Home sharing not working on iPhone or iPad

iTunes Home Sharing

There are plenty of websites that describe how to set up home sharing and to get it working on your iPad or iPhone. And they are all right. If you have iOS 4.3 or later and iTune 10.x, it should work.

It worked fine for me on my iPhone. I did not upgrade my iPad immediately. But when I did, and configured home sharing on it, it did not work. No matter what I did, I could not see the Library in my iPod or Videos app. I rebooted everything – the mac, the iPad, even the iPhone . I even re-entered the username and password, just to be sure.

I had followed all the instructions. But there is was one thing the instructions did not tell me. That all the devices sharing the library must be on the same wireless network as well. You see, I have two wireless networks at home. My Mac, laptops and iPhone are on one. The iPad, broadband IP TV, Wii, PS, etc are on another.

iTunes Home Sharing Wireless

That’s why the iPad could not find the library. I switched the network on the iPad, and voila!

So, if you have your devices on multiple networks, make them be on the same if you want to share.