Home sharing on iDevices not loading large library

I have chosen to use PLEX. It loads my huge iTunes Library of Music, Movies and TV Programmes onto my iPad Air in a few seconds and playback is flawless. This iOS Music - iTunes XML database parsing bug is embarassingly inexcusable when other, non-Apple, iOS devs can make it work effortlessly. It seems cynical but I think Apple just want us all to subscribe to Music Match with a "to hellll" attitude toward customers who don't want to pay over and over to play music they have already paid for.

@Neal Jackson: "I have chosen to use PLEX. It loads my huge iTunes Library of Music"

Plex is great for movies. I don't find Plex to be the best solution to the large music library problem. In my opinion Plex works, but just.

If you know how to create a static address (if I can do it anyone can), I would suggest using the App, iSub ($5) and Subsonic ("Donation" $20-$30) as your server.

I can also suggest the App, ServeToMe - StreamToMe ($5ish). Setup correctly, ServeToMe will capture and play your iTunes Playlists.

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Good to know I am not the only one with this issue. I have ' normal' iTunes Library of 700 GB (music, movies, tv shows, apps) and the .xml file is only 13.4MB. I have this issue on my iPhone5, iPad 3 and my wifes iPad Mini and iPhone 5s. Apple TV works fine.

I tried a lot...Clean install of OSX on my Mac Mini. Clean install of iOS on my iPad. Reset my Time Capsule and Fritz!Box router. Nothing.....I also have a MacBook Pro with a small iTunes Library (5GB and iTunes Match). That one loads very fast, so it indeed is a 'large library issue'.

Same problem here. Mac mini server set up to share on home network, running Mavericks. IPad running ios 7.1.1. iTunes XML file is only 30.8 MB . Will not load. Ugh. Horrible. Thanks for the other suggestions folks.

I have a 1.5tb library on an external hd attached to my mini, and could not get home sharing working on my ipad retina. The red circle would creep around to some random point and then give up. Somtimes, a list would appear (without album art), but would be unplayable. Having read this thread I fished out an old first gen iPad to see what it would do and it loaded the library and was playing my music perfectly after a minute or so. Like other posters here I couldn't understand what the problem was with iOS 7 - the remote app showed the same library contents right there on the same screen flawlessly, and I had no problems using it to play my music through an apple TV.

Now I'm sitting here looking at an old 1st Gen iPad that works perfectly and an iPad retina with the latest iOS update that is utterly incapable of doing what it says on the tin. And may I also point out that Apple's home sharing troubleshooting page makes not one mention of the fact that the latest iOS update is useless for streaming iTunes libraries of any significant size. I am not alone in suspecting that this might be a not particularly subtle attempt to encourage owners of large music libraries to give up on trying to manage them ourselves and throw ourselves at the mercy of their rubbish iMatch service. Not on your life.

Sadly, it doesn't work for me either. Not sure of the size of my xml file but when loading on either of my two iPhones it only gets halfway. I tried installing Audiotap on the older iPhone, the one that I plug into my receiver, and installed Mediatap on my laptop (a Dell, not a Mac), and that doesn't work either. I guess I am just not going to be able to ever share my music with my devices. It's worked once or twice but never consistently. Truly frustrating!

Here's hoping for ios8. My library is about 60GB of music. My videos are elsewhere (I planned to bring them to itunes, but that's on hold now). This library only loads if I quit all other apps first. If any other app is open it almost certainly won't load (it will occasionally).

Dr dre is on the case!

The most embarrassing aspect of this is that the team responsible for this home sharing disaster would probably only need to walk across the hall in Cupertino and ask the guy who's made the Remote app how he accomplished to load large libraries in no-time. It really beggars belief.

I landed on this thread tonight because my library would not load into my AppleTV 3. I could select the library - and wait - and eventually I could select "movies" - and wait - and eventually I would see the titles but no artwork (just the default ticket) and none of the movies I selected would load or play. I made sure the software on my Mac Mini and Apple TV were up-to-date (they were). I restarted both devices. Nothing. Grrrr.

I was unable to watch a movie tonight and had to resort to - old school DVD's!

Disgusted and ******, I logged AppleTV out of Home Sharing. A few minutes later I logged back and guess what? IT SUDDENLY ACTED LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO! The response was quick and the artwork re-appeared. The movie even played! Oh joy! Now I can watch a movie another night.

Give this a try folks. Good luck.

All these iTunes and iOS point releases over the last few months and the sharing bug is still being ignored. HOW BIG IS THAT ITUNES BUG BACKLOG APPLE? Please, fix it. I have a massive library and the only content I can access is iTunes purchases (via Purchased Videos). Such a great feature (when it used to work). Blech.

Shared iTunes to iPad is just completely broken in the latest IOS. If it ever does load, it shows flickering content as it struggles to update play counts. It shows only partial episodes from TV series and leaves out the rest. Today I just watched it show me a full library, then slowly delete everything onscreen and close itself to show me "No Content". Incredibly bad software.

Same problem, after 10-15 minus loading, works fine, but if close and open again later, same loading times, I will try Plex, it is a SHAME that Apple is not taking care of this, hope that in the fall when Yosemite and IOS 8 arrived will fix this terrible problem!

Yes, very disappointing that Apple has not fixed this issue.

To get around the issue, I use iTunes Remote and play the music off my computer instead of relaying through the device.

You can also look at Subsonic, it's a fully featured music player, streaming app/server. Subsonic is feature locked, but being open source there is a feature unlocked build - you can google for it.

This shouldn't still be an issue, but clearly it is. I could come up with a million reasons why Apple has neglected this problem. Regardless, I'm looking for a work-around. Are there any music players for the iPhone that will connect with my iTunes home sharing outright? I noticed there were some that set up their own service. I would be open to those as well if anybody has experience with them or can make recommendations.

Thanks for your time.

JH

While reading this on my ipad, I opened iTunes and started downloading my library ion iTunes on my iMac, via wifi. I gave up after the 'clock' moved so slowly. So I then fired up the Plex app I'd installed and never tried out. It's a media sharing app I have on my smart tv, iMac, iPhone, and iPad. I was amazed that it took less than 5 minutes for me to start listening to music residing on my iMac.

Don't know if Plex will meet your needs, but it did mine!

https://plex.tv