Apple TV 4 photo issues

So I'm clear on the screensaver issues:

• On each instantiation, it chooses a random subset from the shared album (as low as 30, as high as a "few hundred"), and then repeats those images
• While playing, some photos will repeat before all photos are displayed

Is that right?

Is it definitively the case that manually going to the Photos app and starting a slideshow does not exhibit this behavior, i.e. it will show all images in the shared album, in random order? (Provided however that it will always start with the first.) If that's the case, is it possible to have the slideshow repeat (i.e. play indefinitely)?

Thanks!

So I'm clear on the screensaver issues:

• On each instantiation, it chooses a random subset from the shared album (as low as 30, as high as a "few hundred"), and then repeats those images
• While playing, some photos will repeat before all photos are displayed

Is that right?

Not quite, it doesn't vary the number of photos it uses like you suggest, it may use different numbers based on image size but this won't swing from hundreds to 30. However random doesn't mean each photo will play just one but in a mixed up order before repeating themselves, random means random and that includes one photo showing once whilst another perhaps shows seven times.

Unfortunately, many people actually don't know what random means.

Same here with ATV4: Photo slidehow is horrible when using iCloud Photolibrary. Don't buy a ATV4 when you want to use it for photos. Apple SHAME ON YOU for not solving this minor bug for you, but a major bug for your customers!

This is unbelievable. i've had ATV since 2nd gen and on and it's never been this bad. I'm signed in to iCloud and a major problem I've encountered is that I can't see any folders and/or the nested albums in those folders from my Photos library! I have a local computer with the entire Photos library -and- I'm paying $10/mo for storage to hold my Photos library in dieCloud - I can't select an album from either of these to be the screensaver. I've had this setup for so long and they've broken it somehow. I actually had a Smart Album made up of my other favorite albums, nifty setup. That's been rockin' on my family room TV for a long time and now I can't select it for screensaver. I talked it all up and a buddy of mine purchased an Apple TV - BAM! We can't set Photos albums as the screensaver. We can see the photos but there's no button up top for Slideshow or Screensaver. Apple - hello? Help please. We should be able to set any one of these - local Home Sharing or iCloud Photo Library - easily as the screensaver!

As of April 2017 - it's still a problem. Even after the 10.2 software update. Deeply irritating. I can't even change the display from one set to another. The settings say I have managed it, but the reality is that I keep getting the same few images repeating. From time to time I get an odd sprinkling of new images, but not enough to relieve the monotony.

The biggest issue is that Apple insists you keep them in the cloud. With all the security breaches. ( 2 years ago apple was shutdown for 2 weeks ) They want our photos on the cloud.

Windows allows us the use local drives, why can't apple. I love apple but the Fascism needs to stop.

nick5454 wrote:

The biggest issue is that Apple insists you keep them in the cloud. With all the security breaches. ( 2 years ago apple was shutdown for 2 weeks ) They want our photos on the cloud.

Windows allows us the use local drives, why can't apple. I love apple but the Fascism needs to stop.

What utter nonsense.

nick5454 wrote:

Windows allows us the use local drives, why can't apple.

Because that would break the security model of iOS, which depends on app data being restricted to the app that created it, a process called "sandboxing". You may have noticed that "Windows security" is an oxymoron.

The best answer I've got from Apple on this issue is that the Apple TV will only sync 520mb of photos and this is by design. Why it can't continuously sync to new pictures from a home network I have no idea, it can't be that difficult to sort.

I realise it is "by design" and I have given feedback directly to Apple.

It's still a ridiculous restriction. I could buy a cheap digital photo frame and get that to scroll through thousands of photos so why can't an Apple TV with 32gb let me watch a screensaver with more than 20 photos? You can manually set up a slideshow so there's no reason for this restriction.

For the record too, Apple don't advertise this feature as being so reatricted, it's not common knowledge and even the customers service advisors had to ask the engineers why I could see more than 20 pictures. One of the reasons I bought my Apple TV was to use that feature but it's largely pointless in its current form.

It's great that you feel the product is perfect and that you personally have no issues but why argue with people who think these features are lacking?

I've used multiple pieces of software in the past where the user can set a certain allocation for things like this. Why not default it to 512mb as it currently is but allow the end user to go into a menu and set a higher threshold? I personally don't download any games on my Apple TV and I only have a handful of apps. And as movies, tv and music are all streamed I'm using hardly any of my 32gb storage space yet I'm still locked to only displaying 512mb of pictures! It's really not a big ask. I'm hardly asking for a major update to a feature. I'm simply asking for a couple of hundred pictures to be used as a screensaver.

but why argue with people who think these features are lacking?

The main reason is to dispell the notion that it's an issue that needs fixing, this implies something is broken which it isn't.

Moreover though, asking you to explain the point of duplicating an existing function is hardly arguing in my opinion.

Thanks.

Is it 100% certain it repeats? I see the option to repeat photos, but that appears to just enable it to selectively reuse photos. The slideshow still appears to stop after it's played through all the photos. I've been unable to get it to play continuously.

Been saying this for years ! Unfortunately it's fallen on deaf ears in the Apple world , look over the many posts on this excact subject so I guess they do know about it , but can't be bothered to fix it , or probably hoping the latest Apple TV which is rumoured to be out late this year folk will buy it hoping its fixed . That was the very reason I updated from the 3 Rd gen to the 4th gen but no it's still don't work , to be honest Apple is not exactly leaders anymore , they talk a good game charge a arm and a leg but there's better out there now beginning to look at other manufacturers as this stuff ain't doin what I want . How hard is it to play music and shuffle my photos and not repeat them every 15 mins after all I've 12k of them to. Choose from. probably my post will be removed as they don't like negative things or the truth said about them

Winston Churchill wrote:

Unfortunately, many people actually don't know what random means.

When I used to spend more time in the iTunes forums, I found myself spending far too much time trying to explain that. I always thought it was rather funny that Apple added features to iTunes to make shuffle less random when they added "Smart Shuffle" back in 2005 (removed in 2008).