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iTunes 9.0 Problems: Home Sharing Bug

iTunes 9.0 Problems: Home Sharing Bug

By: Jamie Pert | September 10, 2009 | 49 Comments

A recent article on Cnet is reporting that there is a bug with the new Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9, the bug occurred when a Cnet writer decided to try out the feature, from what we can see when trying to set up Home Sharing he experienced a few issues after logging into different user accounts on his PC.

To cut a long story short initially the Home Sharing feature worked fine, however after logging on as a different user and setting up the connection the Home Sharing icon disappeared, and now whenever he tries to set up Home Sharing the icon disappears as soon as the connection is authorized.

Whether this bug that is a common problem is not known at present, however there are a few comments on Cnet’s article which seem to suggest others have experienced the same problem. As we hear more we will keep you posted.

Have you experienced the same problem? Feel free to add your comments below.

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  • JD

    i had this same problem. frustrating :(

  • Dr. Peter H. markesteyn

    I had the same problem and notified Apple Canada technical support.
    They were not aware of the problem and were very appreciative of having been informed.
    If cause has been found they will notify “us” ASAP.
    Dr Peter H. Markesteyn

  • Sean

    I’ve had this problem too. On multiple machines too, and without the switch logins. Not sure about this, but I am extremely frustrated as well.

  • bluemax

    I’ve had the same problem. First I enabled home sharing on my Windows iTunes. Then I authorized my Mac Mini. Worked OK. Then I tried to authorize my MacBook. No luck. The Home Sharing disappeared. Hopefully not forever….

  • DMS

    Same problem here.
    Fome Sharing disappears from Menu Bar on left side when I click “Done.”

  • http://generals.su Andy

    Yep. Was trying to connect Pc with WinXp and MacBook. Didn’t work from the beginning.

  • Cecil Brooks

    Yup. The “Shared” category appears on my iMac all right, but it disappears on the MacBook Air as soon as I click done.

  • Stevenwix

    I’m also having a problem after the update regarding having “smart playlists” not syncing to my iPods– the playlists show up on the devices, but when I click to enter the playlists there is no content in them–even all the old things on the playlists are gone. Frustrating!! I have of course tried resetting and rebooting.

  • Jack

    SAME THING HAPPENED HERE PLZZZ HELP

  • Shelby

    It’s happening to me too. Sharring worked at first but when I logged on again the icon dissappeared. Now I can’t even get iTunes to open on my other machine it freezes up and I made the mistake of reauthorizing my main system and Itunes tells me I’ve now used up another of my 5 authorized machines when I haven’t. Very frustrating.

  • Misty

    Same problem here as well. :(

  • Mike

    hey guys i figured it out
    yeah it dissapears when you hit done untill you set up home sharing with the SAME ACCOUNT on your other computer
    try that, hope it helps

  • NH Baritone

    My two PCs set up fine, but once I hit the “done” key, I couldn’t see the sharing icon again. I even de-authorized and re-authorized both computers in a superstitious effort to awaken the home-sharing program. It’s been useless and wasted a big chunk of time.

  • Katie

    I enabled the Home Sharing feature on my iTunes and, after restarting my computer, found I was unable to access iTunes, it simply freezes. I’ve searched the iTunes discussion board and it appears that others share this same problem. I know that Quick Time is updated and functioning and have even reinstalled iTunes, all to no avail. Any ideas?

  • Jim

    Same problem here. Starting to get frustrated with Mac…

  • Rosie

    Same problem here, on both our mac and pc. Home Sharing icon disappears as soon as the feature is activated. Mad with mac now.

  • Austin Miller

    Same thing happened to me, It was working last night but not tonight

  • donna bruni

    same problem

  • o’neill

    Well, I’m able to turn on home sharing on both of my pc’s, a laptop and a desktop, but the only problem i have is that i want to get the music from my desktop to share with my laptop but its not working. The only thing that is sharing is my empty library (containing only the sample music) from my laptop to my desktop. I hope they fix this problem…

  • Nimo

    I had the same home sharing issues when I tried it first.

    Turned out it wss a firewall issue. Settings were too high.

    Changed them to medium and now home sharing works perfect.

    Also, I couldn’t get my Airport Express to work but now after changing the firewall settings everything works and loving the new iTunes 9.

    Rgds

    Nimo

  • Woody

    if home sharing disapears, click on the advanced tab at the top, then click turn off home sharing, and then turn it back on.

  • Dr. Bob

    The entire itunes 9.0 software has bugs in it, I was on the phone with apple tech support for over an hour on 9/15 and after deleting the program and reinstalling it, I still had the same problem, which was a huge waste of my precious time, Apple is aware of the software glitch, and I was advised by Cory of Apple Tech Support that a new version will be released in a week or two, So Apple iTunes users just hang in there and it will eventually get repaired, just another release of sub standard software without testing to further the profits of the greed machine. I a not happy and I’m sure you good folks arent either.

  • Anne

    I had the same problem. One computer is an iBook; the other is a PC. Once I set up Home Sharing on both, the icon disappeared from the left menu.

  • david

    Yea, my classic ipod can no longer sync with itunes since I updated to 9. Itunes just shuts down when I plug in the Ipod.
    Way to go Apple.

  • http://ratebrain.com RateBrain

    Same thing happening here – can anyone post a fix?

  • Chloe

    I can’t log into homeshare on multiple computers- if I’m logged into one account on one machine, when I go to log into homeshare on another it says “this computer is not authorized for the account. Please authorize this computer and try again”
    What does that mean?

  • Dunc

    I tried that several times – but still the icon disappears. Looks like Apple are releasing software that isn’t quite ready.

  • Libby

    I have the same problem as Chloe and everyone else – Home Sharing Icon has disappeared from iTunes and it now thinks my original PC is not authorised for the account.

  • designwallah

    I have an iMac with Mac OS 10.5.8 and a PC laptop with Windows XP SP2. I solved this problem by uninstalling Bonjour (Apple networking software) on the PC and installing the latest version of Bonjour (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/bonjourforwindows.html).
    This solved the problem.

    I hope this helps someone out there.

    Cheers.

  • gram

    I have the exact same problem. the exact same. just so you know how common it is

  • Elizabeth

    Same problem, on 3 different laptops and a mac desktop. Would be great if it actually worked instead of vanishing everytime you authorize an account for home share. Annoying!

  • Erin

    I have 4 laptops – 2 win/xp, 1 vista, 1 imac osX – all but the vista laptop work with homeshare. however, i have tried EVERYTHING that’s been recommended (and then some) to get the Vista laptop working; i.e. adjust firewall, hardwire to modem/router, reboot, change accts, deauthorize & authorize, etc. etc. – NOTHING has worked…so now I’m giving up. I’ll copy my iTunes library from Vista machine to the primary iTunes Share box – and go from there. maybe Apple will figure it out…hope so, this defeats the purpose.

  • Straf

    this also happend for me

  • Jimmy

    OK, here’s what I did:

    This works on 2 (and probably more) Macs—

    without messing around with any port settings
    with OS X Preferences, Sharing, File Sharing turned OFF on BOTH computers
    with iTunes Preferences, Sharing, “Share my library on my local network” turned OFF on BOTH computers

    (apologies for documentation overkill—just being thorough)

    1. Turn OFF Home Sharing on BOTH computers (this is NOT done in Preferences; instead, go here: Advanced, Home Sharing)

    2. Make sure BOTH machines are authorized for BOTH iTunes accounts (Store, Authorize Computer)—i.e., if each has its own iTunes account

    3. You do NOT have to be logged into the same account on both computers; each computer may stay logged into the iTunes store under its own login

    4. For sanity’s sake on this part, check to make sure of this—i.e., that each machine is logged into the store with its own store account (Store, View My Account, check to see ID is correct)

    5. NOW turn Home Sharing back on (Advanced, Home Sharing) on each computer, but use ONE account to log into Home Sharing on both (or all) computers

    6. DON’T WORRY, this does not “flip” the login ID for a particular computer’s iTunes Store connection to the ID being used for Home Sharing

    7. On each computer now you should see a “Home” icon with the shared library in the left-hand sidebar

    8. Open the shared library and drag and drop as desired

    The bottom line seems to be this:

    1. Keep each computer logged into the store with a separate iTunes ID (if you need to)
    2. Get all the computers authorized for all available IDs
    3. Use ONE ID to log into Home Sharing on ALL computers

    You will of course ONLY see the Home Sharing icon pop up if both computers are on, with iTunes open on each

    You’ll know that this whole thing is working if the shared library listed on the left has the correct “Home” icon (and not the blue, “shared” icon that shows up when Preferences, Sharing, “Share my library on my local network” is turned on—yes, this is the one you see in Internet cafes filled with Mac users)

    I’ve tested the above over and over again, even completely rebooting my two machines (they have different iTunes accounts), and it still works. This is running Leopard on both machines.
    __________________
    MBP 2.4 GHz Santa Rosa 17-inch 4 GB RAM 320GB HD 1920×1200 matte
    Airport Extreme; Airport Express x5; iPod G5 60GB x2; iPod Shuffle x2; iPhone 2G 8GB

  • sammy

    same problem. apple support person thought we had it figured out, he minimized the problem and told me how great home sharing is and how no one has had a problem with it. he explained how to drag and drop songs from the shared library to one’s own, so easy. we hung up. draging won’t work. sharing apps seems unlikely. could not even drag a ringtone that somehow got in music up to the ringtones department within the same computer library. and then the shared library tabs vanished from both computers. i spent over an hour on the phone with tech ‘support’ over this relatively minor issue. is all this maybe some proprietary apple b.s? who knows. i am totally confused and frustrated.

  • Jim

    Same problem here.

  • beanie

    I was having the same issue but I just did what was suggested above and turned home sharing off and then back on again on both computers and made sure they were both signed in as the same itunes account and yay it works now!!

  • dave

    I found shutting zonealarm off on one of the two connections fixed the problem.

    Setup:
    1) Vista 64 w itunes 9.02, windows firewall
    2) Windows XP Pro w itunes 9.02, zonealarm firewall

  • John

    I have 3 systems. 1 is XP SP2, 2 are XP SP3. the XP SP2 system sees each of the other systems and can copy music to and from with no problem. However, neither of the XP SP3 system can see the other.

    So the problem seems to be with Home Share and XP3.

  • sammi

    this is so annoying! does anyone know the answer!!!

  • gatsby

    itunes home sharing doesn't work for me either :(

  • Joe

    I have this problem with 4 computers all running XP SP3. Two of the computers share just fine. The other two "think" Home Sharing is on. But when you turn it off, and turn it on again, when you hit "done", the Home Sharing icon disappears.

    Any other suggestions?

  • Sandy

    I had the same problem, what I notice was that both macs had itunes 9 but one was 9.11 the other had 9.07 I think but they were not the same, I tried checking for updates and got a message saying that no new itunes update was available, so I when to the apple site and downloaded the newest ver which was 9.11 on the mac which had the 9.07, now the sharing shows up and I did not have to login to home sharing on the macbook air which connects to the home sharing server which is my imac. hope this helps

  • Dave

    I had the same problem think I got it now it seems that when the mac sharing the itunes library goes on sleep mode you lose the connection on the other workstations which connects to it, I set in my preferences, power, to wake up on network access..

  • ori

    trying to share between a pc xp/sp3 and a macbook pro. Tried the suggestions above, nothing has worked so far.

  • nick

    i have a problem with itunes 9 homesharing once activated it just freezes up my itunes when i go to play a song its frustrating

  • steve

    I had homeshare set up and working fine until the latest software update, now have exactly the same problem, try to set it up, it says it is, press 'done' and bingo homeshare disappears

  • matt

    this is bs, it worked fine………. but now home sharing dosent appear on the left browser tab in itunes on my mac…. can anyone help?

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