Last night, I performed a factory reset and updated back to 2.3.1. After the initial sync, subsequent ones did seem to finish quicker (no updates). I'll check it again tonight as the latest episode of Heroes was downloading as I left.
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What triggers an AppleTV sync?
- Thread starter Macwick
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I took a close look at the AppleScript API for iTunes. There is syntax to sync iPods, but looks like there is nothing for AppleTV.....
What about FROM AppleTV to iTunes?
I purchased the HD version of the last Bond film via my
TV (mainly because I had never rented or purchased anything HD from Apple so was curious) and it to days for the movie to sync into iTunes. Anyone know why? Is this normal?
Honestly I wouldn't normally care but I was very curious of the file size of this "HD" video and noticed it didn't show up in iTunes for two days, despite restarting iTunes, hitting sync, rebooting etc.
Is there a way to manually sync things back to iTunes?
I purchased the HD version of the last Bond film via my
TV (mainly because I had never rented or purchased anything HD from Apple so was curious) and it to days for the movie to sync into iTunes. Anyone know why? Is this normal?Honestly I wouldn't normally care but I was very curious of the file size of this "HD" video and noticed it didn't show up in iTunes for two days, despite restarting iTunes, hitting sync, rebooting etc.
Is there a way to manually sync things back to iTunes?
If memory serves me from when I downloaded it 2 weeks ago, the HD version is approximately 3.5 GB and the SD version is 1.5 GB. As far as syncing something back to iTunes, right click on your AppleTV in iTunes and select the 'sync purchased content to iTunes' or something along that line.
After hearing about people losing media due to the not syncing it back to iTunes, and then having their AppleTV crash, I now purchase everything from my mac, then sync it to the AppleTV.
After hearing about people losing media due to the not syncing it back to iTunes, and then having their AppleTV crash, I now purchase everything from my mac, then sync it to the AppleTV.
Awesome, thank you, though I can't believe I'd have missed that. And I think I'll download directly to iTunes from now on as well; I just wanted to show off the ease of use 🙂
I Stream...
... all my music and video content to my apple TV. I don't keep anything on the actual Apple TV box since I only have a 40GB version. My content is located on an external drive attatched to my iMac. But, I don't ever need to sync after I add a new movie to my itunes library. Generally, it always appears in the shared library folder on my Apple TV. The one time this didn't happen for me I disconected the power from the apple TV waited a bit and then plug the power back in. Sometimes I have issues with the poster art that doesn't show after I add it to the movie info but all I do restart the iTunes app on my iMac. Then when the wireless connection is made again everything is where it's supposed to be. Sounds like maybe you have a network issue. I have an airport extreme base station, my iMac, and my apple TV connected together wirelessly at running 802.11n. I understand that unless you have the newest version of the airport extreme base station your speed gets kicked down to the slower speed across the entire network if you have any 802.11a/b/g devices running on the wireless network. That may explain the time lag you're experienceing.
... all my music and video content to my apple TV. I don't keep anything on the actual Apple TV box since I only have a 40GB version. My content is located on an external drive attatched to my iMac. But, I don't ever need to sync after I add a new movie to my itunes library. Generally, it always appears in the shared library folder on my Apple TV. The one time this didn't happen for me I disconected the power from the apple TV waited a bit and then plug the power back in. Sometimes I have issues with the poster art that doesn't show after I add it to the movie info but all I do restart the iTunes app on my iMac. Then when the wireless connection is made again everything is where it's supposed to be. Sounds like maybe you have a network issue. I have an airport extreme base station, my iMac, and my apple TV connected together wirelessly at running 802.11n. I understand that unless you have the newest version of the airport extreme base station your speed gets kicked down to the slower speed across the entire network if you have any 802.11a/b/g devices running on the wireless network. That may explain the time lag you're experienceing.
Thanks, this is very good to know. I have the exact same setup - I stream everything (except photos). My Apple TV and iMac are connected directly via wired ethernet, so I don't think the network is a problem. Perhaps I will try rebooting my Apple TV and see if the situation improves. Do you find that syncing is immediate even if content is added from outside the iTunes store? (i.e. copying in a movie file). When you add this content, do you notice the Apple TV icon in iTunes syncing immediately?
So you guys are sharing your itunes library on your Macs to your Apple TV, correct? Like when you go to the Movies menu on your ATV, there is a Shared Movies option down there and that's where your movies on your mac are located. I've messed with that and if you are doing it that when then you don't need to sync.
Personally, I have my ATV connected to my iMac, but I turned off the syncing so everything is being streamed to my ATV. Whem I go to the Movies menu on the ATV, all of my movies on my computer's hard drive are under the My Movies option. Doing it this way, I have to hit the sync button in iTunes every time I add a new movie or make a change to a movie I already have. Is this how other people normally do it?
Personally, I have my ATV connected to my iMac, but I turned off the syncing so everything is being streamed to my ATV. Whem I go to the Movies menu on the ATV, all of my movies on my computer's hard drive are under the My Movies option. Doing it this way, I have to hit the sync button in iTunes every time I add a new movie or make a change to a movie I already have. Is this how other people normally do it?
Yep that's what this thread is about. We're trying to figure out if there's a way to have the Apple TV sync up automatically whenever you add new content to your iTunes library (such as a new movie).
And of course for streaming only (which is how you and I have it configured) it only has to sync up the actual library update, not the audio/video file itself....which is why it amazes me that Apple TV doesn't always automatically sync the library info for streaming purposes - why would you ever NOT want that to be in sync?
It used to do this for me... my problems started relatively recently, corresponding to one of the new version updates, but I don't remember which one exactly. I'm hoping the factory reset I did last night will have resolved this problem for me.
possible workaround
I have two appletv's. One is set to sync x most recent items (in my case movies). The other is just set to sync items that are checked off. Using the sync most recent items setting, any time I add an item to itunes for which I've set this setting (ie. a movie or tv show), the appletv automatically syncs (I don't need to click the sync button). The one where I did not select this option for movies and tv shows does not auto-sync.
If you don't want to have a lot of things sync, but want the appletv to auto-sync, i'd suggest setting this to sync the 1 most recent movie and tv show, that way whenever you add a movie or tv show it automatically syncs. If you're limited on space you may only want to do this for movies.
I have two appletv's. One is set to sync x most recent items (in my case movies). The other is just set to sync items that are checked off. Using the sync most recent items setting, any time I add an item to itunes for which I've set this setting (ie. a movie or tv show), the appletv automatically syncs (I don't need to click the sync button). The one where I did not select this option for movies and tv shows does not auto-sync.
If you don't want to have a lot of things sync, but want the appletv to auto-sync, i'd suggest setting this to sync the 1 most recent movie and tv show, that way whenever you add a movie or tv show it automatically syncs. If you're limited on space you may only want to do this for movies.
Please let us know how that works out, thanks. Also, what is the process for doing a factory reset? And what info is lost when you do it? I'm streaming everything so I'm guessing it's no big deal to factory reset the Apple TV....
That is actually a great idea. So you set Apple TV to sync only the most recent movie added. Then whenever you add a movie it will sync that one movie AND the entire library for streaming purposes.
Thanks, I will give that a shot!
No problem! Another thing I thought of would be to sync a smart playlist only containing the most recent item added to your library. I'm at work though, so I can't test, but I've used the sync most recent items for movies and tv shows and it does force a sync whenever something is added (in those categories).
Let me know how it goes!
I just got my 40GB
TV the other day and like you I want to just use it for streaming. Same as you, when I added a load of stuff to iTunes it didn't show on the TV 'til I synced iTunes. I was thinking along similar lines mentioned here, except I'd choose to sync the 'one most recent' Movie, TV show and Podcast, so it updates each time I add any video content which should keep it most up to date. The Apple support document says:
"Custom Sync: You choose the items to sync. After you select this option, click the other tabs to specify your syncing preferences. With this option, you can prevent unsynced items from appearing on your Apple TV (when iTunes is open). To display all items, deselect the checkbox."
Which kind of implies Custom sync = Manual sync ?? Possibly😉
Well, I came home tonight to find that my AppleTV had no idea a new episode of Heroes was downloaded earlier in the morning. However, the manual sync that I initiated only took 15-20 seconds to complete instead of the 5+ minutes before. So the factory restore seems to have had some positive effect, but I still wish it would automatically update...
If you want an applescript that will sync the Apple TV you can use the applescript from this forum post at macosxhints. Then you take the "iPhone" entry and change it to "Apple TV" or whatever you have named the Apple TV. Applescript does not have an easy way to sync Apple TV. Instead you have to have it go through the menu system to select the sync. But you can modify the above script and then have it run once an hour to have iTunes sync with the Apple TV. Really up to you how often you want it to sync.