Q: None of my iDevices can read my iTunes library after an hour of availibility. When I first start iTunes I can read the library, but after about 30 minutes my iPad's and iPhones can no longer access the library. I see it in the shared list, but no access.

Up to 7 hours and still it connects without a problem.

Hey David,

I just recently went for 3 days without a problem.  I'm convinced the issue is not resolved in the new appletv update.  I even rebooted the mac mini and I'm already back up to 30 connections.  It will be toast in a few-three hours.  My cycle for the last 2 days seems to be 6-12 hours, but if I interact with the appleTV, it prolongs it.

If you're up for it, and assuming you are on a mac, try typing this into a terminal and let me know the number that it spits back:

netstat -n | grep -c 3689

You can launch a terminal by hitting command-spacebar; typing terminal; hitting enter

77

What does that mean?

It means you are 33 away from death

That's a bad sign.  It should be 0 or a few.  That is the number of connections you currently have to home sharing.  What we've found is that when that number crosses 100, it starts failing on new connections.  You should only have 77 if you have 77 devices connected to your home sharing (maybe 38.5, if we assign two to each).

thanks!

Well I have 3 ATVs and 3 computers.

I see whenI open a shared library on a client computer the number goes to 78 - then back to 77 when that Itunes (on theclient) is closed.

Interesting.  That may explain why I noticed it going up and down by one last night.  I had my mac air launched and itunes up, which made a HS connection.  It must be something specific about all or some appleTV to itunes connections that don't get released.

When you updated your appletv, did you also restart itunes?

OK - more info

Connected 1 ATV to the shared library - just by getting to list the songs

The number went from 77 to 81.

Navigated away from the shared library to the main screen on the ATV and the number went to 80.

List songs etc - back to 81.  Navigate away = 80  Reproducible

I keep getting 0, even after starting an AppleTV and beginning a program.

OK - 3 ATVs and 2 computers sharing same library 

Number is now 87

OK - its seems that teh ATVs are not letting go of the connection even when they sleep because when I sleep them the number stays the same.  If I restart the ATV then the number drops by 3 - one data point.

Late last night I turned on one of my ATVs that I rarely use.  And it told me I had a software update.  I had installed this update earlier in the day - at least I thought I did, maybe there was a connection issue halfway through downloading it or something.  Anyway I reinstalled the update - and checked that the other 2 were up to date.

I also stopped and started homesharing before retiring for the night.

This morning the number is at zero and sharing to one of my computers and or one of the ATVs worked instantly and the number stayed at zero.

Adding another computer ot the share did not change the number.

I'll keep an eye on it today, but maybe - after the ATVs are updated stopping and starting homesharing "resets" everything.

Hope it works out for you.

I logged out and back in yesterday and rebooted the iTunes machine and appleTV before bed last night.  I had two restarts overnight due to CLOSE_WAIT connections building up.  : /

6 Hours now with a few opening and closing shared library on remotes and the number is still ZERO

So things are still going great on my end. Proably like the last fluke. I don't want to restart my itunes to find out if it really is a fluke though. .

Still going well here also