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jsavvy

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2011
135
121
I tried setting it up on a personal Linux server a while back and all the cool features wanted $.
Plex offers all of the features of Home Sharing for free via the plex app or DLNA. Not sure which cool features you're referring to, but a personal Linux server can do most things for free.
 

jwkay

macrumors regular
Sep 6, 2004
101
12
Bergen, Norway
We also used Home Sharing to access a central iTunes library, stored on a Mac Mini, from various iPads in our home. These sit nicely in speaker docks, and it was great to access our entire music and audiobook library throughout the house.

It seems Apple is trying to move people to streaming, either via Apple Music or iTunes Match, now renamed iCloud Music Library. For us, there is one major problem with this: capped internet useage. When we lived in an urban area, we had unlimited 50/50 Fibre. We moved recently to the countryside, and here our only option for internet access is 4G (LTE). Speed is terrific (have had 75 down/50 up), but we're limited to 100 GB traffic a month. Note, that's traffic - so both up AND down data counts. With multiple iOS devices and Macs downloading software updates, moderate video streaming and general browsing, 100 GB per month holds - just. Moving our entire music library to iCloud, and then streaming back everything we want to listen to, is simply not an option.

For those of you with unlimited broadband, I can see the convenience of doing things this way. However, it's not technically possible for everyone - hene the criticism of the dropping, temporary or otherwise, of Home Sharing TO iOS devices.
 

2457282

Suspended
Dec 6, 2012
3,327
3,015
This might be an issue of semantics, or I might be misinterpreting what you've written, but have you ever been able to share the music on your phone with other users on the same network? It sounds like you believe that what has been pulled is the ability for an iOS user to be able to share the music on their phone with others on the network...

I did a little research on my personal environment of an Apple network with an imac, mac air, two ATV, two ipads, two iphones and two apple watches. Because I have music match, all my music is available in the cloud and therefore available on all the devices just mentioned. It is not called home sharing it is family sharing plus itunes match. No restriction to the network or even the available capacity of my device. For video, the same is true for all the movies, videos, TV shows that I have purchased through iTunes. So the only thing that is not covered by itunes Match are the movies I bought on DVD and ripped to my computer. The only way to access those is through Home Sharing. So, to answer your question it was not semantics. I missed it because I missed that the reason it works for me is I pay $25/year for iTunes Match (I do also maintain a local copy on my iMac in case I ever want to change).

Still I need to say that if you do not want to pay the $10/month for Apple Music (I sure don't), the itunes Match is a very good solution (and your get itunes radio, aka pandora, commercial free). I hope they will one day extend the match to movies, which would eliminate any need for home sharing. THe big caveat of course is this requires you to be fully vested into the Apple eco system. For me not much of an issue. For others, they will need to decide on what eco system they want to play in.
 
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uwdude

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2014
918
469
Now wait a minute, I now have both iTunes Match and Apple Music....so what happens if I quit subscribing to Apple Music? Would my iTunes Match library also disappear? So I hope they have a way of telling which music is stuff you purchased and which is just from Apple Music.
 
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DotCom2

macrumors 603
Feb 22, 2009
6,163
5,430
Now wait a minute, I now have both iTunes Match and Apple Music....so what happens if I quit subscribing to Apple Music? Would my iTunes Match library also disappear? So I hope they have a way of telling which music is stuff you purchased and which is just from Apple Music.
I would like to know the answer to this as well.
 
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LastLine

macrumors 65816
Aug 24, 2005
1,313
21
I
Slow down everybody...

Home sharing is still in iTunes just as it was. Home sharing was removed only from iOS, which frankly I wasn't even aware was an option.

This is it. I knew of it as an option but found it never worked well to my iOS device however well I tuned my network so simply stopped. No great loss for me so long as Mac and Apple TV are untouched.
 

shabanga

macrumors newbie
Jul 8, 2014
14
2
Use plex media server.

Exactly! I switched over to Plex last year after moving in with my (now) wife and realizing that we couldn't have 2 separate iTunes Match accounts on the same computer, regardless of the fact that we had 2 separate user accounts and 2 separate iTunes libraries. It was crazy, Apple wouldn't let us throw our money at them! In any case, that frustrating experience put me on the path to free myself of the iTunes ecosystem and Plex fit the bill perfectly. I will admit that I still use iTunes as a front end to ingest and organize my music for lack of a better alternative, but Plex has been amazing and now that I'm off the iTunes I'm seriously considering switching over to an Android phone on my next go around. I'm on a slippery slope away from Apple to be sure!
 

Paradoxally

macrumors 68000
Feb 4, 2011
1,964
2,739
Home Sharing was terrible and I'm glad Apple got rid of it.

Plex is more stable, offers more features (such as TV shows and movie libraries), and is simpler to use. I use it for all my shows and movies.
 

UnfetteredMind

macrumors 6502
Jun 6, 2012
451
77
For those saying, "Home Sharing is in the Remote App, you're fine." Yes, it's there, but you can't listen to it on your iOS device!

My library is too big and always caused issues for the Music app when trying to use Home Sharing so it's not a big loss for me at this point. Hopefully they'll bring it back, but if not, I have Logitech Media Server and Plex server running on my server so I can use either iPeng or Plex client on iOS to stream music. If they keep doing such things, I'll have no reason to continue to use iTunes for my media and can just switch to Plex instead (which will also relieve me from tagging everything). That will mean my AppleTV will be about useless.

Hopefully Apple can be convinced to add Home Sharing back to Music on iOS. I do have to wonder if this was some sort of concession to the labels/artists for the new streaming agreements.
 

Crazy Badger

macrumors 65816
Apr 1, 2008
1,297
698
Scotland
For those saying, "Home Sharing is in the Remote App, you're fine." Yes, it's there, but you can't listen to it on your iOS device!

I'd never realised this, but then I don't listen to music through my phone in the house. This would be the logical place to add it back in.

That will mean my AppleTV will be about useless.

Can't believe you don't use Plex on your Apple TV! It's so easy to set-up now using PlexConnect through something like openPlex which pretty much does, or guides you through, everything for you.
 

GrumpyTrucker

macrumors 6502a
Jun 1, 2014
635
273
Now wait a minute, I now have both iTunes Match and Apple Music....so what happens if I quit subscribing to Apple Music? Would my iTunes Match library also disappear? So I hope they have a way of telling which music is stuff you purchased and which is just from Apple Music.

I would like to know the answer to this as well.

If you stop subscribing to Music then your library as far as I can tell just reverts to what it was before. If you've added some Music songs to My Music and you go to songs view in iTunes then enable the iCloud Status column you'll see there's now an extra category. Your music will be listed with things like Uploaded, Matched, Purchased, Apple Music. Once you stop subscribing, my guess is everything that's Apple Music will either get deleted or cease to play. As long as you have a current Match subscription all your 'paid for' music should be absolutely safe.

Now, things get murkier if you cancel your Match sub of course but there's a whole topic on that elsewhere.
 
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morespce54

macrumors 65816
Apr 30, 2004
1,331
11
Around the World
This is why you should never rely on services like this. One day they just take them away and you're screwed. Take your music and good ol' copy/paste it to other people's device and then you bypass home sharing altogether. If we keep relying on things like iCloud, Home Sharing, Family Sharing, then one day we'll be really surprised when they decide to no longer make them free, or when they stop working. Your stuff is only truly yours if you can do whatever you want with it. As for streaming, I'll just use a very long audio cable. They can't take that away at least.

Be careful there... They might just change the audio jack for every device to a new hyper-thunder-wire-supreme jack and sell you the new (and only) cable available for less than $100 (that is, $99.99 + tx)... :eek:;)
 
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Gasu E.

macrumors 603
Mar 20, 2004
5,029
3,145
Not far from Boston, MA.
That's a dick move Apple. Not everyone wants to stream with your service, some of us like to stream the media locally.

It's extremely unlikely that this was planned. More likely this was a byproduct of how they implemented Apple Music, which was discovered late in development. It's worth complaining loudly, as it's probably not just a matter of Apple switching something on in the code, but more likely requires a complete new implementation for Home Sharing, which Apple won't do unless there is significant demand. In any case, the Boards report there are third-party apps that do essentially the same thing.
 

smithrh

macrumors 68030
Feb 28, 2009
2,722
1,730
Remote is not a solution.

My server is two floors away. I have no wish to have that playing the songs, I want the music on my touch.
 
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4Apples

macrumors member
May 21, 2013
88
8
I have to say I don't like the way Apple is trying to shove Beats1 down our throats. It now takes longer to navigate in my music library, get to my play list, and my favorite preset radio stations have all been removed thanks to Beat1! So disappointing.
 
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gixxerfool

macrumors 65816
Jun 7, 2008
1,087
786
It's extremely unlikely that this was planned. More likely this was a byproduct of how they implemented Apple Music, which was discovered late in development. It's worth complaining loudly, as it's probably not just a matter of Apple switching something on in the code, but more likely requires a complete new implementation for Home Sharing, which Apple won't do unless there is significant demand. In any case, the Boards report there are third-party apps that do essentially the same thing.
Good point. I'm not opposed to third party options, I'm a fan of the music.app. I was super excited to see up next implemented. I had been hoping for that feature since it was put in iTunes. I really don't use my computer for listening to music as much as I do my iPhone. I hope this is all just until they tweak the code.
 

UnfetteredMind

macrumors 6502
Jun 6, 2012
451
77
I'd never realised this, but then I don't listen to music through my phone in the house. This would be the logical place to add it back in.

Can't believe you don't use Plex on your Apple TV! It's so easy to set-up now using PlexConnect through something like openPlex which pretty much does, or guides you through, everything for you.
I may go that route if it comes to it :)
 
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