Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
We've recently installed 35 Apple TVs in classrooms throughout our school. Everything works great except when the user clicks on the AirPlay Mirroring menu icon, to choose an Apple TV, the list that's produced is not in alphabetical order. They are in order in iOS but not OS X.
Does anyone know if it's going to be fixed?
Nobody here would know if Apple is going to change this unless Apple has annouced it. We're all just users here except for a new Apple employees to keep things flowing and a few to supply links to existing Apple help docs.
Did Apple ever say that the AirPlay Mirroring list was supposed to be in any particular order? If not, they may not think you are seeing a bug, just a difference between two code bases.
I can see how it would be handy in your particular use case to have them listed in a predictable order. Most of us see only a handful of candidates, so it doesn't matter much.
You should submit this as a feature request (or a bug report, if you will) through official channels.
I get that Apple doesn't announce a lot of stuff but there's a large possibility that another IT guy, implementing mulitple Apple TVs into classrooms, is frusterated by this same thing. And it's also possible that they may have contacted Apple about this already and can share their knowledge about it.
The fact of the matter is, if you're using an iOS device (iPhone, iPad), all AirPlay devices show up in alphabetical order. Using OS X 10.8.5, they're jumbled in a random sort making hard for teachers to find their Apple TV in a list of 50+.
I'll step aside now. Maybe you'll get lucky and one of those other school techs will come along. I've worked in educational IT support, but not recently enough to be relevant to your issue.
Does Apple still maintain an educational support channel where you are? Somebody there might be able to put you in touch with another school IT guy who has tackled this same problem.
OS X AirPlay Mirroring List of Apple TVs Not in Order
