Apple TV v4 My Photos as Screensaver

Question

Level 1

12 points

Apple TV v4 My Photos as Screensaver

I received a new Apple TV 4th generation for Christmas. I would like to set a shared collection of my photos as my screen saver. I seem to be only to select iCloud photo sharing Activity as the collection. That is to say, I can see other shared collections, I can select them (Set as Screensaver), but only Activity is the one that will actually work. I've tried going in through the settings and selecting the collection that way. No joy. I've also tried using the Photo app on the Apple TV and viewing the collection and choosing the "Set as Screensaver" button at the top of the collection. This doesn't work either. It only sticks if I select Activity.

Quite frankly, even this means of selecting my own photos *****. I have over 18K and counting photos stored in iCloud and I don't think I should have to create a Shared folder just to set my own photos as the screensaver. But I'm willing to limit it to a few hundred if I can get it to work. Any suggestions?

Apple TV, 4th Generation, OS set for auto upd

Posted on Jan 4, 2017 2:15 PM

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Answer 1

loatswil

Level 1

14 points

Jan 4, 2017 4:30 PM in response to gyolland

I have the same issue.

I would like to be able to have my current photostream (all photos) as my screensaver. I used to be able to do this. As I take pictures and they would automatically start to appear on all of my AppleTVs. This is a big deal for me. One of the main reasons I like AppleTVs vs. Roku, Amazon Fire, etc.

Please fix/change/update this and make it possible again.

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Answer 2

gyolland Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 4, 2017 5:04 PM in response to Mobile Blues

That's exactly what I've done. I've created a shared folder named Screensaver and I've shared it via iCloud Photo Sharing. I can see this folder on the Apple TV. However, whenever I select it, although it appears to select it just fine, it never uses those pictures and instead defaults to the Activity collection, which I had previously set. But it will not "stick" to the Screensaver folder I've created.

And as I said previously, why must I create a shared folder and then share it via iCloud Photo Sharing just to use my own pictures as a screen saver. It really doesn't make sense that I should have to do that.

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Answer 3

Jan 4, 2017 3:57 PM in response to gyolland

The way I handle it is I use iCloud Photo Sharing, I then create a photo album selection of photos on my iMac and then share it. On the Apple TV the Album will then appear as a shared album and you can select it. Keep in mind iCloud Photo Sharing must be turned on on Apple TV as well as you iMac and other iOS devices if you want.

Read this Apple Knowledge base article about iCloud Photo Sharing....

iCloud: iCloud Photo Sharing overview

-And This One-

iCloud Photo Sharing - Apple Support

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Answer 4

vazandrew

Level 8

40,834 points

Jan 4, 2017 5:31 PM in response to gyolland

Working on my system. If you want to go through iCloud then the only way is through the shared albums. If you want to access your full library you can choose your computer as the source when setting up the screensaver, however a select amount of space is used to cache so the full library would not be used.

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Answer 5

gyolland Author

Level 1

12 points

Jan 5, 2017 11:48 AM in response to vazandrew

Could you provide a little more details. I tried last night to connect to one of the computers in my house. But I did not see an option for selecting photos. iTunes music, yes. And there were other things I don't recall at the moment, but photos was not amongst the options.

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Answer 6

vazandrew

Level 8

40,834 points

Jan 5, 2017 1:10 PM in response to gyolland

You would be doing this through settings - screensaver, and choosing the computer as the source, not going through the computers app.

Make sure you have shared photos within iTunes (file - homesharing - choose photos to share)

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Answer 7

vazandrew

Level 8

40,834 points

May 7, 2017 2:04 PM in response to Thegrozz

Only a select portion is used for the screensaver, so you won't be able to have all photos displayed. A thumbnail of album art along with track and artist info will appear for a few seconds at the start of each track, you can't remove that.

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Answer 8

Thegrozz

Level 1

4 points

May 8, 2017 5:48 AM in response to vazandrew

Thanks for a quick reply, I'm okay with the thumbnail, and artist and title showing briefly in the upper right hand corner. What is happening though, is the entire screen becomes a checkerboard of album covers, slightly larger than thumbnail size. Interspersed with the album covers are 1 or two pictures from my photos. But the over all effect is too busy to casually notice the pictures, or really appreciate the album art for that matter.

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