2011 MacBook Pros Experiencing Issues With Home Sharing in iTunes

[MacRumors]

One of the major new features included in Apple's iOS 4.3 released last week was a new Home Sharing feature allowing users to stream music, movies, and TV shows from Macs and PCs to iOS devices. The feature is an extension of the Home Sharing feature that allowed for streaming between computers and from computers to the Apple TV.

But as noted by AppleInsider, a growing thread in Apple's support discussions reveals that a number of owners of Apple's new MacBook Pros are experiencing problems with Home Sharing compatibility. A similar thread in our own forums also covers the issue, with thirteen poll respondents in that thread reporting experiencing the issue.

Just wanted to pass along my experience with a new 17 inch MacBook Pro quad-core. They don't seem to play very well with Home Sharing. Picked mine up at the Apple store on Friday. Set up Saturday, and at first all seemed well. Was able to stream to my Apple TV 2nd gen just fine. Then, later in the day, although the Apple TV could see the name of my iTunes library, it wouldn't connect to it, or sometimes, would report that "There are no movies in this library". I tried every solution I could think of, but no dice.

Some have suggested that the iTunes 10.2.1 update released last week might address the issue, but that does not appear to be the case.

Last week it was noted that the new MacBook Pros appeared to be having difficulties interfacing with Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display, with the pairing resulting in flickering and flashing on the external display.

Article Link: 2011 MacBook Pros Experiencing Issues With Home Sharing in iTunes

 

[jswright2005]

Thank God I'm not the only one! I thought I was going insane. I upgrade from a 2008 Black MacBook and never had an issue on my same network with my Apple TV 2 home share. Just bought the i7 13" Pro and I've been having this issue frequently. Apple Care made me delete my library file and it fixes it each time, but then it'll just stop working again after so long. Hopefully this is addressed soon.

 

[raejae]

It isn't just the new MacBook Pros.

My home setup consists of a 2005 PowerMac G5 that is the backend and storage for my iDevices. Starting with the iTunes 10.2/iOS 4.3 update I had issues streaming from the Power Mac to both my iPad and AppleTV.

 

[GorgonPhone]

home sharing is lame..

 

[Purdin]

I don't think it's a MacBook Pro issue. I have a mid-2010 iMac 27" and there have been a few times where I have gotten "There are no movies in this library". I have to restart iTunes and reboot the Apple TV to get it to work.

Once I did that and it still didn't fix the problem. I ended up having to use AirPlay from my iMac to my Apple TV in order to get anything to play.

 

[drewsky5]

I have a 2008 MacBook Pro and it disconnects me at random times too. Crashes the iPod app on the iPhone and disconnects. It's super annoying.

 

[anim8or]

home sharing is lame..

Mature!

 

[bilbo--baggins]

I'm sure it's just bugs in iTunes. I'm having similar problems with my early 2008 Mac Pro. In fact, when I woke mine from sleep this afternoon it gave some strange message about how it's renamed my computer because another computer on the same network was using the same name.

I wonder if this is the computer equivalent of de ja vu? (what I'm trying to say here, is there is no other computer on the network of the same name, it's presumably getting confused, thinking itself is another computer...)

 

[kuwisdelu]

Hmm, I don't have iOS 4.3 (2nd gen Touch here) but could this explain why Remote.app can connect to my 2007 MacBook's library and not my new 2011 MBP's library? (iTunes and firewall are configured the same for each.)

I hope a fix comes soon.

 

[jonnysods]

First we had antennagate...

Now we have homesharinggate...

 

[stewart1988]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8F190 Safari/6533.18.5)

I've had no problems with my older Intel White iMac and 09 MacBook Pro.
Works nicely

 

[AidenShaw]

Mediatate to the Apple mantra

First we had antennagate...

Now we have homesharinggate...

Don't worry - just stick your fingers in your ears and loudly chant "it just works".

Before too long you'll forget that it doesn't always work.

 

[BenRoethig]

They'll just follow the usual update procedure of deny there's a problem, blame the user, and then release a fix.

 

[Vigilo]

This isn't limited to Mac Book Pros - I have an iMac at home - when i updated to the new iTunes and update for Apple TV (second generation) - NONE of my movies have sound. The night before they played perfectly.

 

[Stiksi]

Don't worry - just stick your fingers in your ears and loudly chant "it just works".

Before too long you'll forget that it doesn't always work.

It just works in mysterious ways.

 

[g-boac]

I have this exact same issue - I have a 2010 MBP, 15", Core i7. This issue started recently; not 100% sure whether it started when I updated MBP to iTunes 10.2, 10.2.1, or Apple TV to its latest iOS released ~11 MAR. But this never happened prior to then.

Very frustrating - it's simply a pain to have to go get up and reboot both the TV and relaunch home sharing on the MBP, and to not know whether my program is going to resume playing each time I pause a show or sit down to watch TV.

does anybody have a link to the Apple Discussions threads?

Mark

 

[strabes]

Home Sharing?

Could someone explain to me what the point of home sharing is?

 

[Consultant]

I got a new 2011 MBP.

Tried to set it up. Can't see on original iPad with iOS 4.3. Will try later with other computers.

 

[bilbo--baggins]

Could someone explain to me what the point of home sharing is?

It means you can share your iTunes library on your home network. eg. I can listen to music on my iPhone streamed from my computer, and then perhaps tell it to output via my Apple TV instead.

It's how I've wanted it to all work for a long time - the just need to fix some bugs and it will be great.

 

[duffer6]

Could someone explain to me what the point of home sharing is?

See below; Home sharing is awesome when it works!!!!


Summary
Home Sharing in iTunes is designed to let you stream and transfer music, videos, and more with up to five other computers on your local network.

Products Affected
iTunes 9, iTunes 10
Note: Movie rentals cannot be streamed or transferred using Home Sharing.

Home Sharing requires:

iTunes 9 or later
Apple ID associated with an iTunes or App Store Account
Local Network connection (Ethernet or Wi-Fi)
Active Internet connection
This article discusses enabling and using Home Sharing. For troubleshooting assistance see iTunes: Troubleshooting Home Sharing

Expand All Sections | Collapse All Sections

Enabling Home Sharing

Using Home Shares

Automatically transfer iTunes Store content between your Home Shares

Additional Information
Home Sharing is designed to be the easiest way to copy items from your iTunes Library between your Macs or PCs in your home.

 

[jonnysods]

Could someone explain to me what the point of home sharing is?

Home Sharing is the cats meow. It means that you can have all your movies, music, whatever just on the one machine, and you can watch all that stuff on your iPad, iPod, iPhone, ATV, stuff like that without having to sync. I use it all the time on my iPad, it's great.

 

[paulold]

Could someone explain to me what the point of home sharing is?

My favorite use of home sharing is to be able to play a song on my iTunes on my laptop and send it wirelessly to my Apple TV which is connected to my HDTV via HDMI. I then have my HDTV connected to my home stereo via an optical cable. This means I am wirelessly transmitted a digital copy of my music to my stereo which is way better than what I used to have to do with wires.

The added benefits are being able to then change songs using my iPhone or iPad instead of going to my laptop. Plus it's easy to transfer music from one computer in the house to another if needed. But homesharing kinda eliminates the need to have multiple copies of my music files.

 

[NeverhadaPC]

Questions as I don't quite get how Home Sharing is new/useful.

1. Is Home Sharing proving a way to transfer iTunes DRM files between computers/ipods/pads on the same iTunes account? Is this new?

2. How is this different from streaming shared playlists in iTunes?

3. Is Home Sharing a separate App or part of iTunes?

 

[trekkie604]

And my 5 year old media storage PC running Windows 7 works with Home Sharing perfectly.

 

[newdeal]

...

At least they released home sharing. Maybe this is the same type of issue that caused them to drop AirPrint and never mention it again (although in typing that I can see it's still in iOS 4.3s autocorrect)