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Level 1

20 points

Home Sharing (photos) not working

We listen to iTunes and watch photo slideshows through our Apple TV3 every day. The iTunes on my iMac streams to the Apple TV through Airplay, and I have Home Sharing setup on the iMac so I can view our photos as a slideshow as the music plays.

In the past few weeks, the Photos selection within Computers > *mycomputername* > Photos has not consistently been appearing. A restart of iTunes and the Apple TV usually resolves the issue.

Now (as of yesterday), if I see the Photos shared from the iMac and I select them and choose an album to watch, the Apple TV basically hangs (it progresses VERY slowly to load the preview/slideshow/screensaver screen that normally loads relatively quickly, with a spinning wheel). If I am very patient (not mashing the menu button out of frustration) I can get into a slideshow about once out of every ten tries before the Apple TV gives up and backs out to the main menu screen.

Is anyone else sufferign from this lag/delay? I noticed there was some update that ran a few days ago when I tried to use the Apple TV; is this an iOS issue due to a software/firmware update?

Additional info:

* I tried Home Sharing photos through a laptop instead of the iMac. This exhibited the same issue. Both the laptop and the iMac are running Mavericks.

** I tried streaming a movie through Home Sharing off the iMac and it works almost instantly, without any issues.

Posted on Mar 16, 2014 8:13 AM

43 replies

Jun 12, 2014 1:06 PM in response to Ken Peck

Same issue here with me 14,567 iPhoto (9.4.3) photos shared through iTunes (11.2.2) on ATV 3 (6.1.1).

Weird thing for me is that when sharing the entire 14,567 photo library, I can see all the "EVENTS" no problem and they load quickly and slide shows within individual events play no problem. But when clicking on the "PHOTOS" to try and see all photos at once, i get a spin for about 2 minutes, it shows the black squares, then it hangs for about 5 minutes with no activity and then it crashes back to the main ATV 3 home screen. Never had this issue before the 6.1.1. ATV update.

In addition, I have no issue viewing and slide-showing the 14,567 photo library using the "PHOTOS" option under home sharing on my older ATV 2 (6.1.1), although it takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes to load the entire photo grouping.

I did try creating a smaller photo library (1,102 photos) to share with my ATV 3 and it loaded quickly worked flawlessly when trying to view the "PHOTOS" option and executing a slideshow.

So bottom line, it looks like smaller libraries might work with the current software update, but I'm not willing to pare my library down to find out what the breaking point is. I feel it should work with all photos, and my library is only going to grow over the years.

P.S. Forgot to mention that my very large movie and music libraries work flawlessly with home sharing on all ATV's on my network.

Message was edited by: bigcarp22

Pichol

Level 1

8 points

Jun 14, 2014 7:21 AM in response to Ken Peck

I am having this same problem, with my ATV3. But it looks like it will only be worst. Since now I will have more photos, more videos, and hopefully more kids!

Is the solution split my iPhoto Library, than I cannot browse al of them in ATV?

Jun 30, 2014 2:30 PM in response to Ken Peck

I think it is working with Apple TV software update 6.2! Give it a try and let me know if I am crazy 😮

ecotwist

Level 1

14 points

Jun 30, 2014 9:50 PM in response to SurfMacJpMtb

Not crazy. Working again - finally! 6.2 update fixed the photo issue.

Jul 1, 2014 6:09 AM in response to ecotwist

Wow...confirmed! (at least for now) 😮

My full library of 13277 photos loaded and was available for viewing or a slideshow in about 20 seconds.

Hope it's fixed for good!

Ken Peck Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 6, 2014 8:22 AM in response to bigcarp22

HEY! It does work now! I had completely stopped using the slideshow over the past 6 months.

Ken Peck Author

Level 1

20 points

Jul 6, 2014 8:23 AM in response to Ken Peck

Apple TV update 6.2 has apparently fixed this issue!

Jul 8, 2014 5:16 PM in response to Ken Peck

Just got off the phone with apple tv tech. support level 2 . an ongoing problem for months now. Photos not loading. Now my music doesn't load. If I turn my firewall off, everything works fine. Tech support tells me that is what I have to do when I stream from computer to apple tv. I said to the tech. " you mean to tell me that if I went out and bought an apple tv right now, I would have to turn my firewall off for it to work. His answer: yes, this is what our engineers came up with. Anybody have the same problem. There must be a way for this to work without turning my firewall of and being vulnerable to hackers. Help

Snowmill

Level 1

28 points

Jul 8, 2014 10:15 PM in response to billy6139

Under the new 6.2 update, my photos and music work fine. All three of my Apple TVs are OK. 2 of my Apple TVs allow 1080 and one allows 720 (just to differentiate the models). Firewall is "on" but iTunes "allows incoming connections". I do not allow file sharing.

New iMac running 10.9.4 and everything else up to date.

Greywarg

Level 1

0 points

Aug 7, 2014 11:56 AM in response to Ken Peck

Hey all...

Its been a while but I have gone to my photo library tonight and guess what??

Its all working!!!!

I have the 6.2 update (which i don't remember downloading) and all 21000+ photos can now be viewed as well as using them ALL in a slideshow!

At last thank you Apple....

Just to confirm my Version is now 6.2 (6698.99.50.31)

Aug 7, 2014 2:08 PM in response to Greywarg

Me too!

Oct 7, 2014 6:05 PM in response to Ken Peck

Mine is still not working. I have 15,400 pictures. I can get my ATV to load all the events and then run a slide show from a single event. However, when I chose all the photos it spins for a while and then goes back to the Photos Main screen "Events/Photos/Face". I can not get it to run a slide show with all the photos. I am running 6.2.1. Ay help?

Oct 7, 2014 7:43 PM in response to Mark26pt2

Ok - I have been working with it some more tonight. I have two ATV - one ATV2 running 6.2.1 and one ATV3 running 7.0 and they are both not working right. They both go to the photos screen where I can chose "Events/Photos/Face". If I chose events or Faces, it will load and then I can chose one category and then it will let me run the slideshow. However, if I chose "Photos" it "loads" for a couple minutes and then goes back to the "Photos" menu.

I would like to run a slide show with all 14K photos. Any suggestions?

Home Sharing (photos) not working