The Apple TV is a small box that gives your TV access to media from Apple and other providers, Apple Arcade and third-party games, media stored on other Apple devices on your network, and other categories of apps. It also acts as a hub for HomeKit-connected devices, extending certain features and adding remote access.
There are two main places to set iCloud-related preferences on your Apple TV. Depending on the choices you made when you set up the Apple TV, either or both of these may already be configured, but it doesn’t hurt to check.
To configure an Apple TV to work with iCloud Photos, Family Sharing, and the AirPods paired with your iPhone (if you have them), navigate to Settings > Users and Accounts > Your Name > iCloud. If your Apple ID isn’t already listed, select Sign In. If you’ve already entered your Apple ID for the iTunes Store, you may be asked if you want to use that same Apple ID for these other features. If you do, select Yes (and enter your password); if not, select No, Use a Different Apple ID (and enter both the Apple ID and password for a different iCloud account).
On the Users and Accounts screen, you should see the following iCloud options:
iCloud Photos or My Photo Stream (shows whether iCloud Photos is turned on, but you can only change this on a Mac or iOS/iPadOS device; if it’s off, you can enable My Photo Stream)
Shared Albums (also dependent on the setting from your other devices)
One Home Screen (when enabled, your Home screen will be the same on every Apple TV signed in to your iCloud account)
After that one-time setup procedure, to view your photos, follow the steps ahead in Use iCloud Photos on an Apple TV.
To set up your Apple TV to stream purchased media from iCloud, navigate to Settings > Users and Accounts > Your Name > Store. If your Apple ID isn’t already listed, select Sign In and enter your credentials. Then select Yes, if prompted, to remember your password for rentals and purchases.
You may enter more than one Apple ID (for example, if multiple people in your household have purchased content from the iTunes Store that you want to view), and switch between them easily. To enter an additional account, once again go to Settings > Users and Accounts, select Add New User, and follow the prompts. (To switch between accounts, return to the Users and Accounts screen and select a different account.)
If you subscribe to iTunes Match, it’s automatically enabled when you add your iCloud account, though you will need to turn on Sync Library in the Music app the first time you use it.
If you’ve set up iTunes Match on your Apple TV, navigate to the Music app to listen to matched or uploaded tracks from your iTunes library. You can then navigate through your entire Music library, including your playlists.
After setting up iCloud Photos in the Settings app, you can select Photos on the home screen to display your photos and videos, shared albums, or personal albums. You may be prompted to turn on iCloud Photos the first time you use it. If iCloud Photos is enabled, you can also see Memories (automatically generated collections of photos and videos based on time, location, or faces); or, if you enabled My Photo Stream, it appears here.
If you have an iOS or iPadOS device, you probably already know you can use AirPlay to send audio and video from it to your Apple TV, which essentially turns your TV into a much bigger display for your iOS/iPadOS device. AirPlay from iCloud alters this behavior in a subtle way: after you initiate playback in iOS/iPadOS, your Apple TV streams any media purchased from Apple or stored via iTunes Match directly from the iCloud servers instead of from your iOS/iPadOS device.
One benefit of this approach is that you preserve your iOS/iPadOS device’s battery charge, since the device doesn’t have to stream and transmit the media. Another is that you can use someone else’s Apple TV (that is, one that’s not signed in to your iCloud account) to display purchased content from your iCloud account, simply by virtue of your iOS or iPadOS device being within range.
For example, if you have a season pass to a TV show I want to see, I can invite you to my house and feed you popcorn in exchange for using your iOS/iPadOS device to play shows on my TV—without any changes in settings for either of us.
To enable AirPlay from iCloud, on the Apple TV, go to Settings > AirPlay and HomeKit and make sure AirPlay is set to On.
After you do that, whenever an iOS or iPadOS device sends content to your Apple TV, the Apple TV attempts to stream it from iCloud if it’s stored there; if it can’t for any reason, it falls back to streaming from the iOS/iPadOS device.