Mikey Campbell
Following revelations that Apple disabled the popular music Home Sharing feature with its latest iOS 8.4 update, SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue on Monday said the company is working to restore services for iOS 9.
In response to a question regarding the Home Sharing situation on iOS 8.4, Cue tweeted out, "We are working to have Home Sharing in iOS 9," suggesting the feature will be at least partially reinstated with Apple's next-generation mobile operating system.
Apple quietly removed Home Sharing for music from iOS 8.4, an unfortunate decision given Apple Music's launch that same day. The company has not officially commented on the matter.
Home Sharing was carried over from Mac in iOS 4.3 as a way stream content to mobile devices from a central computer connected to a common network. Its removal left iPhone, iPad and iPod owners without an in-house solution for streaming tracks from Mac-based iTunes libraries.
Cue's comments are consistent with early iOS 8.4 beta release notes that listed Home Sharing as "not currently available" under known issues. When the OS shipped, the feature's music streaming component was indeed absent from iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, though video sharing was still available. Owners of desktops and Apple TV can still share both music and video.
For now, Apple Music offers a $14.99 Family Plan with full access to Apple's music catalog for up to six people, in some ways replacing Home Sharing for a cost. As previously noted, however, Apple Music's current offerings, while expansive, are not complete and could pose a problem for certain users.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
28 Comments
Yay!
I can't imagine any acceptable development process that allows such a regression in functionality in a release version. Someone was dead at the switch here. Sadly this type of thing seems to occur in Apple betas all the time, which implies a broken development process altogether.
I can't imagine any acceptable development process that allows such a regression in functionality in a release version. Someone was dead at the switch here.
Sadly this type of thing seems to occur in Apple betas all the time, which implies a broken development process altogether.
Because it's a beta. It's not ready for full release.
Clearly getting the app out supporting Apple Music was more important than releasing a half baked feature that in the grand scheme of things isn't that important for the music side. It still works for the video side.
You can access the music directly from AppleTV so the issues isn't really that huge on the scale of things.
I can't imagine any acceptable development process that allows such a regression in functionality in a release version. Someone was dead at the switch here.
Sadly this type of thing seems to occur in Apple betas all the time, which implies a broken development process altogether.
That is very unlikely to be the case. There are certainly licensing issues here, at least for some of the content available for streaming now. Home Sharing allows for some constellations which are not 100% in line with Apple Music's terms and conditions.
What they must be blamed for is, not for the first time, piss-poor communication. Just as with iMovie, Final Cut X and iWorks before, 99% of the people being miffed now would have totally accepted that and kept their old software running, until the features they depend on have been restored.
It never worked well for me. It used to take like 5 or more minutes to download the list of tracks from my iMac. It basically wasn't worth waiting for. Eventually I signed up for iTunes Match and I haven't had any troubles with it. I actually really love iTunes Match. It's great. BUT, I hope the reason for this regression is that they're rewriting it to be faster and more reliable.