Apple TV 4K Home Sharing Bug

[Tizzy1983]

So I'm having some trouble with my Apple TV 4K, in all areas it seems to be working absolutely fine except Home Sharing, It see's and recognises my iTunes library no problem I can browse all my music, movies, tv shows no problem, the trouble starts when I try to play any content, it plays anywhere between 5-20 seconds and and then fails and I get a brief glimpse of the usual "no libraries found" message which very quickly disappears by its self and I'm returned back to my libraries home screen. the app itself doesn't crash just the playback, this only happens with home sharing content, iTunes content streamed from the cloud, Netlix, Amazon and YouTube all stream and work fine so its not a internet issue and I have a previous Apple TV in another room which does not have this problem, that one can see my home library and playback is seamless with no problems so I don't think it is a home network issue, I tried connecting the Apple TV 4K up over Ethernet to maybe eliminate wi-fi as a issue, but nothing I have done seems to fix this, I was wondering if anybody else has had this problem?

 

[IscariotJ]

Yup, I've been encountering this since the last update. I've ended up having to reboot the ATV, then it'll let me watch a few TV episode's, and then it'll start misbehaving again. I thought it was just mine, but obviously not. I'll raise a bug, though I don't have high hopes, virtually all of mine raised against the ATV are still open ( some are years old ).

EDIT: *sigh* just tried to raise a bug, but it seems everything has to be done via the Feedback Assistant, now, and that only covers beta software. Apple, one step forward, a large stumble back....

 

[Tizzy1983]

Well that's unfortunate but I can at least take a little solace in knowing I'm not alone in having this problem, I wonder if this issue still persists in the new tvOS beta's might look into trying that somehow.

Out of interest what is your home network set up? I'm locked into the SkyQ hub at the moment which I know uses its own mesh system, the thought did cross my mind that it could be some hardware conflict as Sky are not known for being top of the tech pile.

 

[IscariotJ]

I'm running multiple Amplifi HD's, with the ATV being wifi, but my Mac is hardwired into one of the mesh points. That's an interesting point, I have seen "complaints" about Apple kit and mesh hardware not playing nicely. I wonder if something was changed in the network code of the last tvOS update.... FWIW, I've managed to get access to be able to raise bugs, so I'll raise one for this. Might be worth a try, otherwise, it's going to be a long wait until tvOS13.....

 

[priitv8]

I've witnessed said behaviour on my aTV 4K, but that was when I:

1. had 2 ethernet connections on my Mac Mini that serves also as iTunes server
2. had semi-managed ethernet switch on my network where I tried to control multicast flood on my network.

Since I've removed both from my LAN, said Home Sharing issue also disappeared.
So I can not attribute this behaviour to one or another.
But I am leaning towards problems with multicast packet forwarding on the network causing this.

 

[IscariotJ]

I've witnessed said behaviour on my aTV 4K, but that was when I:

1. had 2 ethernet connections on my Mac Mini that serves also as iTunes server
2. had semi-managed ethernet switch on my network where I tried to control multicast flood on my network.

Since I've removed both from my LAN, said Home Sharing issue also disappeared.
So I can not attribute this behaviour to one or another.
But I am leaning towards problems with multicast packet forwarding on the network causing this.

Funny you should mention multi-cast, last night I updated my Amplifi's to v3, and I've just tried to replicate the problem so I could generate a sysdiagnose, and it no longer happens ( sure I read that there have been changes to multi-cast in the new firmware )... Will keep trying, though, just in case....

 

[IscariotJ]

Funny you should mention multi-cast, last night I updated my Amplifi's to v3, and I've just tried to replicate the problem so I could generate a sysdiagnose, and it no longer happens ( sure I read that there have been changes to multi-cast in the new firmware )... Will keep trying, though, just in case....

After a couple of weeks of faultless streaming, the behaviour has returned, though i no longer need to reboot to get it working, after 2-3 attempts, it all works. Damn annoying. I’ve used the Feedback app to log it as a bug, though i don't have much hope of a response.

 

[mpainesyd]

Yup, I've been encountering this since the last update. I've ended up having to reboot the ATV, then it'll let me watch a few TV episode's, and then it'll start misbehaving again. I thought it was just mine, but obviously not. I'll raise a bug, though I don't have high hopes, virtually all of mine raised against the ATV are still open ( some are years old ).

EDIT: *sigh* just tried to raise a bug, but it seems everything has to be done via the Feedback Assistant, now, and that only covers beta software. Apple, one step forward, a large stumble back....

How about https://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html
?
My previous generation ATV still works well with Homesharing but I am dreading the day that an "upgrade" to the ATV or iTunes breaks the system. Playing iTunes content from a Mac doesn't fit in with Apple's business model for paid streaming services!