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Help me understand the 5 device limit for the ATVs in my home. Having problems.....

OP

I just thought of something..... May not work but here goes.

Do you subscribe to iTunes Match? Are all the Apple TVs set up with iTunes Match?

I was just wondering since iTunes Match has a 10 device limit, it would override the 5 device itunes limit???

Just a thought.......
 
JabberWokker said:
Hi All,

The problem is a pain and apple should not allow just five. But it exists and I have done extensive work on finding a working solution.

Quite simple really, for example I run a MacMini with up to ten working ATVs at one time and the limit can go further, I have tested. Just have multiple users logged in where each user runs a copy of iTunes and points to all your media. Make sure that the iTunes library has a different home sharing name as the remote gets problems and of course a different Apple ID just for the home sharing. Only up to five apple tvs should be setup to use each home sharing account. Incidentally i just use an old 4gb core duo 2.5 MacMini for this.

The only pain is you need to log into each itunes user to add the media separately when you add a movie etc. I can't remember off hand but there are only a handful of files you need to be different for each user. It's also a problem with the remote as you can only have one home sharing account on the device setup at a time, so I use an ipod for my second one.

So there it is, a working solution, not elegant but does the job rather well.

Hope this helps you all.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a straight forward workaround. Unfortunately, that is not a solution that I can employ. I have an extensive library and the family uses all the different points throughout the house (ATV, iPads) that it just adds the potential for one more layer of frustration (i.e., forgot to log in/out of one, forgot to add a title to a library, and so on). Right now, the "easiest" solution is to shut down iTunes and then re-fire it up. Really wish Apple would fix this! I should be able to connect all 6 ATVs in the house as well as all the iPads, regardless of how many I have. They are all mine, registered to me, and playing on my network. Rant over 😀

The-Pro said:
Interesting

What happens if you, lets say, connect 3 apple tv's and 2 ipad's and then try to connect more ipads and apple tvs.
Im interesting if its any 5 devices connected or literally only 5 apple tvs.
Click to expand...

I didn't try that. I'll have to give it a whirl when I get the time (this weekend).

2010mini said:
OP

I just thought of something..... May not work but here goes.

Do you subscribe to iTunes Match? Are all the Apple TVs set up with iTunes Match?

I was just wondering since iTunes Match has a 10 device limit, it would override the 5 device itunes limit???

Just a thought.......
Click to expand...

We don't have iTunes match. Have thought about it, but haven't seen the use yet since we have a Pandora PRO account and most of our favorite music on all the ios devices.

How would hypothesize that iTunes match would work in this situation as it pertains to movies on the network since it is a music service?
 
GhostMac24 said:
....We don't have iTunes match. Have thought about it, but haven't seen the use yet since we have a Pandora PRO account and most of our favorite music on all the ios devices.

How would hypothesize that iTunes match would work in this situation as it pertains to movies on the network since it is a music service?
Click to expand...

I was thinking maybe the music content you have on your itunes is more the reason for the 5 device limit and iTunes Match would eliminate that.

Long shot, but its the best I have so far.
 
Sounds like a valid hypothesis. Might just have to try to test that 🙂

We planned on getting it anyway so maybe that will be on the list to explore this weekend.
 
AFAIK there's no such thing as a device limit.

Are you sure the problem isn't that the OS itself has a limit on how many connections it can take? I've never used OSX as a home server so, while I'd assume it doesn't have one, I can't say for sure.

I have a home server that's a Win7 box running iTunes. At any given time, I have the following connected to it:

- my iMac (takes 1/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- eldest child's iMac (takes 2/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- middle child's PC (takes 3/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- the server itself takes 4/5 "authenticated" licenses
- Apple TV in master bedroom
- Apple TV in 2nd living (den)
- Apple TV in Primary Living
- My iPad Mini
- "Family" iPad 2
- Middle child's "iPhone 3GS" (used as an iPod Touch)
- Eldest child's iPhone 4
- Youngest child's/family iPad 1
- My iPhone 5
- Wife's iPhone 5
- Youngest Child's "iPhone 3G" (again, used as an iPod Touch)

At any given time, all of those are connecting to and streaming video from the server using home sharing. Over 2 years with this setup and I've not one time hit any sort of device limit on how many devices can log into Home Sharing, with the obvious exception of the computers themselves: they do require the system to be an iTunes Store authenticated device before they're allowed to login to Home Sharing. But other than those, I've never had any sort of device limitation, and any connectivity issues I've ever had have always been resolved by:
- Rebooting the server;
- Rebooting the device/Apple TV;
- Troubleshooting network connectivity issues.

All that to say: I'd rule out any potential "device limit" and focus on system limitations or network connectivity issues.
 
kelub said:
Are you sure the problem isn't that the OS itself has a limit on how many connections it can take? I've never used OSX as a home server so, while I'd assume it doesn't have one, I can't say for sure.

I have a home server that's a Win7 box running iTunes. At any given time, I have the following connected to it:

- my iMac (takes 1/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- eldest child's iMac (takes 2/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- middle child's PC (takes 3/5 "authenticated" licenses)
- the server itself takes 4/5 "authenticated" licenses
- Apple TV in master bedroom
- Apple TV in 2nd living (den)
- Apple TV in Primary Living
- My iPad Mini
- "Family" iPad 2
- Middle child's "iPhone 3GS" (used as an iPod Touch)
- Eldest child's iPhone 4
- Youngest child's/family iPad 1
- My iPhone 5
- Wife's iPhone 5
- Youngest Child's "iPhone 3G" (again, used as an iPod Touch)

At any given time, all of those are connecting to and streaming video from the server using home sharing. Over 2 years with this setup and I've not one time hit any sort of device limit on how many devices can log into Home Sharing, with the obvious exception of the computers themselves: they do require the system to be an iTunes Store authenticated device before they're allowed to login to Home Sharing. But other than those, I've never had any sort of device limitation, and any connectivity issues I've ever had have always been resolved by:
- Rebooting the server;
- Rebooting the device/Apple TV;
- Troubleshooting network connectivity issues.

All that to say: I'd rule out any potential "device limit" and focus on system limitations or network connectivity issues.
Click to expand...

We can do pretty much that. The hiccup is when the are more than 5 ATVs. We can have 5 ATVs connected and other iOS devices (iPhone/iPad, etc) but not a 6th ATV.
 
I have 3 appletvs and put them all to never go to sleep.

I also leave my iMac to never go to sleep either (screen goes dark though) .

I rarely have any connection problems after doing all of this. Maybe once every 2 months or so.
 
2010mini said:
OP

I just thought of something..... May not work but here goes.

Do you subscribe to iTunes Match? Are all the Apple TVs set up with iTunes Match?

I was just wondering since iTunes Match has a 10 device limit, it would override the 5 device itunes limit???

Just a thought.......
Click to expand...
No that does not work, the limit is five ATVs on at the same time. The 6th will not work, those that have a working solution have them dropping and then reconnecting (prob via sleep or dropped network), but I doubt very much 6 or more working at the same time.
 
GhostMac24 said:
I have an extensive library and the family uses all the different points throughout the house (ATV, iPads) that it just adds the potential for one more layer of frustration (i.e., forgot to log in/out of one, forgot to add a title to a library, and so on).
Click to expand...

I have a huge library and never need to log in or out and use a cheap eBay iPod touch for the remote on my second Apple TVs media library.

Agree the pain is updating each library with links to new media added, but it’s just once for each iTunes library, so for you only adding twice each time. Thinking on this, if old style sharing of the library is employed I think there is a way to view what’s on another library and not local and then copy over via iTunes itself, so nothing missing. May try it myself.

Also the problem with the iPads, iPhones etc should be limited to just if you view the library via sharing on the device in videos and music as they are setup with a specific apple id sharing account.

Airplay will work with all the Apple TVs on the network no matter what their home sharing apple id is. I don’t play local on my iDevices and have my media streamed direct to the ATV, so the iDevice is only a remote not a viewer.

GhostMac24 said:
Right now, the "easiest" solution is to shut down iTunes and then re-fire it up.
Click to expand...
I would love an app that restarts iTunes remotely as I still get the occasional crashes etc. Anyone know of an iOS one let me know. Maybe one day I will write it.
 
JabberWokker said:
I would love an app that restarts iTunes remotely as I still get the occasional crashes etc. Anyone know of an iOS one let me know. Maybe one day I will write it.
Click to expand...

What I do if the situation happens is that I log into my iMac remotely with my Logmein app to control that desktop and just shut down iTunes and then reopen. It's a pain in the butt but easier if we are in the theatre room as our home is rather large and it would take longer to go down to my office to do the same thing.
 
I don't know if this is directly related to the problem the original poster is having directly or not, but I just submitted a bug report to Apple about connection problems to a home sharing computer. There is definitely a bug in there somewhere.

This is what happened here. I often use a sleep aid noise music file with an Airport Express in my bedroom and set iTunes to play the file on repeat all night long. This works fine and always has even with my previous PPC Mac being a server (currently using a 2012 Mac Mini as the server). I also have an Airport Express and music system setup in the guest bedroom. I had a guest come over and they had trouble sleeping the first night so I asked them if they'd like a sleep aid file playing and they said yes.

I previewed the files available on a 2nd Generation Apple TV. While selecting another file while one was playing after doing so for about 5-6 files, the AppleTV gave me a "busy indicator" (circular one) and it could not connect to the server home share. Nothing I did would make any difference. It just crapped out completely for home sharing on that computer period. The only thing that brought it back up was quitting iTunes and restarting it (just turning off home sharing and then back on did not work. NO other device could connect to Home Sharing at that point either (I tried my iPod Touch). Once iTunes was quit and restarted, it started working again.

Since the file they wanted to hear was not one I like to sleep by (thunderstorm from the field perspective) and they didn't have their own iOS device to control the guest device, I figured I could use the AppleTV to control it for that room and use iTunes to control it for my own room. I selected the sleep aid file they wanted and set it to output to the guest bedroom and put it on repeat on its own playlist (since the stupid ATV interface has NO "repeat one" option and just to get repeat period you have to go to the general preference audio menu. Why on earth they couldn't put the repeat option in the hold button pop-up menu is utterly beyond me). The thunderstorm file played for like 6 hours last night according to my guest, but when I got up this morning (my own file was still playing on repeat from iTunes from a RAM disk I set up so that the media drive doesn't have to spin all night normally), the external hard drive was asleep (indicating it stopped being used for 10 minutes straight at some point) and the AppleTV was alseep as well. Waking it up, it was in the middle of playing the file and it could not re-connect. As before, NOTHING could connect to iTunes Home Sharing so THAT is where the problem must be or it would only affect that one device, not everything. iTunes itself was still working from its own interface and 1st Gen ATVs could still connect normally. Only the newer "Home Sharing" was down. Devices could still connect via Airplay to all the speaker systems so a Home Sharing bug of some kind is clearly the issue.

I've reported the bug as best I could (the amount of feedback allowed to describe what happened is very limited). I would recommend more people having problems report it as well if they ever want Apple to do anything about it (they often seem to ignore reports unless they get many of them, although they did fix a PPC bug that was causing kernal panics for me once and contacted me directly about it, but that was a few years ago).
 
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