home Sharing

Sure Clark, I'll post the link to my original post from last year.

Quite a "solution" - I wonder, why nobody else thought about it...

lol....yeah Siamless. I, like everyone else, had problems so I researched the various threads to see what others had success and tried that.

One of the problems is Apple not explaining how Home Sharing works so one example was people" discovering" if you leave your computer on and iTunes open, you don't loose your connection with Home Sharing. Mind blowing. This then lead to the "discovery" of changing your computer setting so that your hard drive doesn't sleep. Common sense but there are users who just want to plug it in and have it work.

Not one click of the button fixes it. I shared what I found worked and continues to work for me even through software updates.

Well I am glad to hear this works for some of you. It does not solve the problem for me.

Actually the Mac should not disconnect any data stream when "Wake for network access" is checked under Preferences->Energy Saver; if the Mac is asleep it should wake.

This function does not seem work under 10.8.2.; there should be a fix in v. 8.3. - thanx to all guys like you who spent hours to do Apple's job.

I am with you, Jerry.

Ref:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4160837?answerId=21153863022#21153863022