[NewsPoster]

In the fallout about music not being able to be shared with Apple's Home Sharing feature to iOS 8.4 devices, Apple's Eddy Cue has responded on Twitter. In response to the barrage of coverage about the popular feature's absence, the executive has responded with a brief, carefully constructed Tweet, saying only that "We are working to have Home Sharing in iOS 9."

Possibly to appease record labels, some significant changes were made to iTunes functionality, including the lamented removal of Home Sharing for music on the iPhone and iPad, as well as the equally unpopular substituting iTunes Matched songs downloaded to a device with DRM-laden versions. Apple hasn't commented on the reasoning behind the removal, nor is it expected to do so in the near future.

Cue's remark says nothing about why the feature is absent, and his Twitter remark seems to be intentionally vague. His response on the microblogging service doesn't confirm in any way that the feature is returning, only that Apple is working towards that goal in some aspect. DRM on Apple-supplied downloads has changed little with the advent of Apple Music in iTunes 12.2 and iOS 8.4. Additionally, the feature still works on the iOS-based second and third generation Apple TV and from one OS X machine to another.

[Stuke]

Well, I'm now missing it tremendously. It is how I streamed my iTunes home Mac music to my devices, and it didn't cost me $9.99 or $14.99 a month to do it. I guess until iOS 9 arrives in 6 months, we'll have to do less with what we already purchased!

[Flying Meat]

That seems rather unacceptable to me. And I don't even use that feature.
You broke it, you fix it. NOW. >

[Mike Wuerthele]

Originally Posted by Flying Meat 

That seems rather unacceptable to me. And I don't even use that feature.
You broke it, you fix it. NOW. >

You're assuming its broken. I'm assuming its been intentionally removed.

[Charles Martin]

How much were you paying for Home Sharing, exactly?

I mean, look, I can certainly agree with the idea that Apple should do a better job of warning users when a feature is going to be going away (at least temporarily). Apple would have saved themselves a lot of grief if they'd just come out and said "hey look, we're rebuilding the iWork apps from the ground up and for a little while they won't have many of the advanced features, but we have to make them consistent across platforms and 64-bit native and plan for the future, so pardon our dust and we'll put all the useful stuff back as soon as possible."

Nor am I saying "shut up and like it." There's a feedback button built into iTunes and every other Apple app: make use of it. Those reports along with the tweets and such is probably why Cue felt he needed to say what he said (which wasn't much). But I'm with Mike on this -- nothing was "broken" here, except so as to build out the new infrastructure. Kind of like when a contractor remodels your kitchen by laying waste to it with a sledgehammer. The changes in Home Sharing are *very very obviously* part of the build-out and realignment of Apple Music and iTunes Match, and we're seeing a number of issues as a result. Again, I compare this to rewiring an existing (and in this case, pretty old) house. It gets ugly for a while, but the end result is generally well worth it.

Whether Apple was forced to modify Home Sharing by the record companies (as I suspect) or just had to take it down temporarily remains to be seen, and Cue's post does not promise that everything will be as it was before (in my history with Apple, big change rarely works out that way). But it was most definitely deliberate: the iOS 8.4 beta notes made mention of the fact that music Home Sharing was "currently unavailable," which suggests that this may have been the plan all along -- a necessary inconvenience for the greater long-term good, at least as Apple sees it.

We've run articles with workarounds for the loss of music Home Sharing, so check those options (Plex, Serve/Stream to Me) if you need them, and again let Apple know you want the feature back. Petulance, however, won't get you very far with Apple, I've found.

[Flying Meat]

If you insist on being reasonable, Charles Martin, then good day.
I said GOOD DAY, sir!


Points taken, though it is somewhat an exercise in semantics. And Petulance is my middle name.
Flying Petulance Meat.

[Mike Wuerthele]

FM, we've got a discussion about this coming up in a little bit on the news side, if you care to see what a few of us think about it. Stay tuned.