How to enable Home Sharing in iOS 9 beta

Before doing anything with iOS 9, the first step is to toggle the option on in iTunes 12, since a Mac or Windows PC serves as a media hub. From the File menu, find the Home Sharing option, then click Turn On Home Sharing. This brings up a splash screen, prompting users to enter their Apple ID or create one.

Up to five computers can be linked together as long as they're using the same Apple ID. While connected, music and video files can also be copied between each system — but not to or from an iOS device, or an Apple TV, for that matter.

Leaving at least one shared computer on, the next move is to go into iOS 9's Settings app and tap on the Music menu. Towards the bottom of that menu is a Home Sharing section — if a device is already signed in to an Apple ID, that means it's effectively good to go. A sign-in button should appear if not.

One advantage of Home Sharing though is the ability to control iTunes or an Apple TV from iOS. For that people need to download Apple's official Remote app from the App Store. Via an initial splash screen or the app's Settings menu, Remote can be set to automatically detect compatible devices/libraries or manually add an iTunes library.

Ironically, actually streaming music to an iOS 9 device is the least intuitive part of the process. Under the Music app's Library tab, there's a category selector — normally defaulting to "Artists" — that if tapped will bring up Home Sharing as an option, and allow users to pick a library. The selector blends in with the rest of the app's interface, and doesn't initially look interactive.

Streaming video is more straightforward. People simply have to go into the Videos app, hit the Shared tab, then choose a connected Home Sharing library.