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Home sharing will NOT allow sharing.

Home sharing in iTunes will NOT allow sharing. Can someone help

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 6:37 AM

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85 replies

Apr 30, 2017 11:15 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

I too have been having this same problem. For the past few months, I've been living w/o access to my home a/v library. Attached is a screen shot of my iTunes computers. You will see both of my Apple TVs are connected to the network.

User uploaded file

Yet, when i attempt to connect to my a/v library from either of the Apple TVs listed here, I'm met with a message "Turn on Home Sharing."


What's particularly odd is the way the "system" behaves sometimes. For example, I will start a play list in my iTunes library, playing only from my computer speakers; and as it's nearing the end, I will turn on my TV with the intent to watch something on HBO-Now, Netflix, or some other content provider. To my amazement, the play list is being cast to either or both of my Apple TVs [I have a Sony Surround Sound Receiver/Amp connected to the network too.] While that is happening, I attempt to access the audio library from the Apple TV to see if I can force-establish a connection from the client side, but with no luck.


I am running a Windows-10 server, and iTunes 12.6.0.100. My audio library is on the Windows Server; and, my video library is scattered across three NAS devices running Linux, all connected to and managed by my iTunes software. The Windows server and the NAS appliances are wired, and the Apple TVs are WiFi connected. I'm not sure of the time this problem began to happen. Was it after an iTunes upgrade? I don't know. What the heck is going on?


I've not seen any answers from Apple in this forum. If I'm stuck with this, I'm going to have to return to using Plex, which I'm not happy about as I'm used to the look-and-feel of iTunes. I also can access my entire audio library through my TV with the Apple TV / iTunes combo, which I'm not sure I'll be able to do with Plex.


Please help!

Feb 3, 2012 9:39 AM in response to spiritnmotion

No, someone cannot help unless you can describe in better detail the problem you are having.


Home Sharing works for most people. I, for example, have never had any problems with Home Sharing. It works perfectly across my desktop Mac, my MacBook Pro, my iPhone and my Apple TV.


One thing I can suggest is that you log in to your iTunes account and make sure that the devices you want Home Sharing to work with are actually authorized to do so.


To do that launch iTunes and select 'View My Account...' in the 'Store' menu.


On the 'Account Information' screen you will see a section called 'iTunes in the Cloud.' Within that section you should see the category 'Manage Devices' that will tell you how many devices are associated with that iTunes account.


Note: You can have up to 10 devices associated with an iTunes account but only five of them can be computers. Apple TVs do not count against the limit.


Click on the link on the right hand side that is labelled 'Manage Devices >' You will now see a list of the devices that are associated with that iTunes account.

Feb 7, 2012 4:20 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

I am also having trouble with home sharing. I followed all your steps and everything is set like it should be but my problem is I can only use home sharing on the I pad or the I phone if either the mac mini or the mac book pro is on and I tunes is on and either lap top or mac mini has to be on all the time that I am viewing a tv show or movie. Is this how it works? You always need a computer turned on with I tunes on. I was thinking you can just turn on your I pad and watch the movies you have in your I tunes library.... I was thinking it should work like Netflix you watch what ever is in your Que on what ever device is assocciated with it and dont have to have this tv on to watch it on that tv........Please advise ...Thank you

Feb 7, 2012 4:46 PM in response to rmrtcy

Yes, for Home Sharing to access a Home Shared library on a remote computer that computer must be turned on and iTunes must be running. It is what we call client/server relationship.


The server part is the computer holding the media. It must be turned on and the program serving the media, iTunes in this case, must be running otherwise no connection can be made. The client is the device or computer that wants to play the media. It doesn't hold any media itself so it must connect to the server to access the media files.


Netflix streaming is the same. You have to connect to the Netflix server to access their media. The Netflix server is a computer that is running all the time and is running server software that allows access to the media files, similar to how iTunes allows access to the media files in it's library.


If you don't want to leave a computer running all the time for Home Sharing then you need to make copies of the media on all your computers and devices so that they have a local copy. In this case, Home Sharing is not required.

Feb 25, 2012 12:54 PM in response to Gino Cerullo

They didn't specify the problem because it's not obvious. I, just like you, have never had an issue with Home Sharing before now. It just. doesn't. work anymore. My iMac & MBP are both authorized on my iTunes account, I reset the HS password & specifications, I updated iTunes on both products. Sometimes, after turning off HS & turning it on again, the icon just straight-up disappears, and sometimes, it *appears* to be loading your library, but it takes forever before it finally just stops without having loaded anything.


Personally, I wonder if this has anything to do with SOPA-type legislation. Obvi, HS has been set up specifically to allow users to share what they own in a very limited capactity which does not (necessarily) include "piracy", but there's nothing like a company fearing prosecution to induce the suddon revokation of previously granted rights and privilages.


Point is, it's not working. No need to assume user-error or talk down; dem ***** simply does not work, yo.

Mar 4, 2012 2:58 PM in response to spiritnmotion

I am having the save problems, tried all the advice in this and other threads and the problem persists.


I have a macmini running iTunes 10.3.1 and a macbook running iTunes 10.3.3. The mini could see the macbooks library, but the macbook suddenly one day could not see the mini's. Yes, they are on the same network - I am using screen share to operate them both. Yes, they are signed into the same account. I turned off home sharing on both and turned them back on and signed on again. Yes, I have reset the router. Yes, the little house icon shows.


And just for good measure, yes, I updated the mini's iTunes version to 10.3.3. And the same thing happens, the macbook will not load the library from the mini. (I wonder if the others who are having this problem have tried to load the other way, to see if its a two problem. It baffles me more that one computer can load the other's but not the other way around. And it baffles me that this is a recent problem.)


To review, I click on the shared library icon, it is loading and loading and loading, then there is nothing. It cannot see the other library. However, when I go to the other computer and do the same thing, it does load going that way. Baffling. And Frustrating.

Jul 28, 2012 4:28 AM in response to Gino Cerullo

I solved my problem.


My setup did not change. I have been using Apple TV for over a year now. So I start my computer and login to it (and iTunes is setup to automatically run on login). iTunes has home sharing on, and AppleTV is connected to the iTunes store with the same id. I can see my other devices if they are on from my computer.


Only thing changed was that I had turned on the Match, Cloud, and Airplay on the AppleTV. I was able to see my computer and stream the music from the computer. Then all of of sudden a week back, even with the computer logged in, AppleTV's home sharing on, it could not see my Computer in the "Computer" menu. It had a message to Turn on home sharing on my computer which is already turned on!!


After reading your (first) post above, I went to my account page and saw all my devices in the device list except for the AppleTV. This is in the iTunes site's account page not my computer. Shouldn't it appear on that list at least, so we could remove it? Anyway, after failing to work with deauthorizing an authorizing my computer, I went back to this account page and removed my computer, authorized my computer from my iTunes app, and vola AppleTV showed my computer.


But what I did notice was that there was something about 90 days before you could change the assignment or something on the devices list on the account page. Now I am wondering, do I have to do this after 90 days again to be able to see my computer on AppleTV?

Jul 28, 2012 5:32 AM in response to digigrapher

No, you won't have to re-do the steps every 90 days. That would be ridiculous.


That message about 90 days is a warning to people that they cannot de-authorize and re-authorize devices in intervals of less than 90 days. It is to prevent abuse of the system by which Apple allows people to switch devices. Apple just wants to prevent people from sharing accounts with friends and extended family by de-authorizing and re-authorizing devices at will or at anytime. By creating a 90 day restriction between intervals people aren't likely to de-authorize their own device to allow a friend's device to jump on their account temporarily.

Home sharing will NOT allow sharing.

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