Some photos not loading on Apple TV - showing as ?

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Level 1

8 points

Some photos not loading on Apple TV - showing as ?

When viewing photos on Apple TV via Home sharing, some of the photos show as blank rectangles. If selected, they show a small question mark in a box. They are being shared from an iMac where everything is up to date (Photos, iTunes, ElCapitan, etc.). The third generation Apple TV is up to date. But in an album of 366 photos, about 10 % don't load. I can find nothing in common about them that would suggest a reason for AppleTV not loading them. They all show up normally in the Photos app on my iMac. I tried Reset on the AppleTV, but that had no effect. In searching through Apple Support and Communities, I have not seen this exact problem mentioned. Any thoughts on what it could be and how to fix it? Thanks.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Aug 29, 2016 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

Aug 29, 2016 4:01 PM in response to HollyonMac

When you reset the Apple TV were they the same photos that didn't reappear.

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Answer 2

HollyonMac Author

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Aug 29, 2016 4:26 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Yes, they were the same photos.

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Answer 3

Aug 29, 2016 4:30 PM in response to HollyonMac

If you remove one of them from the album in photos, does the grey rectangle disappear from the Apple TV.

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Answer 4

HollyonMac Author

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Aug 29, 2016 5:21 PM in response to Winston Churchill

Yes, it does disappear.

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Answer 5

Aug 30, 2016 1:16 AM in response to HollyonMac

And if you then put them back do they reappear as a grey square or a photo.

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Answer 6

HollyonMac Author

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Aug 30, 2016 10:57 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Yes, they reappear the same as a grey square.

These same photos have appeared in the past on apple tv. This just suddenly happened and I have not done anything different.

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Answer 7

HollyonMac Author

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Aug 30, 2016 11:31 AM in response to HollyonMac

One more interesting discovery on my part. I Airdropped two of these photos to my husband's iMac. He put them in an album, displayed them on AppleTV, and then airdropped them back to me. I had removed them from the album before I got them back, replacing them, and these two photos now display correctly. Somewhere between July 31st and now something affected this set of photos that made them unable to be displayed from my iMac to the Apple TV. Does this suggest anything to anyone?

Btw, I checked my App store updates to see what was updated when. On Aug 2nd, iTunes was updated. On Aug 8th, Digital Camera RAW Compatibility was updated. On Aug 6th, El Capitan was updated to 10.11.6. None of these photos were RAW. They were taken with a Canon PowerShot SX500 IS. Nothing in the XIF data displayed with Info shows anything at all unusual about them.

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Answer 8

Aug 31, 2016 1:32 AM in response to HollyonMac

Do you have iCloud photo stream optimisation tuned on, could these photos be referenced.

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Answer 9

HollyonMac Author

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8 points

Aug 31, 2016 10:26 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I don't have photo stream optimization turned on.

I as of now still have not found anything about these particular photos that are different from the many others that do display on AppleTV.

Do you have any suspicions about what may have happened, or could happen? You've asked interesting questions, but so far the cause has not surfaced.

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Answer 10

Aug 31, 2016 11:47 AM in response to HollyonMac

How exactly did you Airdrop them, straight from the application or did you export them first and if so how. Did your husband do anything to them other than add them to Photos himself.

What happens if you export an unmodified version from Photos to your desktop, delete the original from Photos and then import the photo on your desktop again.

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Answer 11

HollyonMac Author

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8 points

Sep 1, 2016 10:04 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Ok, first question...I airdropped them right from the application and my husband did not do anything to them except add them to photos and then airdrop them back to me.

I tried exporting one of the photos to my desktop, deleting it from iPhoto and then importing it and that worked. I can now see that photo on apple tv.

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Answer 12

Sep 1, 2016 10:12 AM in response to HollyonMac

Then you will need to do that with all the photos. the photos themselves appear OK but there is something wrong with the flags that advertise their location on the drive, repopulating photos with the photos seems to repair them.

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