Home sharing on iDevices not loading large library

Hello Lee,

I have the exact same problem. I have two iPads, one running iOS6 and the other iOS7. iOS6 is able to load the library as expected but not the iPad running on iOS7. The problem has to do with the size of your library.

Have a look at your "iTunes Music Libary.xml" and the "iTunes Library.xml" files on the machine running iTunes. Most likely they are over 20MB in size. Therein lies the problem. Somehow the Music and Video app's both have problems parsing large xml files and in turn will timeout before completion.

You can easily test this. Sign on as a different user and create a new iTunes library, import a few items and start the Video/Music app on your iOS device. There is no need to restart, unplug etc. Home Sharing works as advertised when dealing with small libraries. By the way, the sorting problem is fixed in iOS7.

Changing the Mac's sharing name in System Preferences > Sharing worked for me. Discovered this trick from another discussion, see Re: ATV 3 Version 7.0 Home Sharing not woking with Yosemite and iTunes 12

First of all here's Apple's own page explaining both normal sharing and home sharing in detail including the differences:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2688

To turn off normal sharing go to "Sharing" in Preferences and untick "Share my library on my local network".

So far the difference for me on my Apple TV has been huge. I used to have to wait forever to see my music collection and now it's instant.

Hi,

it seems the problem is rectified in the latest iOS 7.1 update. Large libraries are now loaded as expected.

If you haven't yet update, I would recommend you do so. Just an educated guess, but I believe the table-space was increased on the iOS DB.

Cheers.

Strange, it's working on my iPad 3, iPhone4s and iPhone5s. But it takes approx 5 minutes to load.

> Can you tell me where you got the evidence for this assertion "that large libraries are now loaded as expected"?

Did you read my original post? You need evidence? Test it yourself. Again, see my original post.

I am sorry if the way I expressed myself upset you.

Your post said "it seems the problem is rectified". When I read this I dont understand that to mean that it "is" rectified. People often say on this forum something seems to be ok when they have heard that it is ok rather than than they have tried it and it works.

I have tried now several times to get this to work and my experience is the same as Lee Farber, it doesnt work however long you leave it.

I see that Lee has a 3 Tb libary and mine is somewhere over 2 TB. What size library do you have? Perhaps there are still upper limits causing problems.

My libray.xml is 58MB. On my iPad and iPhone it takes about 20 minutes to load the Music and Video apps first time and about 10 minutes each time I open the apps thereafter.

It's so frustrating.

I have turned off Home Sharing on all devices and Mac, quit all applications and shut down everythng, rebooted AirPort Extreme, and turned everything back on and started up Home Sharing.

Same performance. I'm using all the latest Apple devices and AirPort. Mac is 2011. Everything is up to date software and firmware-wise.

I sure wish they would fix this.

Same thing here. Since the upgrade from 7.0.6 to 7.1 loading the home sharing music library takes ages. On my iPod with iOS 6.x it is still very fast. I tested this with iTunes on my Mac and on a Windows PC. Same behaviour. My xml file is about 30Mb.

This was the status as I first realized the problem.

iPhone 4S with 7.1 - slow

iPad 3 with with 7.1 - slow

iPhone 5 with 7.0.6 - fast

iPod with 6.x fast

To make sure is is related to iOS I upated the 5S iPhone also. Bad idea. 😟. Now it is like this:

iPhone 4S with 7.1 - slow

iPad 3 with with 7.1 - slow

iPhone 5 with 7.1 - slow

iPod with 6.x fast

Waitung for the next update...

I've got the same issue. Library is 1.5 TB. Kids have iPad retinas. 2013 iMac i7. I even have the imac hardwired to my network for maximum speed (as opposed to wireless).

What kills me is sharing worked great...with a huge library...ON FIRST GEN IPADS. Now all our devices are latest greatest, sharing is broke.

7.1 hasn't fixed this for me and I've done all the restarting/unplugging/signing out. It's really kinda getting to me.

I've been having a love-hate experience of my Home Sharing on my Apple TV and my other IOS devices. I love it on my Apple TV (2nd and 3rd generation). However, on my iPad (1st generation, IOS 5.1.1) and iPhone 5S (IOS 7.1) it has been a constant struggle to get Home Sharing to work as it should.

Problems range from lengthy read times to inability to read my shared library. Then, when they do read my shared library, there will be misplaced or duplicate album artwork, or the sorting is not the way it was in my Macbook's library.

This problem bugs me the most on my iPad as I use it when I'm relaxing in bed. I don't use the iPhone to watch videos.

I've gone through every updates available, restored the IOS on my iPad, and followed several forums on the subject and have not got a satisfactory solution to date. So, I'm still waiting for Apple to REALLY address this issue. Its enough to make one look at the competition.

Philip S

Same problem here on muiltiple iDevices under iOS 7.1. Load times are so long it's not worth it. Was working OK before the last update (intermittently slow). I have about a 150GB library.

I think the potential of content sharing (even with Apple TV) is great, but Apple is clearly not interested in a a flawless user experience. There is nothing like settling down with a group to watch a movie and it just doesn't work. It's embarrassing how often it happens.

Unfortunately, this is the issue that will forever plague home sharing. Apple tech has proved to be very uninterested in resolving this problem. The home sharing failure and systematic meltdown of support in this area is indicative of their new negative direction. Yes, I love my Apple products, but I'm not liking Apple after Steve Jobs-- this is the prevailing sentiment held by many critics. All good things must end. I mean, there is no reason in the world that home sharing worked seamlessly with old Apple iPads and iPhones, but now falters on new devices and OS's. No reason...other than a lack of customer understanding and an unwillingness to capture the old Jobs attitude of perfection. It has been well-established on many threads, in many discussions-- home sharing takes at least 10 minutes to load an average-sized library, is easy to lose its connections, does not perform to standard. Still, after many OS updates, thousands of people continue to struggle with the same home sharing connection issues, issues that did not exist with the earlier OS versions. Coincidence? Conspiracy? My only solace is that Apple TV connects no problem and within seconds. Okay, my kids are relegated to televisions to watch anything from our iTunes library. But am I to believe that my iPhone and iPads running new OS's, perfectly updated, cannot load a library and play movies off of my home sharing server the same way Apple TV can? For shame....

That's just it. Does Apple even care? This problem has been going on for quite a long time. And unfortunately after many months (years) of threads, support calls, e-mails, and disgruntled e-mails Apple has done little to affect the home sharing problems, even after the last OS update. I'm not sure they have any intention of improving the home sharing experience on Apple PDA devices (ie iPads, iPhones, etc.). For now, your only alternative is to sit and waste 10-20 minutes of your life each time you want PDA devices to connect to home sharing. Still, you have to ask yourself, why does Apple TV pick up your library fast and easy, but not your PDA devices? Weird.