Apple tv only shows 100 photos for screen saver

I have been in phone and email contact with support about this issue. Went through two different support levels. Here's the current state:

I have confirmed that the ATV 4 stores a certain number of photos, I know this because I tested it with the library host pc shut down. After 2 minutes, the ATV cycled through the approx 100 photos in its memory and then began an exact (not random) repeat of the photos indicating that those photos were in its memory.

I then retested by rebooting everything, router, atv, turned on pc. Result, the atv grabbed about 100 different photos, streamed them as screensavers for about 20 minutes, then began an exact repeat instead of grabbing different photos from the library host pc.

The issue is not whether the atv can access unlimited photos, the issue is can the atv play the photos as screensavers and then refresh its memory with different photos without a user having to re-select use photos as screensavers. When you notice your initial photos repeating, go to the computer app icon on the home screen and click. Scroll down to photos and click. In the next window you'll see thumbnails of your photos. Go to upper right and click on the "Select as screensavers" button. This will force the ATV to "grab" another 100 photos from your directory. It works, but you have to repeat this process every time, about 16 minutes if your transitions are 10 seconds.

This seems to be a major weakness, not to mention a pita, in the screensaver photo app, who wants to watch the same 100 photos in the same order when they have 19,000 for the atv to use?

Suggest you call apple support and report this problem. The more calls they get on this the better the chance that they might come up with a fix to allow the atv to grab the next 100 photos without a user having to repeat the above procedure.

This is the way it's been since the 2nd gen, the internal storage on the new unit is primarily meant to be for apps and not media so I dont think they intend to change this

Hi vazandrew, I understand the storage and that is not the issue. The issue is allowing more than 100 photos to be used as screensavers. There is no reason that the atv couldn't "dip in" to the library host and grab more photos without operator intervention every 16 minutes or so. From my contact with tech support, it was apparent that this limitation was a surprise to all three of the techs I spoke with.

As I said it's been that way since the 2nd Gen. It has a limited space available for the screensaver photos and will only temporarily cache them when you setup the screensaver. When you choose a different one it will flush the old and do a new batch. The new one has more storage but meant for apps not media.

Before purchasing the ATV4 our favorite ATV Gen1 use consisted of watching over 10,000 pics go by while kicked back listening to classical music. I spoke with an ATV tech when my Gen 1 finally died (it works, but can no longer sync with itunes), unfortunately he couldn't help with that issue but assured me that the ATV4 would randomly play all of my photo library as screensavers. I explained our use in detail and he was positive the ATV4 would do the same thing, except by streaming instead of syncing. After receiving the 64G ATV4 I discovered the limitation. In discussion with three ATV techs (call was escalated twice) all were confident that the ATV4 would indeed keep playing random photos as long as my photo library was online. Dedicated cache storage space shouldn't be a problem, the ATV could certainly stream more photos. I understand what you are saying but it is interesting that 3 techs aren't aware of this limitation. There is still an open ticket on this with a tech scheduled to call back on Monday. Bottom line, a limit on playing 100 photos when the whole library is online is just plain disappointing, hence more requests and feedback on this issue may result in a tweak to the photo app.

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

The 1st Gen had syncing capabilities, the 2nd Gen and later have been streaming only. You can stream your full photo library using home sharing, but the screensaver has photos cached so it can access anytime (home sharing requires your computer be on and running itunes).

The storage looks to be for apps and not media, as it's still a streaming device, but you can leave feedback.

I have tried using slide show, however, the application stops after streaming 4 photos. There are multiple reports in the community about the same slide show problem.

Update: Yesterday, support called back after receiving information from engineering. First, the "semi-good" news, engineering is aware of the buggy slide show playback with stops after 4 photos, they are working on a solution. Second, the screensaver limitation is a result of design as vazandrew has mentioned and they have no intention of a work around by additional streaming from a library. Could have saved a lot of time if the first three techs I spoke with had been aware of this. Deal breaker for me so back it went.

So if you have 1000s of photos, you can see 100 in the screensaver slideshow? This has been driving me crazy for the last few days. This simply can't be right. Should not be a problem to refresh/reload a cache, however large or small. Without this functionality, its useless to even have personal photos as an option.

Correct, as stated there is a small amount used to temporarily cache photos. The refresh occurs when you select a new source for the screensaver. The storage is primarily for apps and caching streamed content.

This is a deal breaker for me too.. For the record, Google has this figured out with Chromecast ... It's lightning fast with zero lag or issues..

If you're referring to the photos aspect Chromecast has no UI so it would be the equivalent of airplay on ATV, which works just fine.

Chrome cast doesn't offer a stand alone screensaver, but that would spoil #29's rant so it's conveniently ignored. 😁

Yep, this is something that has progressively gotten worse with each model released with the floating screensaver.

1st Gen ATV: All photos from the local library randomly shown, no duplication. (Remember no option for home sharing or shared iCloud photo libraries on 1st Gen ATV - all synced via iTunes)

2nd / 3rd Gen ATV: Only about 100 photos from a home sharing library displayed however a shared iCloud photo library did randomly display all photos with no duplication.

4th Gen ATV: Both local home sharing library and shared iCloud photo library now only show about 100 photos.

I thought with the expanded storage on the 4th Gen ATV we may get back to some of the functionality found on the 1st Gen ATV (all photos from local library can be randomly displayed), but not only did that not happen they also killed the "workaround" of the iCloud shared library. Disappointing.

Come on Apple...fix this really stupid bug...use 4th gen ATV memory for this most useful feature! By the way, most Apple techs do not know about these limitations and will tell you it will use and shuffle through all your photos. This is 100% wrong. Senior Apple techs will confirm that the 4th gen ATV will not use more than about 100 photos for screensaver at a time. Sooooooooooo lame...deal breaker for me too...back it went and still using ATV Gen 1.