Q: Airplay 9.3.5

Hi,

Restart your Apple TV.  To restart your Apple TV (4th generation), go to Settings > System > Restart. For Apple TV (3rd generation and earlier), go to Settings > General > Restart.

And reset the AirPort Express >  Resetting an AirPort base station FAQ - Apple Support

Yes. As luck would have it, I was setting up an Airport Express (11n second generation) for the first time, a couple of days after I updated my phone (6) to 9.3.5.

After much frustration, I report:

Airport Express + iTunes on Windows 10: working (Handel being handled OK as I write).

Airport Express + Music App on iPad Air, iOS 9.3.4: working

Airport Express + Music App on iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.5: not working--Airport is visible from phone, but as soon as you try to play anything, it throws a wobbly, starts and then stops immediately before the first note.

I have done several factory resets of the Airport Express, and turned off and restarted the iPhone several times. I have used the Airport Utility on the Windows box, and with a bit of toing and froing that was OK.

On the iPad + 9.3.4, setting things up through the WiFi settings was effortless, and just the way it says in the how-tos.

On the iPhone + 9.3.5, I was getting Error -4, but after pushing through and setting it up via File Other in the Airport Utility, I would get something that looked all right, but wouldn't play. At some point, the details of which I have censored, I would get something that looked like it worked, but then the software threw an "Unexpected error."

Perhaps I should add that I am using the Airport E. purely for music, so it is set up to Join Existing Network, which is a radio-button choice, so should be OK.

So:

It works on some devices, but not my phone with 9.3.5.

I have reset everything several times, short of a factory reset on the phone.

All this happens in the same small room as my wifi router, a humongous ASUS which is so powerful it clobbers my bluetooth, so signal strength is not an issue.

I have tried every how-to and trouble-shooting I could find.

I am strongly led to the belief that this is a bug in 9.3.5, and I will not be updating my iPad.

Just to add: I found a new suggestion, which was to Reset -> Reset Network Settings, which seemed plausible, so I tried that, and still the same: iPhone 6 9.3.5 sees the Airport, but cannot play to it through Music App; Windows 10 machine, iTunes, plays fine.

So, Reset Network Settings doesn't help, either.

OK, I have had some long conversations, on chat and phone, with Apple support. They didn't find the answer, though they were fine to deal with--this is evidently an obscure problem.

What I have done is to set up my mighty tri-band ac router (ASUS AC-3200) so it just works on 2.4 GHz, and now my iPhone sees the Airport Express, and plays music through it.

On the advice of the Apple support person, I did a reset and restore of the iPhone. No joy. I also did a total erase and reset, and I downgraded the operating system to 9.3.4. This was probably quite a good thing to do, as it is spring where I am, and so seasonal for a thorough de-crufting of the phone, but none of these did any good: so we can probably drop the idea that it's a 9.3.5 problem, and I will upgrade the iPad soon (and squeal here if I get problems).

The idea of disabling the 5 GHz channels came from some article on the net, which I didn't fully understand because I know nothing about networking. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that the Airport Express is only 802.11n, not ac. But I'm still left with the question of why it works with my iPad, but not the phone. But it's a workaround, that you might try.

I'll get back to Apple when their system maintenance is over, and if anything gets clearer, I'll post it here. Good luck.