How to view photos on the Apple TV ?

The Apple TV is a great gadget if you want to view your photos on your large TV screen. Here's how:

1) How to view a Mac photo album on the Apple TV

To view photos from your Mac on your Apple TV you need Home Sharing turned on in iTunes on your Mac and on your Apple TV.

To turn on Home Sharing, open iTunes on your computer, choose File > Home Sharing > Turn On Home Sharing, then enter your Apple ID and password and click Turn on Home Sharing.

Now in iTunes choose File > Home Sharing > Choose Photos to Share, then select Share Photos from and choose a source, either your whole photo library, Faces, Events or selected Albums, and click Apply.

Now choose Computers from the Apple TV menu and choose Photos. Select an album and you can add music, transitions and other slideshow effects using settings. You can also set it as a Screen Saver.

To start a slideshow, from inside the album click up on the Remote until you have Slideshow selected. Choose the settings for your slideshow, including the music, and the style of slideshow. There are lots of Slideshow styles to choose from, from a Photo Wall that looks like the Apple TV is panning around a gallery, to a Scrapbook, or Ken Burns style.

If you want to add music, select Default Music, you shoudl then see a link to the music library on your Mac, and then the choice of going to your Music library, or choosing from Recently Played, or Top 25 Most Played. What you can't do is choose a particular track.

When you have chosen your Slideshow style, select Start Slideshow.

You can also set the album to be your default Screen Saver. From within the album click up on the remote and across to Screen Saver. The Apple TV will ask you if you wish to use that album for your Screen Saver, click on Yes.

Remember, if your computer is off then you won't be able to view the slideshow as these images are stored on your Mac.

2) Create an iCloud photo stream to view on an Apple TV

Another way to view photos on your Apple TV is using iCloud Photo Sharing. Start by creating a photo stream. To set up a Photo Stream on your iPad or iPhone go to Settings > iCloud > Photos, and the use the toggle to turn Upload to My Photo Stream on to automatically upload all the your new photos to all your devices.

If you don't want every picture you take to appear on your Apple TV, you can create a separate photo stream by turning on iCloud Photo Sharing (you can actually share this with up to 100 people if you want). Now when you have a photo you wish to share, tap through to the Share Sheet and select iCloud. At this point either create a New Shared Stream, or add to an existing stream, and share with your iCloud address. 

The next step is to get your Apple TV home page and scroll down to iCloud Photos. It will request that you sign in to use features such as iCloud Photos, iMovie Theatre, and Family Sharing. Select Yes to sign into iCloud. (Remember that if you have installed the Remote app on your iPhone you can enter the password using the keyboard, you just need to open the app). Wait while it connects. Nect it will ask if you want to use My Photo Stream as your Screen Saver, you could choose to say yes, or you might prefer to pick a particular album to share with anyone who happens to be visiting.

Once you access your iCloud Photos you will have access to all the photos in your photo stream, along with photos from any friend's who share their photo libraries with you, and photos you share with others via iCloud Photo Stream.

If you don't see your photos that are in your Shared Stream, go to Settings on your Apple TV and choose iCloud > iCloud Photos Settings and turn on Photo Sharing and turn on My Photo Stream. It can take a few minutes for your photos to appear but when they are there you will be able to choose to view them in a slide show and even as your screen saver.

You can also stream photos this way from your Mac. In iPhoto or Aperture create an album, then choose Add to iCloud and select the Photo Stream you wish to share.

A shared stream can hold a maximum of 5000 photos and videos combined, but none of these eat into your iCloud allowance.

Apple is supposed to be launching a service soon that will store all your photos, whether taken on iPhone, iPad or stored on your Mac, in the cloud, so that you can access them all on any of your devices as any time. We'll update this section of this feature when this new service launches.

3) Share photos from your iPhone or iPad to the Apple TV

The easiest way to view a photo from an iPhone or iPad on the TV screen is to select the image and click on the Share icon (the box with an arrow coming out of it). Then choose the AirPlay icon to view the image on the TV screen. Once you are connected to the Apple TV any photo you open on your iPhone or iPad will appear on the big screen too, so you can swipe through an album, or choose to play a slideshow.

To stream a slideshow from your iPhone to the Apple TV, select the Share icon again, and tap Slideshow > Start Slideshow.

4) What to do if Apple TV isn't playing your photo albums or slideshows

Make sure the Apple TV and the Mac you’re using have Home Sharing turned on - and that they are using the same Home Sharing account. Make sure they are on the same local network.

Make sure you have photos in your photo library or in a folder on your computer (not on an external storage device), and make sure the photos you want to share are selected.

If you are still unable to see the images on your Apple TV try this. In iTunes, go to File > Home Sharing. Select Share Photos From: and click on the down arrow beside iPhoto to choose a folder. Now you can choose a folder of images anywhere on your Mac. Select the folder and choose Open and Apply.