iTunes Home Sharing keeps needing to be reset?

Question

iTunes Home Sharing keeps needing to be reset?

My issue has been persistent over the course of the past 4 years since iTunes 10.x (2012). I am currently on iTunes 12.4.3.1, using an iPhone 5 running iOS 9.3.5.

I love iTunes, and have for years now wanted to reliably use the iTunes Remote app in the App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itunes-remote/id284417350?mt=8). However, every single time I close either the Remote App or Itunes itself, the Remote app "forgets" my library and proceeds to start "Looking for Tempris's Library..." Which would be wonderful, that is if it ever found it again. It will keep "Looking" until a min or so goes by and then tells me that it "Could not find Tempris's Library" even though iTunes was never closed on my PC.

The only way to get it back again has been for me to turn off Home Sharing in iTunes and turn it back on, which consists of re-entering my icloud email and password, and is a pain to do repetitively.

I have now had this happen to me every time my phone goes off automatically to save power, every time the app closes, and every time iTunes itself is turned off and back on again.

I have thus far checked all firewall permissions, and ensured that all inbound rules are allowed for all Bonjour Service executable entries, as well as the iTunes executable itself.

If anyone can please either help me or Apple fix this issue I will be very happy. I really want to use the iTunes Remote while doing house work.

(One final note: about half the time the Remote app has also been failing to download and display song album artwork, wondering if there is any correlation?

iPhone 5, iOS 9.3.2, null

Posted on Sep 8, 2016 5:51 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 9, 2016 12:38 PM in response to Leviscus Tempris

UPDATE:

As a programmer, I figured I would try troubleshooting via a rather seemingly un-intuitive disabling of the "Stay Connected" option inside the "Devices -> Settings" menu.

Thus far it reestablishes the connection upon every start of the app under all previous conditions!

As this seems like a backwards-thinking approach, I would under no circumstances consider this a final solution. Especially since the "Stay Connected" option was created so that the connection was not lost in the first place. Ever since 2009, when Apple removed the feature for being buggy, it hasn't worked well for everyone.

Keep in mind I am on iTunes 12.4.3.1, using an iPhone 5 running iOS 9.3.5. Results may vary.

Can anyone else confirm that disabling the before-mentioned toggle resolves the home sharing issues with the Remote App?

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Answer 2

KD0000

Level 1

18 points

Oct 1, 2016 4:59 PM in response to Leviscus Tempris

Same deal here between my two Apple TV's and Mac Mini (and MacBook Pro). Roughly once a week I'd have the cycle HS off and on (on either the Mini or MacBook) in order to get the ATV's to see the computers again. Very annoying. However, at least it worked them. As of yesterday (following a planned password change I do once a year), HS won't even connect anymore.

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