iTunes Home Sharing not working

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iTunes Home Sharing not working

I have an Apple TV purchased around a year ago and have the latest software update installed. I also have two Windows machines, one running Windows 7 64bit, and the other running Windows XP SP3 - both with the latest iTunes software version and Bonjour software.

Before I am told to "Buy a Mac", I already own one of those as well...an old PowerMac G5 tower.

iTunes on both the Windows machines appears to be missing some code somewhere concerning Home Sharing services.

To start off with, when I enter the Preferences panel, under the Sharing tab, it does not give me the option to "Look for Shared Libraries". Also the majority of the time (when opened) the panel does not give the standard "OK" and "CANCEL" buttons on the bottom of the window, even after a setting is changed.

Next, I have ensured that both machines, and the AppleTV are logged on to the same Apple ID account for Home Sharing.

The iTunes main windows does not show the Home Sharing option from the left hand menu bar of consisting of Devices, iTunes Store, and Music Library.

I was hoping that today's download of the latest update for iTunes would have fixed this problem, alas, it did not...

The last time my Home Sharing worked the way it should was in in my previous residence when I had my PowerMac G5 as the host to my Music Library. This same Windows XP machine was able to see the shared library, as well as the Apple TV. This was so long ago, I could not tell you what version of iTunes I was running then...

Any ideas, thoughts? Unfortunately I am now in a different state than my PowerMac, so I am unable to use it for troubleshooting purposes...

Just for the **** of it, I am completely restoring my Apple TV's settings in the hope that somehow this fixes the issue...however even I am doubtful that this will help the problem of the two computers not being able to share libraries with one another... -Dewyz1100

Apple TV, Windows 7

Posted on Nov 15, 2011 6:07 PM

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Answer 1

Dewyz1100 Author

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Nov 15, 2011 6:28 PM in response to Dewyz1100

Update - The restore of Apple TV did not help at all, but temporarily disabling my AVG anti-virus software allowed my Apple TV to see my shared library on the Windows 7 machine...Now if I can find the magic combination of files to make exceptions for, I should have a recipe for success...maybe... 🙂

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Answer 2

p howard

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Nov 20, 2011 12:55 AM in response to Dewyz1100

this may be late in response but, I was having the same problem...

Apple devices work and normally the fix is basic and easy. I do not have nor work with Windows so this may not apply at all. Reboot all devices. Turn off and then on again with Home Sharing. Sometimes the devices need to look again to find each other.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

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Answer 3

Dewyz1100 Author

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Dec 4, 2011 10:42 AM in response to Dewyz1100

Problem solved, however not the way I would have preferred...

Turns out that I needed to disconnect the hardwired ethernet connection between my router and the Apple TV.

I my setup consisted of a traditional hardwired Linksys router, and a matching Linksys access point.

Both my computers were on the wireless network setup by the access point, and were able to communicate between each other just fine.

However, for whatever reason neither one would communicate with the AppleTV while it was hardwired to the router. Once I unplugged it, and assigned it to the same wireless network as the computers were on, it was able to see both computers without any problems...

Not too upset, seeing as how the AppleTV is only about a foot from the access point and router - so there are no signal strength issues. However, I would have preferred to keep the AppleTV on the hardwired connection...

Hope this comes in handy for anyone else with this problem...

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