Apple TV can't access shared content on Mac Mini suddenly.

[PinkyMacGodess]

So, I don't remember exactly when it happened, but for the past few months, I have had a problem getting my ATV to connect to my Mac Mini to play movies and other videos.

Sometimes, infrequently, I can get it to see the content, and then sometimes it will actually play the content, and sometimes it will stop playing and that's that. I have rebooted both, sometimes it works, and when it works, it might not work the next day, let alone the next movie/video.

So, lately I either get an error that it can't connect, or I get an error that there is no content on the device.

I just quit and restarted media sharing, and no effect. So today, I was trying to access the Mac Mini and I was getting the spiky ball, and I quit the TV app on the Mini, and *POOF* I saw the list. So I started the TV app again, and *POOF* back to nothing. I restarted everything, nope...

Both are on the same subnet, and I can see the mini and log into it fine. It has a static address, and the ATV is using DHCP. Back way before this started, I would just simultaneously reboot everything, and it would work fine. Now? I need something new to coax this mess to work...

Both the Mini and the ATV are updated to the latest versions. Is that the problem? *sigh*

 

[satcomer]

Did you turn on the firewall on Mac at all while sharing? System Presences->Security & Privacy pane, firewall tab!

 

[Casey Royals]

What app on the Apple TV do you use to access the files on you Mac mini, and what sharing method are you using on the Mac mini?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Did you turn on the firewall on Mac at all while sharing? System Presences->Security & Privacy pane, firewall tab!

I'll check, but if it was on, it wouldn't work at all.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

What app on the Apple TV do you use to access the files on you Mac mini, and what sharing method are you using on the Mac mini?

'Computers'. Just sharing 'Media Sharing' with 'Home Sharing' turned on.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Firewall and Screen Saver after an hour were turned on. *sigh*

I'll see if this works. What is turning these features on? GRRR...

 

[HDFan]

How are you connected - hard wired, ethernet? What are your speedtest results?

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

How are you connected - hard wired, ethernet? What are your speedtest results?

Hard wired, and nothing has changed which is making this so frustrating. NOTHING (that I know of) HAS CHANGED!!

It has done this before, but not in a while. Back then all it took was simultaneous rebooting of the server, and the Apple TV's. So, NONE of the Apple TV's can access the server. None...

Occasionally, in the past, when the 'main' ATV hasn't been able to access the server, the others have. Not now...

It's got to be on the server, but turning firewall off and screen saver didn't fix it this time. I had to reload the Mini that I used for my bike trainer app, will I have to reload this Mini too?

Is anyone else that is using a Mini, or Monterey for a 'media server' having this issue? It's either something screwey with Monterey, or something I'm missing somewhere, and was tweaked somehow. (Come on Apple, maybe stop causing issues with updates people, please)

What ports does 'media sharing' use? Thinking maybe I can scan ports and try to connect to it and see what I get. So frustrated...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Under 'Media Sharing', I enabled 'Guest access', but the Apple TV shouldn't be a guest, they have the ability to log into the server as a registered user. I'll try it and see what happens. I'm not thinking opening up that level of access isn't advisable, and hope it doesn't work. Good grief...

 

[Boyd01]

I use a 2014 Mini as a dedicated iTunes server with over 2tb of content for my two Apple TV's, Mac, iPad and iPhone. No problems at all. Hate to say this (and know that it doesn't help you)... but this thread is yet another reason why I am staying on Mojave/iTunes on that Mini. I don't use it for anything else, so not too worried about running an unsupported operating system.

My experience has been that the TV app which replaced iTunes is just a mess all-around. Really hope you find a solution and will be following this thread. Someday I guess I'll need to upgrade to a newer operating system on that Mini, but have very little faith that Apple will ever fix these problems. I just don't think they have much interest in media sharing, they want you to stream everything from their own servers.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I think you are experiencing Apple bugs. I had them on and off in that area over the years, until I started using third party apps like Infuse or Plex. No more probs. Give Plex a go. It is free and easy to set up.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I use a 2014 Mini as a dedicated iTunes server with over 2tb of content for my two Apple TV's, Mac, iPad and iPhone. No problems at all. Hate to say this (and know that it doesn't help you)... but this thread is yet another reason why I am staying on Mojave/iTunes on that Mini. I don't use it for anything else, so not too worried about running an unsupported operating system.

My experience has been that the TV app which replaced iTunes is just a mess all-around. Really hope you find a solution and will be following this thread. Someday I guess I'll need to upgrade to a newer operating system on that Mini, but have very little faith that Apple will ever fix these problems. I just don't think they have much interest in media sharing, they want you to stream everything from their own servers.

I had thought of keeping it on an earlier version of macOS, but had issues with an earlier incarnation of this setup, and found that I (thought) I needed to keep it rather up to date. Maybe it was a bug I was fighting back then too. I remember it not working, and after updating to the next macOS version, it all started working again. I do have some earlier versions of macOS on DVD, so I guess I could downgrade things.

Call me paranoid, but I have avoided using third party apps to get this accomplished because they can break, and also tattle on users. I have had, by and large, great results but it's the feeling that keeping the setup running is proving to be more and more difficult. Having to blow away the Mini I was using for my bike trainer app took some of the gloss off of Monterey to be sure. They fixed the epic USB failures, and then couldn't fix that last issue, plus I live with the thought that it could start up (I mean fail down) at any moment. Maybe I have battered tech user syndrome, but when it works, it's amazing and so good, but when it doesn't work, it is epic devastation. 'I just want to watch my videos'...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So, resolved, but...

Opened case w/Apple Support. Did all of the things I had done countless times before. This time, makes no sense, restarted the U-Verse RG, and...

It works...

I'm stunned...

What kind of dark magic would cause that to happen...

Solar rays and U-Verse? Wow... But I was getting all kinds of odd shaped messages. It was getting fun, guessing what message I was going to get next...

Never believe that there isn't dark magic at work in the world...

(I once did the 'DO-DO-DO-DO' music from that scifi show, in a clients lobby. Their server crashed RIGHT THEN, RIGHT THERE)

 

[jeff051177]

I'm amazed that you've made it to 2022 and are still persevering with using a mac as a iTunes server - I got so cheesed-off with it's random and inconsistent behavior that I made the switch to plex years ago and haven't looked back.

Call me paranoid, but I have avoided using third party apps to get this accomplished because they can break, and also tattle on users. I have had, by and large, great results but it's the feeling that keeping the setup running is proving to be more and more difficult

Plex is so much better than iTunes for sharing media within a household that it's laughable - everything from it's capability, it's reliability, to the whole look and feel of the various interfaces. Having used iTunes to try to manage my media collection for years, Plex Media Server is just 10x better.

I've have mine running on a Synology NAS for maybe 4 or 5 years now - and it hasn't missed a beat in that time - seriously, I can't think of one issue that I've had.

Obviously DRM is an issue for movies/TV shows, if you've bought these from apple (rather than ripping from your own disks) which would need to be addressed one way or another, but such was my dissatisfaction with the Apple Home media sharing "experience" that this was a small obstacle to overcome.

Sorry - I'm aware I'm sounding evangelical - but the 3rd party alternatives are SO much better than what apple is offering, people should at least give them a try.

 

[Boyd01]

I'm amazed that you've made it to 2022 and are still persevering with using a mac as a iTunes server

I have been using a Mini since about 2014 as an iTunes server. Very few problems at all. Have upgraded the server a couple times, currently using a 2014 2.8ghz i5/8gb Mini running iTunes on Mojave with media on a 4tb external SSD. It runs 24/7 and gets re-booted (maybe) three times a year.

Is there something better? No doubt, but this is good enough for me.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I'm amazed that you've made it to 2022 and are still persevering with using a mac as a iTunes server - I got so cheesed-off with it's random and inconsistent behavior that I made the switch to plex years ago and haven't looked back.



Plex is so much better than iTunes for sharing media within a household that it's laughable - everything from it's capability, it's reliability, to the whole look and feel of the various interfaces. Having used iTunes to try to manage my media collection for years, Plex Media Server is just 10x better.

I've have mine running on a Synology NAS for maybe 4 or 5 years now - and it hasn't missed a beat in that time - seriously, I can't think of one issue that I've had.

Obviously DRM is an issue for movies/TV shows, if you've bought these from apple (rather than ripping from your own disks) which would need to be addressed one way or another, but such was my dissatisfaction with the Apple Home media sharing "experience" that this was a small obstacle to overcome.

Sorry - I'm aware I'm sounding evangelical - but the 3rd party alternatives are SO much better than what apple is offering, people should at least give them a try.

I have a bunch of movies that are ont he server that are the 'Included with' packaging. Losing that (stupid) DRM capability would be a blow for sure.

I did run the system on a very older version of macOS, and it got so flaky I felt basically forced to update it. Once I did that, everything worked like before. For the most part, I haven't had issues with it working. I mean, occasionally I have had hiccups, and rebooting everything fixes it. This last time, the old fixes didn't work. I am surprised that rebooting the RG seems to have 'fixed' the problem, but...

Going with a different solution is not a great idea,f or my use. I mean, if I got to that point, I'd lean strongly towards using a real Windows server and a RAID array. Yeah that would likely be a heavy lift, and the thought of fighting that to get it to work has stopped me from trying it.

A 'media server' *should* be a natural fit for Apple! It really should be! Allow the server to supply content to devices on the same subnet and lift the ridiculous limits on number of devices. Only 5 authorizations? Only 10 devices to play content? Really? Wow...

But it seems to be working, currently. Until Apple 'fixes' something again? Ripping movies takes a lot of time, and some videos can't be ripped. The DRM has gotten tedious and rather effective at tripping up the process. So much for having the right to backup the content we have purchased, and so much for making it an easier and more usable ecosystem. *shrug* But if Plex works for you, cool. I would just be waiting for it to become a target for the industry fueled puppets in government...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Spoke too soon!!

IT'S DOWN AGAIN!!!

THIS IS TOO FUNNY...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Now it's back up. Been playing videos ever since it came up to see if it will die again. Maybe tomorrow?

Getting so close to wiping this thing...

 

[TightLines]

I'm amazed that you've made it to 2022 and are still persevering with using a mac as a iTunes server - I got so cheesed-off with it's random and inconsistent behavior that I made the switch to plex years ago and haven't looked back.



Plex is so much better than iTunes for sharing media within a household that it's laughable - everything from it's capability, it's reliability, to the whole look and feel of the various interfaces. Having used iTunes to try to manage my media collection for years, Plex Media Server is just 10x better.

I've have mine running on a Synology NAS for maybe 4 or 5 years now - and it hasn't missed a beat in that time - seriously, I can't think of one issue that I've had.

Obviously DRM is an issue for movies/TV shows, if you've bought these from apple (rather than ripping from your own disks) which would need to be addressed one way or another, but such was my dissatisfaction with the Apple Home media sharing "experience" that this was a small obstacle to overcome.

Sorry - I'm aware I'm sounding evangelical - but the 3rd party alternatives are SO much better than what apple is offering, people should at least give them a try.

I have certainly entertained the idea of moving everything i have over to Plex and have had cursory look from time to time at doing the exact same thing you’ve talked about with using a Synology NAS to serve all the network devices.

How does that work with sync’ing the mobile devices such as the iPhone to then be used in CarPlay for instance? Can you elaborate on what your experience has been with that type of thing?

When Apple took away the iTunes and went to the crap Music app and a streaming model, well… lets just say I haven’t been happy since.

Apple - Give us back our iTunes!

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I have certainly entertained the idea of moving everything i have over to Plex and have had cursory look from time to time at doing the exact same thing you’ve talked about with using a Synology NAS to serve all the network devices.

How does that work with sync’ing the mobile devices such as the iPhone to then be used in CarPlay for instance? Can you elaborate on what your experience has been with that type of thing?

When Apple took away the iTunes and went to the crap Music app and a streaming model, well… lets just say I haven’t been happy since.

Apple - Give us back our iTunes!

View attachment 2033287

Chiming in here...

My music library exploded with duplicated tunes when I enabled syncing the library. I ended up with several copies of entire albums, and sometimes the tracks are duplicated in the individual album, and other times in a totally separate one. Sometimes both at once. I used to have my 'entire music library' on my Mac Pro, but now every system has a different count of music. Some vary by over 50. One was missing nearly 100 tracks. (That includes the possibility that some aren't duplicating tracks like others are) I deleted a duplicate once and it turned off syncing, and took hours and left the system with a handful of tracks.

I had the music app auto-reload my bought music from the Apple mystery machine, and out of the thousands of tracks, I had nearly 70! Where is all the music I *own*? I thought it was all supposed to automagic download, like in the good old days when it would be done downloading by the time I had mounted the external drive and copied everything local.

Music, and to a large extent videos have become a stinking hot mess on Apple products. I'm waiting for the time when I can't host my videos on anything, and will have to sit and watch them on my MBP. What happened to cause it to be so malignant and useless is interesting. Is it the DRM Gods that have spooked Apple, or is it just incompetence and a miracle that it works at all.

The Apple engineer said it *should* work. *Something* is causing it to catch, hang, barf. I could try to downgrade my server but I'm wondering how far back I can go before the new DRM bits, and some incompatibility dumps the whole thing.

Yeah, this is out of frustration.

Using non-Apple software eliminates a lot of the problems, but introduces a whole basket of others.

What was it steve said about Mobile-Me? (BTW: I had no problems with Mobile-Me, and really liked it actually. It did things that the replacement can't, and seemed, to me, to be a heck of a lot more stable. Although I never tried rules so who knows if that was something that worked, or was even possbile)

 

[jeff051177]

How does that work with sync’ing the mobile devices such as the iPhone to then be used in CarPlay for instance? Can you elaborate on what your experience has been with that type of thing?

Once something new is put on the server, it'll show up on each player once they refresh - you can force this via a "scan library files" option, or it happens when each player restarts, I think it probably happens periodically also - but I haven't tested it (haven't really needed to), new content appears on devices without issue.

I don't have my Plex server setup to work outside my own network - ie: I can't access my content remotely. I'm not comfortable with that risk vs benefit. I have all my music downloaded on to plexAmp on my phone anyway, and if I'm travelling I can just download some movies onto my iPad if I need to. You do need "Plex pass" to do this, which is their paid tier - I think this is pretty much all that it gives you (along with hardware transcoding) - otherwise you don't need it.

I will say that the old download function didn't work particularly well - It worked, but it just took ages and would hang up while it was transcoding the files to a smaller size. Apparently its been overhauled and is much better these days - but I haven't used it since then (I'm not travelling again yet after covid).

But my point isn't really about how good Plex is..... it's really more about just how bad the Apple experience was/is. Apple really should be able to do this (at least) as well as somebody like Plex - my opinion is that they have messed it up on purpose in order to move people towards their streaming services.

Apple - Give us back our iTunes!

When I switched, I just pointed Plex at my iTunes library - and I still use that format. In fact, when adding music, I use "Music" to add it to my iTunes library first, then it just shows up in my Plex Music library when it refreshes.

Anyway - as I said, intended more to be a commentary on quite how bad apple is at handling personal media collections, rather than a love letter to Plex. And I completely agree with this....

Is there something better? No doubt, but this is good enough for me.

I'm too old and cynical to be a fanboy - either Apple or Plex, or anything really.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Once something new is put on the server, it'll show up on each player once they refresh - you can force this via a "scan library files" option, or it happens when each player restarts, I think it probably happens periodically also - but I haven't tested it (haven't really needed to), new content appears on devices without issue.

I don't have my Plex server setup to work outside my own network - ie: I can't access my content remotely. I'm not comfortable with that risk vs benefit. I have all my music downloaded on to plexAmp on my phone anyway, and if I'm travelling I can just download some movies onto my iPad if I need to. You do need "Plex pass" to do this, which is their paid tier - I think this is pretty much all that it gives you (along with hardware transcoding) - otherwise you don't need it.

I will say that the old download function didn't work particularly well - It worked, but it just took ages and would hang up while it was transcoding the files to a smaller size. Apparently its been overhauled and is much better these days - but I haven't used it since then (I'm not travelling again yet after covid).

But my point isn't really about how good Plex is..... it's really more about just how bad the Apple experience was/is. Apple really should be able to do this (at least) as well as somebody like Plex - my opinion is that they have messed it up on purpose in order to move people towards their streaming services.



When I switched, I just pointed Plex at my iTunes library - and I still use that format. In fact, when adding music, I use "Music" to add it to my iTunes library first, then it just shows up in my Plex Music library when it refreshes.

Anyway - as I said, intended more to be a commentary on quite how bad apple is at handling personal media collections, rather than a love letter to Plex. And I completely agree with this....



I'm too old and cynical to be a fanboy - either Apple or Plex, or anything really.

I just refuse to go back to having stacks of DVDs and Blu-ray discs and having to wade through them to find the disc I want to watch. Same with music.

Apple, FIX MUSIC, FIX THIS PROBLEM! We shouldn't have to go to a third party to fix an issue that has gotten worse over time.