Q: Apple TV 3 disconnects from home sharing

You will need a dual band 2.4 and 5 ghz router and set a number of ports to open. Apple's AirPort Extreme has the riht ports preset but apple list what ports should be open on their web site (tcp and udp ports). Atv3 works best on 5ghz. BT home hub 3 (supplied with infinity) is not 5ghz. We just bought the AirPort Extreme for £139 and everything works just fine. We have spent ages trying to fix this. It's a nightmare but if you have a few wireless devices in your home, 2.4ghz isn't good enough and it's also a crowded bandwidth (lots of your neighbours will use the same frequency which will cause interference). I'm afraid the only solution is to buy a more sophisticated router. The AirPort Extreme is a great product. I didn't want to have to spend more money but I had to to fix the problem. We spent a lot of time on the phone with BT and apple.

What worked for us is to configure our antivirus network intrusion settings to allow traffic from the static IP address assigned to the AppleTV!  YAY, 5 hrs later and a phone call with Apple Support!

I have this problem as well.  I have a MacMini with the latest OS and iTunes and 3 AppleTV3's.  When the connection is lost, I fix it by starting a movie on iTunes and then stopping the movie.  I do not close iTunes or restart anything.  The moment the movie starts on the Mac, the AppleTV's immediately see home sharing.  It totally looks like an iTunes issue, not notworking, or TimeCapsule.  I had this problem when they were wireless and now even when they are wired and plugged into the same switch.  I do not have time capsule.  I have tried all of the options listed...  No power saving on the Mac, no firewall, enable netcast on the router, updating all software and firmware, no IPv6.  I am going to see what I can do about a script that will start a short (5 second) movie every hour or so.

SoundForSound wrote:

 

Home sharing with the new Apple TV / iTunes update is just broke.

A year on, is this still the case?

My story:-

I've been using itunes on Windows Vista and 2 x Apple TV2 for 3 years with no issues with Home Sharing what so ever.

Roll forward to last week, I take delivery of 2 x Apple TV3 and guess what?  Both of them keep dropping and reconnecting the Home Sharing connection every few minutes.  Absolutely nothing has changed on the PC or itunes, except for updates, which are all the latest versions for itunes and ATV firmware.

So I dug an old TV2 out and guess what?  No dropping of the connection...at all...ever.  I can do a Top Gear (in HD) marathon all day if I like.

So the problem is definitely related to ATV3.  

Unlike the majority of other people, I am not prepared to change routers and rip my software configs apart just because Apple can't get their act together.  I'd rather live with 720p than put up with connection drops.

Apple, if you're listening, sort it out!

It really is very, very flakey.  I agree Igloo- and in my case absolutely everything is Apple from iTunes->iMac->wired ethernet-> Airport Extreme->ATV3.  It's just flakey- and when it drops in the middle of a movie it drains the enjoyment of the whole experience.  I can't imagine ANYONE familiar with these types of problems every buy the *big* Apple TV if/when it ever comes out.  At least we're only into this for $99 (ea).

The thing is, I work with computers all day at work, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is muck about trying to get a 'plug and play' device to actually 'play'!  I just want to flop into the couch and watch my itunes content.

I do like Apple products but boy can they be a real love / hate relationship at times!

Anyway, tonight out of curiousity, I rigged up my ATV3s to ethernet after all the suggested wifi fixes failed.  I dug out my old 10/100/1000 netgear switch, hooked the modem's 1000mbs port to it and also the PC's, only to discover ATV3 is only 100mbs!! What is that all about? They boost the definition to 1080p but still only give it a cheap arse 100meg ethernet port?  So the modem and PC are chatting gig-e style and ATV3 is lagging with a tenth of the speed. Honestly, 100mbs in 2013 is a joke. Then again, it is only 100 bucks I suppose.

Anyway, enough of my moaning, it worked.  No other changes made.  I've watched 3 1080p Top Gear shows back to back with zero dropping.

So now I have to buy some powerline adapters as I'm in a rented house and can't drill holes for cat5.

So to summarise, ATV3 can't cope with HD content over it's wifi.  It only manages 37mbs, which again is pitiful for a device designed for high def.

What's the betting Apple will release ATV4 soon, with 1000mbs?  I always thought they were on the side of enthusiasts but they're just milking us with drip fed updates like the other ruthless computer companies.

Hi All,

Wanted to chip in with my experience,  I am currently on my 3rd AppleTV 3g after Apple agreed to replace it even though it was out of warranty. The replacements have been the same model as the original, not the newly released AppleTV3,2.

Anyway, in all cases, as with others in this thread, the AppleTV3 works great until I update to the latest version of the OS! It turned out my original AppleTV was part of the batch with bad wireless.  They replaced it FOC!

Anyway, in both cases, I get them home, they worked great with the pre-installed version of iOS.  5.1.1 As soon as I upgrade them to the newest version, 5.2.{whatever} the issue with Home shareing kicks in. 

What I can't tell and dont have the programming skills to dive into, is whether this is the AppleTV version of iOS upsetting Homesharing in iTunes or whether it is just pure and simple the AppleTV!

Either way, I cannot accept leaving my AppleTV on an old version and clearing the don't update button each time I turn it on.  At some point, I will click the "Update Now" button by accident and put myself back in the situation you are all suffering.  Having to downgrade each time is not viable.

I tried to explain the problem to the Genius, he was truly helpfiul and offered to have me bring in my AppleTV, MacMini, everything and test it out in store to recreate the issue. - It just seems like a lot of effort to resolve an issue introduced by a software update.

To the latter threads, I don't think the networking speed is the issue here.  HD streams do not require 37Mbps let alone 100 or 1000.  Yes the movie would cache locally faster, but it should not impact streaming. 

Beware Powerline in my experience. they have a theoretical speed of 50/100/200Mbps but after signal degredation, error correction and other protocol overheads, you get nowhere near this.  Your mileage may vary but it's all dependant on the wiring in your home between the outlets you want to use.

Key message: Apple needs to reverse the issue it introduced in the later updates whcih triggers the AppleTV to drop wireless connection during homesharing.

You can "downgrade" the OS to upgrade your experience using the instructions here:  http://discussions.apple.com/message/20008613

Discussion on the replacement program and which Serial Numbers are included can be found here:  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4973747?start=0&tstart=0

Even though I, like most ATV owners, am no longer having this problem, I was watching this video about the next release for Apple TV (the one that incorporates some bits from iOS 7) v5.4, and saw at about the 7:40 mark a statement that HomeSharing and AirPlay are a lot more reliable in the new version.

What's new iOS 7 for Apple TV

Thought I'd share with everyone here. No word, of course, on when 5.4 will be available, but it sure does seem that, as always, Apple is listening and working on problems even when they don't publicly acknowledge them. I'm hoping this release gets out before this fall!

I tried LOTS of stuff to fix this same problem. I will not mention all of them here.

What matters now is how it was fixed. I simply had to connect my computer (Windows 8) on the Ethernet cable. Home Sharing stopped disconnecting and ATV could play a movie for as long as I wanted.
There was no real problem with ATV. The problem is between iTunes and the wireless connection I had (interference maybe).

Hope it help others solve their problem.

its march 2014 and i am still facing this issue of wifi getting disconnected after 5-10 minutes of watching my itunes video or imatch or youtube or pratically anything on my apple tv, which was purchased by me yesterday itself. i think it is something to do with the latest ios 6.1 for apple tv.

You will need a dual band 2.4 and 5 ghz router and set a number of ports to open. Apple's AirPort Extreme has the riht ports preset but apple list what ports should be open on their web site (tcp and udp ports). Atv3 works best on 5ghz. BT home hub 3 (supplied with infinity) is not 5ghz. We just bought the AirPort Extreme for £139 and everything works just fine. We have spent ages trying to fix this. It's a nightmare but if you have a few wireless devices in your home, 2.4ghz isn't good enough and it's also a crowded bandwidth (lots of your neighbours will use the same frequency which will cause interference). I'm afraid the only solution is to buy a more sophisticated router. The AirPort Extreme is a great product. I didn't want to have to spend more money but I had to to fix the problem. We spent a lot of time on the phone with BT and apple.

thanx for your reply. I am currently using following router -

AZTECH HW550-3G 4-Port Wireless-N Router plus HSPA Support for 3G Mobile Broadband is an IEEE802.11n wireless broadband Router with HSDPA/HSUPA 3G support.

Do you think it would not be compatible with the apple tv 3rd generation?

If not can i rather go in for a airport express to support my apple tv?

I would recommend buying the airport unless your router is dual band. The airport is a great piece of technology even if you don't have Apple TV. It's not apple being difficult, with so many wireless devices now in our homes, the routers have to be more sophisticated. It's a bit of additional expense but well worth it. I don't know if your router is dial band, if it is you will still have to configure the ports. Apple can help you do this. You can ring tech support in the first 30 or 40 days of buying a product from them for free. The benefit of using  the airport is that you plug it in and Apple TV works straight away with your iTunes account.

1. By airport, i presume you mean apple express though online i found that airport allows 50 users and express allows 10 users. If they are different products, then only express is available in my country.

2. My current router is dual band as it has two arials on it.

3. I am in uae and there is no phone or chat option available from apple for this product. The only option apple gives me in uae is exchange which i have already done thrice. It would be great if i get some advice on configuring my router in this forum.

Or alternatively, shall i consider buying express.

One more thing i wanted to be clear that if i buy express, can i add an extender from any other company in future to extend my wifi connectivity area.