Apple TV Homeshare Photos Screensaver Repeating

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Level 1

8 points

Apple TV Homeshare Photos Screensaver Repeating

I have an Apple TV 2nd or 3rd generation (not sure which). When I use it to access the Photos application on my desktop Mac via Homeshare and select an album as the screensaver, it does not access all the pictures, but rather begins repeating the pictures after a couple of minutes. I have selected it to not repeat in the Apple TV screensaver settings. The album has about 17,000 pictures totaling 60GB. I'm guessing this is an issue with how the Apple TV is caching the pictures? Is there any way to stream all of these pictures through an Apple TV and not repeat until all have been shown? I have tried Flickr and it does the same thing. Could I load the pictures onto a USB and use the USB port on the back of the Apple TV? What about the 64GB storage on the new 4th generation Apple TV, can that be used to store 60GB of pictures so it wouldn't repeat them? I know the album is huge, but I really don't want to break it up.

iMac

Posted on Mar 1, 2016 9:48 PM

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Answer 1

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

Mar 2, 2016 6:55 AM in response to MacNovice82

Only a small amount of pictures are temporarily cached for the screensaver, typically around 100. The Apple TV 4 only has a USB C port and it's only for support purposes. The Apple TV is a streaming device, one cannot store media on it, the storage on the current model is only for apps. If you want to view the album you would have to do so via the computer app

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Answer 2

MacNovice82 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 2, 2016 9:28 AM in response to vazandrew

Thanks. When I access the album via the Computer app on my Apple TV I am able to see thumbnails for all 17,000 or so pictures. However, when I try to watch them with either slideshow or screensaver through the computer app it quickly repeats the pictures. It sounds like I cannot use the Apple TV to see all of these pictures as my screensaver due to the limited caching the device uses?

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Answer 3

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

Mar 2, 2016 9:39 AM in response to MacNovice82

You will not be able to use the full album for a screensaver. You would have to view them manually or via slideshow through home sharing on the computer app (which needs the computer on and running iTunes).

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Answer 4

MacNovice82 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 2, 2016 10:36 AM in response to vazandrew

Thanks again. When I access the album via the Computer app on my Apple TV and try to watch them as a slideshow instead of screensaver it has the same problem and repeats the pictures After 2-3 minutes.

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Answer 5

Mar 2, 2016 1:54 PM in response to MacNovice82

I have an ATV4 and tried a slide show via homesharing. No matter what the album size was 10,000 or 200, the pictures did repeat but not how you would expect. With shuffle on I began seeing repeats very quickly with the reflections theme, yet it also continued to show new pictures. Setting the shuffle off, I expected to see the photos in order. It seemed right at first, but maybe 20 pictures in repeats began again intermingled with new photos.

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