Apple TV 4 photo issues

I am having the same issue. Regardless of the style of screensaver I chose I am only getting the same 60 or so photos from my selected iCloud album

This is how it's supposed to be. If you want to see all your photos watch a slideshow.

This is how it's supposed to be. If you want to see all your photos watch a slideshow.

I find that hard to believe

• This was not the case on previous Apple TVs.
• Why would it be designed like that? Please point me to the documentation that describes this 'feature'.
• Even if this was the case surely it should get a different 60 photos each time.

If it is in fact true, that this is a feature, then consider this a feature request, not a bug report.

This was not the case on previous Apple TVs.

It most certainly was (excepting the AppleTV 1 which let you sync photos to the drive, so was a whole different case)

Why would it be designed like that? Please point me to the documentation that describes this 'feature'.

As a guess only, because it's a screen saver, not a slide show. The Apple TV already has a slideshow feature why duplicate it.

I haven't got the time to bang heads with folks who try to challenge folks who are trying to be helpful, you show me the documentation that says you should get all your photos on the screensaver.

Even if this was the case surely it should get a different 60 photos each time.

I'm not sure 60 is a fixed number, I tend to have nearer a hundred so I think it may have something to do with the space used by the photos rather than their quantity

If it is in fact true, that this is a feature, then consider this a feature request, not a bug report.

If you have any suggestions that you think might enhance the Apple TV you can send Apple your feedback here

I've read different opinions, some authorized, some not so. It seems that that behavior for the screensaver is like what you describe, per Winston's comment. Now, in my opinion, if that's by design, it's not a bug but it is a bad, really lame design... I am a software professional, so I can't accept that design as something that can be defended from a user experience point of view. Then, if you want to view your photo albums, probably the reasonable way to do so is by using slideshow... except that in the ATV 4 is totally broken... can't view your pictures in a linear way without random pics repeating in the middle, can't start from anywhere but the first one, and some other artifacts and vanished features. A downgrade compared with the older versions of Apple TV. My hope is that they fix some of these things in the upcoming tvOS update late in March. We'll see. In the meantime, I keep using my Apple TV 2 (I gave away my ATV 3 too fast - I should know better)...

Winston even on slide show it repeats far to often let's hope the coming update fixes this issue

foxcub 6 wrote:

Winston even on slide show it repeats far to often let's hope the coming update fixes this issue

You are correct that there are problems with slideshows on the Apple TV 4, however that's not relevant to how the screensaver works. The screensaver extracts a limited number of photos from the album that you choose and plays them repeatedly, this is how the screensaver has worked since the Apple TV 2 was released, it's working as designed. It does this (IMO) so it can play a screensaver without the need for iTunes to be running on your computer or not keep downloading photos from the cloud, and not fill up vast quantities of its storage space.

That makes sense if there is no available connection to iTunes. Can't get more pics, nothing you can do about it, then repeat what's locally available. But if there is an available connection to iTunes, cloud or whatever the source of the pics is, it should get a new batch of files. It's just a (poor or lazy) design decision, in my opinion. I've submitted these observations a long time ago.

yup... whether they designed it that way or not is a bit of a pedantic discussion.

At least we can all agree that what they have now absolutely *****! And is basically useless. 🙂

Agreed. If there's a connection (either to computer or iCloud or iPhotos, as now the case may be), I don't see why it can't continue to get more pictures. Or, how about treat the device like they allow me to treat my iPhone. There's a hard drive on it now, so maybe i can determine if I want to load it up with pictures or apps. Currently, I have a lot of storage just sitting empty, and a screensaver experience that is beyond frustrating. And you know it's a problem when people who have no interest in technology (like my mother and elderly god mother) who love looking at the photos when music is playing, but actually comment that the photos are repeating all the time!

And you know it's a problem when people who have no interest in technology (like my mother and elderly god mother) who love looking at the photos when music is playing, but actually comment that the photos are repeating all the time!

I like to let my mom choose what she wants, she's 86 but quite capable of choosing a slide show and even if she wasn't I'd put whatever she wanted on for her, I wouldn't just stick her in front of a screensaver and blame Apple for her seeing the same stuff all the time.

I'm happy that this solution works for you. However, slideshow functionality is not what we are discussing here, so I'm not sure why you are suggesting this "solution" that doesn't address the problem we are discussing. The screensaver function is a robust feature where Apple has taken the time to provide various display options and locations from which we can choose the source of the pictures. So, it's obvious a feature that they put considerable thought into.

During social gatherings, many have commented on the novel way which I'm able to display photos while music is playing. In fact, several friends have gone out and purchased an Apple TV based on this feature alone. No one is "blaming Apple", we are simply pointing out that a feature that's highly regarded by many Apple TV users is now less than optimal given the frequency in which the photos repeat, repetition that's noticeable by even the casual observer.

There's a use case for the slideshow feature and another use case for the screensaver feature. We are discussing and issue we're having with the screensaver.

yea i never even got to the point of seeing if the photos repeated.. I thought it was so utterly ridiculous that the SAME photos in the SAME order would happen every time.

TV would go to sleep and the photos would start up... then i'd wake it up to do something... go back to sleep.. right back to the front of the line.

Like others have said, even my wife that doesn't pay any attention to that remarked immediately how lame it was.

No one is "blaming Apple", we are simply pointing out that a feature that's highly regarded by many Apple TV users is now less than optimal given the frequency in which the photos repeat, repetition that's noticeable by even the casual observer.

I'm not really clear on what it is you are complaining about here. The screensaver is working much the same way it did on the previous Apple TV's. Your guests shouldn't be seeing anything much different now than they saw before.

I'm not really clear on what it is you are complaining about here. The screensaver is working much the same way it did on the previous Apple TV's. Your guests shouldn't be seeing anything much different now than they saw before.

Please stop saying this. It is incorrect, and not the point. On both my previous Apple TVs (2 and 3) the screensaver would show a mix of ALL of my photos. Sure, it would load them in batches, so you would see the same group for a few cycles, but after a few minutes it would load another batch. And even then IT WOULD BE A DIFFERENT SELECTION EVERY TIME THE SCREENSAVER LOADED.

If you don't understand the issue that everyone else on this board has with the current screensaver, that's fine, but please stop telling us we are wrong and being unreasonable with our requests.

I fully understand what you want. If you want the screen saver function to change by all means leavefeedback here,but the previous Apple TV's used a limited number of photos and kept cycling them too, so long as you keep denying this, I'll continue to correct you. I've never said you were unreasonable with your requests, I do think the ability to keep more photos in memory would be nice, but I don't think it's the end of the world like some here suggest, we have slide shows which do what is wanted.