Home Sharing stopped working

[tombee]

I'm having some issues as lots of other folks, but noticed something today I thought was worthy of highlighting...

I've got a couple 4th gen AppleTv's and a couple 3rd gens.
I am pc/windows based.

Running itunes on home desktop computer - I used to be able to stream music to all my appleTV's, no problem.

Something got broke with the latest itunes and appletv os updates.
I can no longer stream audio to the 4th gen appleTV's.
Interestingly, I can stream to the 3rd gens.

I've done all the restarts/reboots possible - network, routhers, turning on/off home sharing at both the appletv and itunes level, etc.

What I noticed today is the 4th gen appletv's are listed as streaming locations, but they show an 'lock'. (see attached image)
In the past I recall having to enter a code on itunes to get things working occasionally - is there a way to force that? Maybe that would unlock them and enable streaming...

Lastly, I have had no luck getting photos from my home pc to be my screensaver via homesharing. I've resorted to using an ios photo folder.
Why can't apple test this stuff and quit breaking what works???

Garage" and "home Theater" are 4th gen, Family Room v3 is a 3rd gen and the last two are speakers with airplay.

 

[priitv8]

I think, this must be related to AirPlay 2. I can not select the AP2 devices like in old days either (they stop playing and the blue icon on iTunes toolbar turns yellow). But if I switch iTunes to the correct AP2 output device, then I can select anything for playback.
PS do you have the Home app on Windows, so that you can add your AP2 devices to your home and rooms?

 

[tombee]

I think I agree with you that the issue is likely AirPlay2. The older devices/speakers all work, but the two devices with AP2 do not.
However, I can't even get my itunes to play to one of my atv4 units.

I've never seen the 'switch to' option on the airplay speakers you showed in the screenshot and am not aware of a "Home" app.

 

[priitv8]

I've never seen the 'switch to' option on the airplay speakers you showed in the screenshot and am not aware of a "Home" app.

I reckon this is 100% Mac-specific then. You can add aTV to your home on either iPhone or iPad as well, obviously.

 

[rck77]

Had similar symptoms. Home Sharing on Apple TV would not show any photos (for Apple TV > Settings > General > Screen Saver > Type > Home Sharing > Photos), no matter which way sharing was configured on Mac (System Preferences > Sharing > Media Sharing > Home Sharing > Share Photos with Apple TV > Share Photos from [Photos > Album | Choose Folder ... > Finder folder of photos]). Music can be streamed from Mac to AppleTV4K, so all those other prerequisites were demonstrated to be already in place.


AppleCare showed me this workaround: (for Mac OS X 10.15.2 / Catalina, TVos 13.3)

[1] Check: Apple TV > Settings > Users and Accounts > iCloud > Shared Albums is ON. Open Apple TV app Photos, check that Shared is an option in menu bar at top.

[2] From Mac Photos App, *share* an album (or some set of photos) to be used as screensaver to "Shared Albums".

[3] On Apple TV > Settings > General > Screen Saver > Type > My Photos > <shared_album>.

~~~

Screensaver now runs the selected screensaver using the Shared Album (when screensaver was activated by going to top level menu on ATV and pressing Menu button one more time).

Waiting now to see if the settings all 'stick' and persist through on/off/sleep cycles of the ATV ... see if the workaround is a useable one.