Apple TV doesn't connect to iTunes Library when starting up

This exact same issue is happening with me. I have to turn off/on the Home Sharing in iTunes in order for it to appear again on the AppleTV 4. Closing and re-opening iTunes also solves the problem.

The difference with my experience is that it will also stop streaming at certain points, if we're listening to music via Home Sharing, watching TV, a movie, etc. Sometimes it will just cut out, and I have to restart iTunes again to get it to come back. Then it will stream fine again, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes just a few minutes. Whenever we try to watch a movie we never know if we'll be able to get through the whole thing without having to restart iTunes. It's driving me crazy!

I've turned off the ipv6, made sure certain ports are open on our router, done network tests, etc. Both my Windows 10 computer and the Apple TV are plugged in to the router, no wi-fi, so this really should be rock solid.

Are there any solutions out there?

So, fingers crossed, but I think I may have found the solution: in the Windows Sharing menu, there's an option at the very bottom that has "Windows Sharing with a Password", or something along those lines. You have to turn that off. Once I did that, everything started miraculously working with my AppleTV 4 Home Sharing. Here's hoping that's the fix!

Make sure the bonjour service is running on your PC. It remembers the services iTunes is offering.

Some routers, mostly those from ISPs, don't route the bonjour discovery packets between wired and WiFi networks. If ATV and PC are not both on the same wired or WiFi network, you could try changing that and see if it helps. When ATV wakes up, it sends a multicast message to find all bonjour services. If your PC doesn't hear this poll, it won't respond. Turning iTunes off/on sends the packets that ATV needs to see.

What tvOS version is on your ATV? This might just be a software foul-up that needs to be fixed. Remember, ATV 4 is pretty new, so we're all just feeling our way here. If you cannot find a viable fix, you should report it at http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html so at least Apple knows there are problems.

Could you try wired connection for ATV, just to rule out the possibility?

You might search for iTunes problems with Win 10. You may need to change some system settings to make things work smoothly.

One further thought. You might check that the required ports TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products - Apple Support are open in your firewall. That's a terrible list, but you certainly need 5353 Bonjour, 5000, 6010-6012, and 7000 AirPlay. It may be that iTunes can send OK, but queries from ATV are being blocked

Hi. I think you misunderstood. You should not open those ports in your router since that opens you up to the world. I said you should open them in your firewall, meaning the firewall in your Windows system. I don't have Win 10, but I assume Windows still provides a robust built-in firewall. Or you may be running a third party firewall that came pre-installed. You see, I think Windows is blocking ATV when it asks what services are being offered.