Apple picker In today's tutorial, we will look at the home sharing feature and control iTunes music player on your computer using your iOS device. We don't build iTunes first, then we look at the iOS device app we'll need, and finally we set everything up…
The basic prerequisite for the functionality of home sharing is that the two devices between which we want Home Sharing to operate, are connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
Preparing iTunes
First, we launch iTunes, where we select libraries in the left menu Home Sharing. On this page, log in with your Apple ID to turn on Home Sharing.
If everything went well, we check if Home Sharing is turned on - if there is now an option in the menu (File > Home Sharing > Turn off Home Sharing) Turn off home sharing, is on.
We can switch back to the library Hudba and play a song in the meantime.
iOS preparation and setup
First, let's go to the iPhone Settings > Hudba, where at the very end we turn on home sharing by signing in to our Apple ID (of course, the same one we signed in with in iTunes).
Then we go to the App Store, where we search for the application Remote, which is free, and we'll install it.
After starting, a menu will appear where we select the first option Set up home sharing, on the next screen we log in again with the same Apple ID, wait for confirmation and give the iPhone and the application a few seconds to activate, during which screens with an informative description about turning on home sharing in iTunes await us.
If everything went well, in a moment the iTunes libraries that are currently active will appear on the screen (iTunes is running at that moment, on the same Wi-Fi network), and we can control them through the Remote application. We select our library and we appear in an application with a similar interface and controls to the default Music application in iOS. If something is already playing, we have the item Now playing in the upper right corner, otherwise it is possible to browse the music in the iTunes library, filter it by songs, albums or artists.
Last we look at the item Settings in the Remote app, which is available in the iTunes library overview. Of course, it is necessary to leave the item on Home Sharing, however, it is up to you to activate the item Sort by artists or Keep connected. I personally don't rank artists, but I have the second mentioned option activated - it causes iTunes to not disconnect during the lock screen or an application running in the background, and is therefore immediately active as a player. Otherwise, it connects every time it starts, so the control is slower. The first mentioned option is of course a little more demanding on the battery, but I know from my own experience that it is not such a noticeable difference.
Endnote: The name of the library is affected by iTunes preferences (⌘+, / CTRL+,) right on the opening tab in the item Library name. If you track the number of plays in iTunes in a certain way, it is also good in the preferences on the tab Sharing activate the item Computers and devices in Home Sharing update the play count.
Conclusion, summary, and what next?
We have shown how to use an iOS device to remotely control the songs being played in iTunes, which application we need for this activity and how to activate everything.
From now on, just turn on iTunes and control everything from this application. Personally, I use this mostly when I have music playing from my computer to the speakers, and I use my iPhone from the bath or kitchen to control what to play, lower the volume or skip unwanted songs.
Maybe it's because I already had it set up, but I just don't have it shared between libraries. I have iTunes on a Mac. How are you doing?
Anyway, I've been controlling Apple TV through the remote application for a long time, but somehow I didn't think to do it for iTunes as well. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use it any more, because there's no point in playing something in the living room when I'm not there. I'll play it straight away on the iPad that I have with me and not do the rest ;-).
Otherwise, after a long time, I went into the video application and there I finally saw the possibility of sharing :-D. So I can also watch movies that I haven't bought directly in iTunes. The settings are exactly the same as for music, so go for it :-).
By the way, does it happen to you that when you want to play something like this from iTunes (from a Macbook), it sometimes doesn't work?
When this happens to me, all I have to do is turn WiFi on and off on the Macbook, and then it's up and running.
Until then, everything works on the Macbook, I get on the Internet and everything works.
It hasn't happened to me yet (MacBook Air 2013) that it wouldn't see itself with an iPhone, but it's definitely possible, it always wants to check if they're on the same wifi or connect again. :)
I also have a MacBook Air 2013, I don't have an iPhone, but Apple TV is sometimes a problem. It seems to me that it is often after falling asleep that I close the lid.
I'll see, I'll try it from the iPad to see if it's the Apple TV or the Air.
Hi, I have exactly the same problem. Just turn off/on (or just disconnect/connect) wifi, and then it works. I have a different Mac Mini vs iPad configuration, so it's not just Airem :).
Well, it's crazy to find out that it's not just some scumbag. I'll probably google it over the weekend, because it bothers me ;-).
clearly:). however, in my opinion, the problem will be more global, because when this happens to me, I can't even connect to the SMB share on the Mac at that moment, and I don't even need to share files with the iPad via InstaShare. After WiFi off/on everything starts :)
So if it's not a Wifi problem, I'll ask Apple to fix it ;-).
In my opinion, look first in WiFi, if it works for us (me – MacBook Air 2013 OS X Mavericks + iPhone 5 / iPhone 5S, roommate MacBook Pro 2011 + iPhone 5S), and even both at the same time and on one WiFi, then Apple may not be at fault . We have ZyXel, problem-free even on TP-Link. :)
And do you turn off the MAC or just close it and then open it again? If we both have completely different Wifi, it would be a brutal coincidence.
It doesn't matter at all (I restart once a month, otherwise I just slow it down) and it works after opening and restarting.
By the way, who do you have Wifi from? I have EDIMAX.
I have a Tenda router. I still have Mavericks for OS X, so if it's necessary it's not just a problem with the version...
So I also have version 10.9.1, so that would be it?