Q: Unable to turn on home sharing - have tried it all
Hi all,
As I pull the last remaining hairs out of my head trying to fix this, I throw it out to the Apple community to hopefully help me here.
I cannot for the life of me, get home sharing to work between my Mac Mini (late 2012 model) and any iOS devices on my wifi network (iPhone 4, 4s and iPad 2).
And when I say I've tried it all, I mean I've tried it all:
* made sure my router settings were set as per Apple's requirements (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US);
* made sure my router wasn't using ipv6;
* deauthorised/reauthorised my machine;
* reset network settings on my iOS device;
* a plethora of other fixes on these boards from people who have been more successful.
You name it, I've done it.
I've ensured all devices are on the same network.
I've even tinkered with NAT and Firewall settings in my router as experimentation.
The problem seems to be network related. It's only when I turn wifi off and then on again on my Mac Mini, that the sharing option will appear on my iPad.
However when I select it, (ie Mac Mini Library), it attempts to connect, the spinning circle stops half way and then alerts me "Unable to turn on home sharing".
It's like something is preventing the connection.
Help me Apple Community, you're my only hope.
Mac mini (Late 2012), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)
Posted on Dec 29, 2013 2:46 AM
Hi guys,
Just checking in to let you know that I solved the problem! (Apologies it's taken me a couple of days to jump back on here).
And yes it was indeed a router issue Lecruz!
To those experiencing the same problem, do what I did (a helpful Apple tech actually talked me through this on the phone so I can't take all the credit...I also can't believe I didn't think to do it myself).
Set up a wifi hotspot using your 3G phone/ios device and connect your PC/mac and all other devices to that network instead of the one being generated by your router. You basically need to remove the router from the whole situation to see if it actually is a router issue. Process of elimination!
I found that once my iPad, iPhone and Mac mini were all connected to the wifi hotspot being generated by my 3G iPhone, the home sharing worked like a breeze!
Now as per my first post, I tinkered with everything I could see relating to firewall settings in my router to no avail so I bit the bullet and performed a factory reset of my router and set it up, as if for the first time.
And what do you know? After doing so, I tried the home sharing again, this time with all devices using the wifi network being generated by the newly reset router and it worked immediately!
I jumped into the router settings to see what was different and all I noticed was a speed setting you could nominate for your network (a setting I hadn't even thought would make a difference!). I'd had it set to 300mbs before the reset and after resetting, it defaulted to 140mbs (or thereabouts).
Currently enjoying home sharing! Hope this helps others.
Cheers all
Dan
Posted on Jan 5, 2014 2:12 AM