Apple yesterday rolled out iOS 8.4 to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users and the big news, of course, was the addition of Apple Music and Beats 1. It appears now, however, that Apple removed a feature still used by many from the operating system. As pointed out by several users on Apple’s Support forum, the company appears to have removed Home Sharing support for music in iOS 8.4. The Home Sharing support page has also been updated to reflect that the feature is not present in iOS 8.4.
Home Sharing allowed users of iOS devices to access their iTunes library from anywhere within their house and stream the content to their phone, iPod, or iPad. The feature originally supported both video and audio content, but now with iOS 8.4 only supports video content. Home Sharing for audio is still live, however, for Apple TV users (via Apple Insider).
The reason for the removal of Home Sharing for music in iOS 8.4 most likely centers around the licensing agreements concerning Apple Music. It’s entirely possible that Apple doesn’t have the rights to allow content obtained via Apple Music to be streamed over WiFi like Home Sharing requires.
The apparent, but not ideal, solution to the problem is to switch to Apple Music’s family plan, which allows families of up to 6 to access Apple’s catalog of content for $14.99 per month. Home Sharing originally launched in 2011 as part of iOS 4.3.
