Apple's iOS 8.4 kneecaps Home Sharing, music streaming now limited to Apple TV

While Apple introduced an array of new music features with its latest iOS 8.4 update featuring Apple Music, it also quietly nerfed content serving functionality by apparently limiting Home Sharing to videos.

As noted on Apple's Support Communities forum, Home Sharing support for music is no longer available for iOS, leaving iPhone, iPad and iPod owners in search of third-party software solutions for streaming tracks from their iTunes libraries.

Apple updated its official Home Sharing support webpage on June 30 to reflect the change, the same day iOS 8.4 launched. Previously, the site included instructions to enable content sharing through separate iOS Settings menu options, one for music and another for videos.

Launched on iOS in 2011 as part of iOS 4.3, Home Sharing allowed iPhone, iPad and iPod owners to stream digital content from a central computer running iTunes as long as the devices were connected to a common network.

In prior iOS 8.4 beta release notes, Home Sharing is listed under known issues as "not currently available," offering some semblance of hope that it will return in a future build. Home Sharing is still active for desktops running iTunes and Apple TV.

Of course, Apple Music's $14.99 Family Plan partially negates the need for Home Sharing as it offers full access to Apple's music catalog for up to six people, as well as song caching for offline listening. Still, the removal might be an inconvenience for those with extensive collections of tunes not in Apple's catalog. Such cases require users to upload their libraries to iCloud before streaming.

AppleInsider reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article when a response is received.