Apple TV no longer connects to my computer's iTunes library

Question

Apple TV no longer connects to my computer's iTunes library

Hello. I have a second generation Apple TV that has always been able to connect to the iTunes library in my Macbook through home sharing, but recently it has stopped working. I've followed the troubleshooting steps I found online, including:

Turning off the home sharing feature in my Macbook and back on again.
Doing the same on the Apple TV.
Deauthorizing and reauthorizing the computer for iTunes.
Turning off my VPN.
Resetting my router (Airport Extreme).

So far nothing has worked, and I can't imagine why it stopped working. It has always worked seamlessly in the past and allowed me to run my music and playlists through the TV. Now I can't get it to work at all.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Posted on Sep 30, 2018 12:01 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jon Thomas VO Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 23, 2018 6:40 AM in response to vazandrew

Ok, so I've discovered a new wrinkle. It wouldn't connect to home sharing when the Apple TV was connected to the router by Ethernet, but when I switched it to Wifi everything synched up immediately. So clearly the issue is with connecting by Ethernet, which I've found to be more reliable. I spoke with someone at Apple Support who said I should make sure everything is connected to the same router, and I thought it was. The Apple TV was plugged directly into the my cable modem and not the Airport router. I just switched from the modem to the router, and voilà! Everything is connected. Thank you for all the tips. Once I reread this and spoke to a support person it all came together.

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Answer 2

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,316 points

Sep 30, 2018 12:49 PM in response to Jon Thomas VO

Here are two documents about dealing with such issues:

And these to be complete, but you probably already know this.

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Answer 3

vazandrew

Level 8

40,840 points

Oct 10, 2018 8:16 PM in response to Jon Thomas VO

If on wifi try ATV on Ethernet

To see a current status of the network get a report from istumbler or similar. Look for signal strength, noise and nearby networks

Test on another network

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Answer 4

Oct 10, 2018 5:21 PM in response to Urquhart1244

So far I've tried everything suggested, but none of it seems to work. The odd thing is it always worked before so I'm not sure what changed. The only thing I could imagine is the possibility of my Apple TV being older.

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Answer 5

Oct 14, 2018 4:40 PM in response to vazandrew

I actually connected the Apple TV by Ethernet a while ago. I'll give the other stuff a try.

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Apple TV no longer connects to my computer's iTunes library

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