The Apple TV has a Photos application where it is possible to view your iCloud photos. You also have access to your memories and albums via the app. Unfortunately, this app requires an iCloud Photo Library, but there is still a way to view your photos on an Apple TV without iCloud.
You can achieve this by using home sharing. This allows you to share media, such as videos, music and photos, from your Mac and watch them on your Apple TV. This way you can still view your photo albums on the big screen without an iCloud subscription.
Activate Home Sharing on a Mac or PC
Using Home Sharing it is possible to share files such as photos and videos with other devices in your network. Due to extra security of your Apple ID, not all devices can connect to the content. From macOS Catalina you have to activate Home Sharing in a different way than before. Do you still own a Mac with macOS Mojave or older, or do you own a PC with iTunes? Then you need to activate Home Sharing via iTunes following these steps.
Enable Home Sharing in macOS
- Open ▸ System Settings
- Navigate to ‘General’
- Choose ‘Share’
- Turn on ‘Media Sharing’
- Check the ‘Home Sharing’ option
- Sign in with your Apple ID and click ‘Turn on Home Sharing’
Do you have a Mac with macOS Monterey or older? You can then find this option via ▸ System Preferences ▸ Sharing ▸ Media Sharing ▸ Home Sharing.
Add photos to home sharing
Once you’ve activated Home Sharing, you can add photos by enabling the ‘Share Photos with Apple TV’ option and then clicking the ‘Choose’ option. Then you can select a photo library and choose the photo albums you want. If you use iTunes for Home Sharing, you can activate the photo feature by following these steps.
Activate Home Sharing Apple TV
Once you’ve set up the options above, you can enable Home Sharing options on your TV via Settings ▸ Accounts ▸ Home Sharing. Enable the option of the same name and sign in with the same Apple ID as the source.
View photos on Apple TV without iCloud
Once the above steps have been completed, you can view your photos. To do this, open the default installed tvOS app ‘Computers’ and navigate to the ‘Photos’ tab.
You will then get an overview of all the albums and photos that you have synced with Home Sharing. Open the desired album and view the photos manually or via a slideshow. The first time the application may take some time to load before the photos and videos are visible. Please note, you can only view the content if the source (your computer) is turned on and active.
Video: View photos via home sharing on TV
