Software glitch causing connection problems between some Macs and iOS devices

9to5 Staff | Mar 17 2011 - 6:51 am PT

An unknown portion of the latest MacBook Pros with Sandy Bridge processors and high-speed Thunderbolt connection appears to be affected by an issue where the computer has trouble maintaining connection with iOS devices, even with the latest iTunes 10.2.1 installed. And if more than 215 posts in a thread on Apple’s Discussion forums are an indication, numerous 2011 MacBook Pros are plagued with this issue.

From what we’ve hearing, it’s a software issue easily patched with an upcoming software update (10.6.7). Here’s what the affected owners are saying.

One posted on Apple’s forums reported issues with Apple TV connecting to the computer:

Although the Apple TV could see the name of my iTunes library, it wouldn’t connect to it, or sometimes, would report that “There are no movies in this library”. I tried every solution I could think of, but no dice.

The problem persists on a replacement machine as well, he wrote. The new MacBook Pros come with a tweaked Mac OS X version that takes advantage of the new Thunderbolt port and Intel’s Sandy Bridge chips, possibly causing these problems. But then again, some owners of older Macs are reporting the same Home Sharing woes.

Another poster offered a temporary workaround involving shutting down Home Sharing each time you restart iTunes:

disable sharing (iTunes -> Preferences -> Sharing)
disable Home Sharing (Advanced -> Turn Off Home Sharing)
re-enable Sharing and/or Home Sharing

iOS 4.3 and iTunes 10.2 have extended the Home Sharing feature to iOS devices. Previously, Home Sharing would only share your iTunes library among up to five different computers on a local network authorized with the same iTunes Store credentials. iOS 4.3 extended Home Sharing to an unlimited number of iOS devices.