Have to restart iTunes EVERY time I want to stream to Apple TV!

Assuming that your AirPort Express is not your main router, next time this occurs try restarting your main router.

And does restarting the router temporarily fix it or not.

There must be 100+ threads on this very topic here, general concensus is that the last update of Itunes or ios/atv broke something in Home Sharing, there are a dozen or so reported solutions which work for some but not others.

I fixed the problem for me by moving the atv's to wireless(everyting else wired), many of the solutions just dont make any sense to me but apparently work.

Have a look at some of the similar threads with a lot of replies for various supposed solutions, there is just too much to retype everytime ,If you can find one that works for you great, otherwise keep restarting itunes until/if they fix it.

So you move your set up from wired to wifi, and conclude it's homesharing that's broken, without even considering your wired network.

....many of the solutions just dont make any sense to me but apparently work

Doesn't that tell you, it's something different that's causing a problem for each of these users and not one specific thing (homesharing)

I totally understand what your saying church, but it is strange. I am not going to even read or post anymore about home sharing because there are so many problems. You have to admit since the last update, all of these problems "popped up". It could be something in the update, forcing everyone to change what worked before. Some people dont know how to change it. Im not a genius by any means, but I do know about networking. Before my homeshare would work with no problems, my solution was now I have to keep itunes open and or my computer awake. That wasnt the case before. My network doesnt need changing overnight. Other stuff I have (apple and others) were fine. Just homesharing I then had a problem with. So something was indeed changed. I do understand what your saying though.

I never had issues with AppleTV2 and 3 until the latest update. Unfortunately I now always have to restart itunes to stream media if the TV has been changed to another/channel or input. It really is strage as I cannot figure out anything else that has changed. (I thought maybe latest itunes but it's not that as I still have the previous version on a Mac Mini and that does the same.)

AC

Laxman25 wrote:

....... You have to admit since the last update, all of these problems "popped up"........

Not at all, once you have been around here long enough, you will realise it's the same after every update, and you can bet your bottom dollar someone will say, You have to admit since the last update, all of these problems "popped up".

Winston Churchill wrote:

Laxman25 wrote:

....... You have to admit since the last update, all of these problems "popped up"........

Not at all, once you have been around here long enough, you will realise it's the same after every update, and you can bet your bottom dollar someone will say, You have to admit since the last update, all of these problems "popped up".

I would normally agree with you but am scratching my head on this one....

My library and my eldest sons is always on, they are available under computers on all our non first gen Apple TV's whenever and under any conditions. The wife's Mac is a little older and doesn't support wake over wifi, it's always on, but often asleep, if we move the mouse slightly to wake it up, it immediately pops up on the Apple TV. My youngest son has a laptop and he's not always here, but when he is here and has his laptop on, his library is always available. I also use Apple TV's at my offices and don't have any problems (2 libraries, 2 Apple TV's)

If we had just one library and one Apple TV, I could perhaps accept I was an exception, but when I have 100% success with what are numerous possible combinations (this library on, that TV off etc), I find it very difficult to accept than it's anything but due to specific set ups.

WC, When I use the term Home Sharing it is perhaps a little oversimplified, it is quiet impractical and often overkill to continually restate the complete sequence of events that led me to 'a fix', however, I did not suddenly one day find a problem, switch to wi-fi and find all was well. There was significant investigation done on my part to try to find a solution. if by me saying I moved to wifi and it worked, others can move to wifi and have a fix, great. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel here, others much cleverer than me are looking at that...

I had a functioning setup over wired until approx 2 months ago with an ATV2 connecting to Imac library, I was at the time occasionally running some software that restarted itunes once finished which may have masked the problem if it was there, unlikely though. I purchased an ATV3 with a new TV, this upon installation required an ios update much the same time as the itunes update.

I noticed the white light on the atv3 flashing when it was asleep, this was not something i had seen on the atv2, Investigation suggested this was normal behaviour, I remain unconvinced of this.

from that point on 'Home Sharing' did not work until a restart of itunes, it would then work all night (6+ hours)

My mac was set to sleep over night, I tried turning that off-no difference, turned ip6 off-no difference, once it hangs other devices on the network are unable to see the itunes lib, iphone, ipad,MBP etc

Once the thing hangs, Netstat shows a massive quantity of open ports 100/150+ to each on/sleeping atv, a restart of itunes clears this lot. with wired, these connections start to build again, with wireless not so much.

looking back on here shows folks have had this problem in various guises since early 2011, apple by their own admission state the last update 'fixes some issues with Home Sharing', it seems it introduced some for me...

I am quite sure some peoples problems are down to underlying network problems however this is supposed to be 'Home Sharing' it shouldnt need a degree in computer science to configure, it should just work.

I am not about to pull my network apart to troubleshoot any further, between mac & atv's there are 2 x Giga/switches(netgear) and an Airport Extreme(bridged), the atv cable was plugged into the A.Ex no dice and now connects w/less to the same box and works fine...

I agree there must be something about specific set ups causing this.

However I think it is possible that the problem in some (not all) cases manifested due to a software update highlighting something in that setup that was not previously an issue.

I really can't figure out what has changed in my system to cause this other than the last AppleTV software update, and it happens on wifi or ethernet.

AC

I think that the statement that "homesharing should just work" is a little simplistic and an unrealistic expectation. Perhaps Apple are culpable in allowing people to believe that, but I'm not sure how they would fit this into their marketing strategy if they were to explain that networking may be a complex issue in some cases.
I believe it completely unrealistic to expect the Apple TV to work with iTunes in every combination of possibilities relating to networking. There can only be an assumption that it will work with a fairly standard set of common combinations. In saying that it would be impossible to describe what a standard set of common combinations was, because each manufacture of hardware and software is continually changing the features and the defaults offered by their products.
I also do not consider Apples statements, to confirm bugs or widespread problems with their software, but more a confirmation of tweaks, which may make it more compatible with some setups and perhaps less compatible with others.
I am not in any way disputing that users are having such problems, I just don't believe that putting the problem down to a bug or something that Apple should be working on for the next update is all that helpful. The Apple TV clearly works with the current version of iTunes in the vast majority of cases and I think users should be made aware of this, so that they do not just sit around unable to use their Apple TV, waiting for the next update to fix their problem, when it most likely won't do. I think it is important that they understand that many users have no such problems with their Apple TVs and therefore if they were able to find the root of their problems, they could also enjoy the Apple TV is in the same way. I'm not saying it will be easy either, because networking by it's very nature is not easy and isn't just affected by obvious settings, but all sorts of things including other software on their computers and unrelated household electronics as an example of just two.

WC,

I quite agree with all you write above, I get the impression you feel I am having a go at apple, this is not the case,certainly not intentionally.

I also do not consider Apples statements, to confirm bugs or widespread problems with their software, but more a confirmation of tweaks, which may make it more compatible with some setups and perhaps less compatible with others.

I didnt imply anything more than they changed something in Homesharing in the last update, exactly as you state

Homesharing to me means exactly that, if you were trying to run this in a corporate environment over multiple subnets with QoS throttling interfacing with AD authentication etc then I can see problems occurring potentially. However 2 devices from the same manufacturer running over Cat5 cable and through an Apple Wifi base/switch is in no way complex, it does not get much simpler, it is designed to do just that(or supposedly)

All I am getting at is some of the suggestions should not need to be done in a simple environment.99% of regular users will have absolutly no clue with IP6 so it should be left as is, opening ports through your router is madness for this application. any interaction with HDMI should not be happening, there is talk of anti virus software/firewalls, these things would/should cause a total failure not intermittent problems

A lot of users with problems, by their own admission have little network knowledge so it is doubtful settings would have been changed from default, the best thing I have read is from Alleycat Above

However I think it is possible that the problem in some (not all) cases manifested due to a software update highlighting something in that setup that was not previously an issue..

There are lots who have no issue, however there seem to be an increasing number of users who do as more & more posts in discussions show, admittedly anyone who has had cause to troubleshoot users knows that what they say they have/or havnt done is often nothing like.

If by our discussions we can help with workarounds this can only be a good thing.

Whilst you may have a simple setup in terms of an Apple router connecting your Mac and Apple TV, there are other factors that do impact up on this setup. Obviously software on your Mac is one of them, perhaps your airport is not your main router, there may be other things. Obviously there is something between the iTunes software on your Mac on the Apple TV that is different in your setup than it is in mine.

I take your point about homesharing on a home network as opposed to an enterprise situation, however I do also feel that a large number of people tend to go overboard on security and in many cases the home network becomes more than the "home" network.

And whilst I assume that alley cat's statement is likely correct, it is not the only explanation. It can't be ruled out that his previous version of iTunes became corrupt in some way and that when he installed the update, that some of the files in the update did not get written.

Out of interest have you tried creating a new user account complete with a clean install of iTunes and otherwise vanilla setup and seeing if you encounter the same issues.

Unfortunately, I don't get involved in these types of discussions as much as I used to. This is partly because much about networking is beyond my expertise, but probably more to do with the fact that some users become extremely protective, when you suggest that the issue maybe with their network rather than the Apple TV. I guess the latter is often at the back of my mind when I do get involved in these types of discussions and I end up coming across as only being here to defend Apple at all costs, which is far from the case, there are quite a few areas of the Apple TV I could quite willingly criticise.