Solve enabling media home sharing on MacOS

[dobratzp]

This took me a few hours to figure out, but I thought I'd post this here in case anyone is having the same issue migrating to a new mac and enabling home sharing of music and videos.

I am in the process of migrating from a 2012 Mac Mini to a 2020 Mac Mini M1. The old Mac Mini was running MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and the new Mac Mini is running the latest MacOS Ventura 13.1.

Whenever I tried to enable Settings => General => Sharing => Media Sharing, it would prompt me to log in with my Apple ID, but then never actually turn on the Home Sharing service. Some time the Family process would be not responding and the Apple ID and password dialog box would just have a spinner indefinitely waiting. In some cases, this actually prevented quitting the Settings.app and also prevented restarting the computer (had to pull the power plug multiple times in this process).

Finally, I realized that the computer needed to be "authorized"

1. From the Music.app or TV.app, Account => Account Settings
2. In the Apple ID summary section, next to Computer Authorizations, Deauthorize All. Note that this is a once a year option, but handy if you have devices that are authorized but you no longer have physical control over.
3. From the Music.app or TV.app, Account => Authorizations => Authorize This Computer

More about authorizations

Once I did this, then I could go into Settings => General => Sharing => Media Sharing and successfully turn on Media Sharing. Then I could go to my Apple TV box connected to my TV and browse and play all the media in my library.

For some reason, browsing the Home Sharing Media on my iPhone doesn't work correctly (takes forever to load the names of the movies and then errors when attempting to play a movie). If we need to view media on iPhone or iPad, we plug in the device with a USB cable and transfer files from the Mac Mini.

I have all of my media stored on an external hard drive and the metadata for the music and movies are stored in the files themselves. For Music, I use X Lossless Decoder => Mp3tag. For movies, I use MakeMKV => Handbrake => Subler. Most media, I buy on physical discs, but I also have a few purchased items from the iTunes store. I re-created the Music and TV libraries by importing all the files again (note that this loses the play counts). For the iTunes store purchased, the metadata is not re-read from disc until you check the item info (Cmd + I) on each item.

 

[FilthyMuppetInnuendo]

Hey, thanks a ton. I was tearing my hair out today setting up an M2 Mac mini as a replacement iTunes server. I had the exact same problem, but had already authorized the computer. Deauthorizing and reauthorizing fixed it a treat. And now, to get out my soapbox and megaphone, here's my obligatory screaming at the top of my lungs about how ludicrous and nonsensical this behavior is from Apple.

For me to have Home Sharing access to the three separate iTunes libraries that my family needs, I have to run THREE SEPARATE ACCOUNTS on this Mac Mini simultaneously with THREE SEPARATE INSTANCES of the TV application running simultaneously. Moreover, I cannot search through this media with either Siri or the TV application, nor can I play it by using Siri commands on my HomePods or Apple TVs. I have to manually find exactly what I'm looking for, every time.

In a world where Apple still cared about local libraries, I would be able to have an iTunes library folder tree set up (as many as I wanted, in fact), and I would be able to plug that external hard drive straight into my AirPort Extreme (or other Wi-Fi router) and have the libraries be separately accessible from any device on the network also signed into that same Home Sharing account. I would also be able to, you know, use Siri to play a local file. I just do not understand why this has been forbidden.

Thank you again for the quick troubleshoot!

 

[dobratzp]

Heard good things about Plex, and I was somewhat close to going that route, but for now I'll just keep using the built-in media server.

 

[McScooby]

Heard good things about Plex, and I was somewhat close to going that route, but for now I'll just keep using the built-in media server.

Check out Infuse.

 

[jasnw]

[Deleted]

 

[agathezol]

I have to second Infuse - specifically over Plex. The nice thing with Infuse is it's ultimately a slick SMB client (along with other protocols), rather than a full client/server architecture, as Plex is. Less complexity, still looks like Netflix. The backend is simply a file server - nothing more. Been using Infuse for years and I have no complaints whatsoever.

 

[HDFan]

slick SMB client (along with other protocols), rather than a full client/server architecture,

True, but my preference is for Plex. Much more powerful in display, sorting, library and other options but consequently more complex as so many options.

There are also 3rd party apps available such as Tautulli which will give you play information such as play counts, durations, most watched movies, artists etc. over the last xxx number of days. Tautulli however is a docker application which is another layer of complexity.

 

[mmae010]

Thank you! This worked!

 

[Dee1jay]

Spent 2 days searching internet and using ChatGPT with no luck. This was exactly what I needed to do. Home Sharing now works perfectly. Many thanks!