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.

it's worked for me too.. this has been bugging me for months !

I put my ATV3 back to wireless from wired ét Violá - no homeshare issues now for 3 days.

what bugs me about all of this is that I recall putting my old ATV2 onto a wired network to resolve wi-fi issues.. now it looks like ATV3 has the opposite problem. Regardless, I wish Apple would test things like this a bit better, before they release their updates on the unsuspecting world.

Yes wireless, or never sleep wired

No solution for me.....come on Apple do something

Your script has been quite helpful, many thanks.  Here's a suggested patch though

--- homesharing-keepalive.rb.orig     2012-08-02 10:55:13.000000000 -0700
+++ homesharing-keepalive.rb     2012-08-02 10:55:13.000000000 -0700
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@
   puts "Home sharing is broken.  I am going to restart iTunes."
   `osascript -e 'tell application "iTunes" to quit'` # exit iTunes
   sleep 10 # give iTunes time to shut down
+  cont = 1
+  while cont == 1 do
+      if `ps -eo uid,pid,comm | egrep 'iTunes$'` != ""
+           puts "iTunes failed to stop.. continuing loop"
+           sleep 10
+      else
+           puts "Ok, iTunes successfully stopped"
+           cont = 0
+      end
+  end
   `open -a iTunes` # start iTunes
   sleep 30 # to avoid getting into an iTunes restart loop
   puts "iTunes restarted"

I added this after several times coming home (or waking up) to a case where the script had attempted to stop iTunes and either due to it thinking devices were active homesharing, active downloads, or it asking for a password (to check for downloads) and there would be a cascade of tons of windows asking me to confirm the Quit or Don't Quit.

Now the script loops until you interact with whatever popup is there and iTunes actually does exit.  Then it continues on as before.  Plus you don't yank it out from under an active store download if you force quit.  I'm not a ruby coder at all, so please excuse any lame syntax.

I am so glad I found this thread.

I have two Apple TVs, one wireless one wired. Also have a few iPhones, iPads, iPod. Frequent problems with iTunes Home Sharing failing to respond on any Apple TV or iDevice, requiring restarting iTunes on my (headless) Mac Mini. Annoying to say the least.

So, tried the script from SilverSevens which reduced the incidence but not 100%, I still had one instance where Home Sharing would fail.

Continued reading the thread to the end, and found the later advice: Make sure any wired Apple TVs are set to never sleep.

So, wired Apple TV: Set it to never sleep, and guess what? 7 days straight now without one Home Sharing failure. The script has sat there silently without any output for that whole week.

Now, there's been a number of iTunes and Apple TV updates, so I'm not sure exactly which version it started failing, or whether it was when I added a second Apple TV to the network. But who cares! With the help of you guys, my networked home is back to its old self!

Thanks everyone.

Hi all just thought I'd thank you all for giving me some light reading while I've been sat awake since 3am.

So this problem has been bugging me so much for a few months now, it hasn't been so bad as I use splashtop desktop on my iPad so it's easy to port in to my Mac Mini (which I have as my media server) and reboot iTunes, even if I'm out of the house.

After reading nearly all the previous posts then seeing the potential, and now confirmed "fix" I thought I would try the method here.

My Set Up

Mac Mini using a shared library for all my media, photos sharing etc.

2 ATV2 In two bedrooms, wi-fi

1 ATV3 Main TV wired

3 iPads ( 2's and one 3)

3 iPhones

1 iPod touch

Right I thought, iTunes has bombed again after a restart about 6 hours ago I'll go make a coffee and try the ATV3 on wifi. Coffee in hand I unplugged the ATV3 while I had iTunes open on my TV. Just out of curiosity I tried to connect my iPad to the shared Video library without having restarted iTunes, and BAM, connected straight away no loading time it just connected straight up!

I find this hard to believe that Apple can't fix this if it does indeed appear to be a ATV3 sticking open ports. Wonder how many first time Apple users there are out there who are getting frustrated at something like this.

btw I have noticed the high number of time the ATV3 seems to flick on and off all the time. Is this the cause of the sticking problem I wonder ?

So I updated, but haven't turned on sleeping again. Can anyone confirm that the update effects this issue? I know Apple TV's aren't know to suck electricity but it would be nice to be able to turn sleep on again.

Anyone? I will try and findout tonight if no one else has.

Seems to work now

I have updated all my atv's

Connections goes to

16

14

13.......

Never seen a countdown before...

Morning....

Overnight...it says 11 :)))