TV app videos won't play via Home Sharing

I had the TV app set up on a Mac Pro (2013) with the library on an external hard drive "Videos" that I use with the Computers app on my Apple TV via Home Sharing. I have 1,800+ DVDs that I've digitized in that library and a lot of playlists grouping those by actor, director, franchise, theme, etc. I just bought a Mac mini M4 to upgrade my videos server and connected the "Videos" drive to it but when I tried to point the TV app to the "Media" folder on that drive it didn't find anything that it would open. I searched online and saw a comment somewhere that said that it might be caused by the library being too old and that importing the files was the solution.


To be safe, I copied the "Media" folder that was on the "Videos" drive to another drive "Backup" before then having the TV app import the files from the "Videos" drive. The result was that the movies were imported but the playlists were not. So I did some more research and saw that the actual "TV Library.tvlibrary" file is usually located in the Movies folder of the user account. I checked my Mac Pro and found that file there. So I deleted the "Media" folder from the "Videos" drive in case the process of importing had changed anything in it and then copied the "Media" folder from the "Backup" drive onto the "Videos" drive. Then I copied the Mac Pro's "TV Library.tvlibrary" file into the Movies directory on the Mac mini and I copied the Mac Pro's "com.apple.TV.plist" file into the Preferences folder on the Mac mini.


Opening the TV app on the Mac mini resulted in everything appearing to be fine - all the videos and their thumbnails were there, as were the playlists, and everything also looked fine when I opened the Computers app on my Apple TV. However, when I tried to play one of the videos via the Apple TV it said that the file couldn't be found. I did a Get Info on that video in the TV app on the Mac mini and went to the File tab and the path to the video appeared to be correct. Returning to the Apple TV that video now played correctly. I tried this with more videos via the Apple TV and none work until I check the File tab on the Mac mini. So, there's something happening when I check the File tab that fixes the problem.


I have a recollection of the old iTunes app that if it couldn't find a file it would let you navigate to it and then, once found, it would offer to look for other missing files in that same location. I don't see an option like that anywhere in the TV app.


Any suggestions on how to best resolve my issue? I love to find something easier than doing a Get Info->File on 1800+ videos. Perhaps there's a way to script that process with Automator but I've only ever attempted to use that once so I'm not confident that I could figure that out.

Mac mini (M4, 2024)

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 1:09 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 30, 2025 6:47 PM

Your TV app library on the Mac mini has stale file paths inherited from the old Mac Pro, so Apple TV cannot find the videos until you open “Get Info → File,” which forces a path refresh. To fix all 1,800 items at once, use one of these methods: (1) temporarily rename the drive to force a full path rebuild, (2) run an AppleScript that auto-triggers file validation for every item, or (3) force the .tvlibrary to regenerate its index. All preserve your playlists and metadata without manual fixing.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 30, 2025 6:47 PM in response to Michael Dreimiller

Your TV app library on the Mac mini has stale file paths inherited from the old Mac Pro, so Apple TV cannot find the videos until you open “Get Info → File,” which forces a path refresh. To fix all 1,800 items at once, use one of these methods: (1) temporarily rename the drive to force a full path rebuild, (2) run an AppleScript that auto-triggers file validation for every item, or (3) force the .tvlibrary to regenerate its index. All preserve your playlists and metadata without manual fixing.

Dec 1, 2025 8:17 AM in response to azaksalmarzur28

Thanks for the reply. If I rename the external drive do I just do that and then immediately rename it back to the original name? Or do I need to rename it, open the TV app and then quit it, and then change the drive's name back to the original name? Or do I need to rename the drive, open the TV app, point it to the Media library again, quit the TV app, and then change drive's name back to the original name, then re-open the TV app and point it to the Media library again?

TV app videos won't play via Home Sharing

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