Multiple AppleTV boxes

Netflix allows for a limited number of simultaneous streams per account. Similar for other content providers, although the exact conditions may differ.

For Netflix, it depends on your plan with them. They have options for 1, 2, and 4 screens per account. Which profile is used within the account, that doesn’t really matter technically, except for the My List, Watch History, and personalized Recommendations for that profile.

Plans and pricing - Netflix Help Center

Basic (1), Standard (2), Premium (4)

Thanks for your reply and trying to help. It seemed to me this thread was about having and using two different apple TV boxes. I also understood the question was on how to get the apps and streaming services on an old/existing Apple TV box to be copied to a new or second Apple TV Box and whether you could use streaming services on both boxes (one user two boxes). This is more than just making the Apple Movie or Music library shared or streaming/displaying content across devices on the network.

I guess the confusion comes down to what question is being asked. What is "Home Sharing" and what is "One Home?" Are you trying to share content across the home network (one stream to two TVs for the big game)? Or, are you trying to have two boxes with the same apps and streaming services without having to manually install or configure each box? Are you trying to share purchased/subscribed content that comes from different family Apple accounts?

I learned "Home Sharing" is not the feature that syncs Apple TV box apps. After spending almost two hours on the phone with Apple with two different support people, we figured app sync is a different setting. There is "Home Sharing" which you are showing and then there "One Home" which is in a different place. "One Home" is inside that Default User in your screen capture. After you select a default user you can then go back and click on the default user to find One Home. Note, there is no default user by default if the TV box is setup manually and therefore no One Home setting which is why we (Apple and I) could not find One Home setting in the first place.

Click on the default user and you will see "One Home" part way down. Apparently the feature for sync is properly referred to as "One Home" in the scant literature on the topic for setting up two Apple TV boxes, but its location is often mistakenly reported as the place for "Home Share" as being just inside the Users and Accounts screen. Instructions leave off the most important part. You have to set a default user then go back and click into the default user (after selecting a default user) to find the One Home setting.

BTW, it seemed to me that the two different support people were not sure what "Home Sharing" does. The first support person thought it is was One Home. The second support person knew we needed "One Home" in a different place but couldn't say what the purpose of "Home Share" was.

After two hours with Apple Support, we sort of got it working but with a big caveat. You can get TV box apps to sync across boxes but you cannot sync user accounts and passwords. Streaming apps IDs and passwords must be separately entered on every Apple TV box.

Even with the One Home location it still took several attempts to make it work. We had to reset to factor settings several times and filly got it working.

Bottom line If you have...

1. Both boxes on the same home/lan network
2. The same default user on both boxes
3. The same Apple ID on both boxes
4. Both boxes logged into iCloud
5. Both boxes with One Home turned on (it is off by default in TVoS 16 and 17)

And then (this is the most important part that took more than an hour to figure out) apps will sync the next time a new app is installed on the old box. The new box did not show any of the apps from the old/existing box until a new app was installed on the old box. Then like magic, it worked.

The common instructions are poor at best and confusing because what question is being answered. Instructions say to just have One Home enabled and then something happens to sync apps. This is far from the knowledge and user experience documentation required to make this work. In the end, One Home did not save a bit of time installing a new box because you still have to type in accounts and passwords for each app. I could have installed each app faster than it took to figure out why One Home was not syncing apps in the first place.

DBacksWin1 wrote:

I appreciate the response. My question wasn’t necessarily about Netflix licensing, per se. I’m more curious about how information is shared, if at all, between multiple AppleTV units. I’ve only had one in a household and am looking to expand by an additional one (maybe two) AppleTV boxes.

I have an AppleTV box, an Amazon FireTV Stick and a smart TV. I'm logged into almost all of my accounts on all of the devices. It's all pretty seamless. I can be watching something downstairs and decide I want to finish it upstairs in bed. I haven't found a service yet that has a problem with that.

Ok, thank you for that detailing.

• Things like watch history, recommendations, queue list, are stored online for the account, and would be accessible on any of your devices. No manual sync needed.
• Things like last used user account or profile per app, if more than one configured, are specific to each device and app. For some apps, you will have to select anyway (Netflix, Prime), even on one device, even with one user.
• Home screen syncing is available for Apple TV boxes (tvOS 11.0 or later). Settings﹥Uses and Accounts﹥[ᴅᴇғᴀᴜʟᴛ ᴜsᴇʀ]﹥[ɪcʟᴏᴜᴅ] One Home Screen﹥On. If you activate it before setting up new devices, then the sync will be an option during setup, and load all your favorite apps automatically from that moment on. Syncing can then stay active for later changes.

This didn't work. I had home sharing turned on before I even opened the box for the second TV. There was no option during setup to use Home Sharing to sych the two Apple TV Boxes. There is virtually no instructions or expected user experience documentation on setting up a second Apple TV Box or transferring existing TV Box to a new TV Box. (Big surprise, Apple doesn't believe in manuals or instructions). I guess it is magic and if it doesn't work for you too bad. You must not be living right.

I am a bit put off because I stupidly believed I could easily setup a second Apple TB Box without having to spend hours even days retyping login IDs and long passwords with a ridiculously hard to use remote.

Home Sharing should work seamlessly as long as the Apple ID account matches for all devices, as entered for the settings for the Home Sharing service. There’s nothing else to sync, but all devices need to be on the same home network: Home Sharing is about live discovery and streaming through your home network, not about file transfer.

On each of the computers, give the shared Library a unique name, as that is how you can tell them apart on Apple TV in the Computers app.