Apple TV can't find my mac!

I've got major problems with my Apple TV.
When I 1st set it up, it worked fine. I then went to use it an hour later and now it doesn't. it tells me to turn on home sharing in itunes... which is already on!
I reset my ATV and set it up again... worked and when I came back later on, it didn't work again!
I've updated the firmware and that hasn't helped. It seems quite a few people have been having probs with it, but want to know if there is a fix yet.
I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but the 'shared' tab in itunes left pane isn't visible. Once I set up home sharing and click 'done' it dissapears. I'm so frustrated!
My ATV must be connected to the internet because I can use Youtube through it, but it just can't see my mac!! Any help much appreciated - i'm so frustrated with it!

If you have the firewall turned on for your Mac, try turning it off. It's found in:
System Preferences » Security & Privacy » Firewall

i sort of have this issue.

Mine is that it connects and streams for about 30 minutes, when it then dies. No amount of turning the wireless on my imac, stopping time machinie to time capsule, disabling and re-enabling Home Sharing seem to work. then a bit later my computer is visible again on the ATV.

I will play with the firewall but disabling it seems a tad unnecessary, at least on paper. I wonder if there is something going to sleep (despite me having "Wake on network" set) as I cant fathom out why the connection keeps dropping since it works for a bit.

I've turned the firewall off and it my mac still doesn't show up! It's also not even showing up in my 'remote app' for my ipad! Does this mean it's not connected to my network? as atv can't see my mac and my ipad can't see my atv?

have you tried turning off home sharing in itunes, stopping Time Machine if it is backing up, turning off your macs wireless. Leaving it a few seconds. turning on Wireless again. Let it connect. Turn on Home Sharing on iTunes.

See if it works.

I will give it a go, but I have just turned off my whole mac, left it a few minutes and turned it back on - now my iPad can't even connect to my mac using the remote app! I really don't know what the problem is! Trouble is, I'm getting more and more frustrated with it and want to throw it all out of the window!

have you got any additional security features running like peer guardian or anything? 3rd party firewall?

its starting to sound like your wireless router needs properly configuring - port forwarding perhaps, or something about the DHCP. I assume all the devices are connecting to the correct wireless network!

Minimadj said:

I will give it a go, but I have just turned off my whole mac, left it a few minutes and turned it back on - now my iPad can't even connect to my mac using the remote app! I really don't know what the problem is! Trouble is, I'm getting more and more frustrated with it and want to throw it all out of the window!

Click to expand...

Ok… if your ATV can connect to YouTube via the internet during periods when it cannot connect to the Mac; and since your iPad's Remote app cannot see the Mac; then the problem is almost certainly rooted in Home Sharing on the Mac. It'd just be incredulous to believe that both the iPad and ATV are acting up. A couple questions to get out of the way:

1. What's the signal strength on the ATV? Go to:Settings»General»Network and check the meter at the bottom.
2. What's the signal strength on the iPad?
3. If connected wirelessly, what's the signal strength on the iMac?
4. If the Mac is connected wirelessly, tried wired.
5. What version of the OS are you running on the ATV, iPad, and Mac? What version iTunes?
6. What router do you have, and what version firmware is it running?

Here's Apple page for troubleshooting Home Sharing. One thing you may want to try is changing the password for your Apple ID that Home Sharing is tied to.
Troubleshooting Home Sharing

EDIT: and take note of my signature!!!

This is weird.
Our router is in the lounge. So I hauled my imac into the lounge and connected it to the router via ethernet and hooked my atv up to the lounge tv but left that using wifi... everything worked! So I unplugged the ethernet cable from my imac and everything still worked flawlessly. My iPad could see my itunes library on my mac and my atv too. I did different combinations of turning the atv off, putting the imac to sleep then woke it all up and tested it for a good 10 minutes and everything worked. No Hiccups.
So I took everything back into my bedroom (which is opposite the lounge) & it doesnt work! I can get on the internet in my bedroom from my mac, apple tv and ipad - but somehow the atv can't find my mac!

What's the signal strength on the ATV? 4 out of 5 bars
What's the signal strength on the iPad? Where do I find that?
If connected wirelessly, what's the signal strength on the iMac? 3 out of 3
If the Mac is connected wirelessly, tried wired. Will try that in a min
What version of the OS are you running on the ATV, iPad, and Mac? What version iTunes?
ATV - where do i look? - but it says its up to date
ipad - 4.3.5
mac - 10.6.8
itunes - 10.4
What router do you have, and what version firmware is it running? - all I know is its a belkin!

Right. on this Apple thread I have found people saying a wired restore fixes their issues. I am now trying this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2776955?start=315&tstart=0

Minimadj said:

This is weird.
Our router is in the lounge. So I hauled my imac into the lounge and connected it to the router via ethernet and hooked my atv up to the lounge tv but left that using wifi... everything worked! So I unplugged the ethernet cable from my imac and everything still worked flawlessly. My iPad could see my itunes library on my mac and my atv too. I did different combinations of turning the atv off, putting the imac to sleep then woke it all up and tested it for a good 10 minutes and everything worked. No Hiccups.
So I took everything back into my bedroom (which is opposite the lounge) & it doesnt work! I can get on the internet in my bedroom from my mac, apple tv and ipad - but somehow the atv can't find my mac!

Click to expand...

Well… it's looking more like the problem is the router. Why that is, I cannot say. My best suggestion at the moment is to see if there is a firmware update for that model, and apply it if there is one. Barring that, try connecting the ATV2 to the router by wire and see if that helps. If not, consider a new router.

Something else just occurred to me. Any time I reboot my Mac, my ATV2 fails to find my Mac also. I have to reboot the ATV2 to make it reconnect. You can do so either by unplugging it, or using the Apple remote (the physical remote that ships with it), you have to hold down the Menu and Down buttons together for a few seconds. I use a Harmony remote and had to custom-program that command because the combos don't work the same way on 3rd-party remotes. It's really stupid how Apple has failed to put that as a selectable option on-screen in the menu.

For those of you who don't know, the ATV uses some particular ports that are not normally used.

From this article: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2641658?start=0&tstart=0

Six network ports are used by Apple TV for communications on your network.

TCP port 123 is used to communicate with a network time server.
TCP port 3689 is used to communicate with iTunes while using the iTunes Library Sharing feature.
UDP port 5353 is used by Apple TV for automatically finding computers with iTunes on your network using Bonjour.
TCP port 80 is used for communicating with podcast servers.
TCP port 80 and 443 are used for basic and secure communications with the iTunes Store via the Internet.
TCP port 53 is used for regular DNS.

Click to expand...

Seems like your router may be having issues with these ports for some reason. Check to see if they are open on the router and or the Mac.

I had the exact same problem. iTunes and Apple TV could both connect to the internet, but they couldn't connect to each other. No firewall or sharing turned off or router issues or anything like that. It was baffling me. Then I realized that my Mac was using the neighbors wifi instead of mine! Check and make sure both devices are connected to the same wifi!