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Level 1

0 points

Airtunes stops after end of song.

I use an Airport Express (model with 802.11n) only to stream music to my stereo. The wireless is disabled and my laptop is connected to the LAN directly (read: not using wireless anywhere). I can connect to the AE using the Airport Utility without fail, the AE's LED is always green, and iTunes on my MBP is set to Shuffle (read: music does not stop...ever). The AE is running the latest firmware (7.4.1), the MBP is running Leopard w/ iTunes 8.

The problem is after a random number of songs (from 3 to 10, rarely beyond), Airtunes stops playing music. Note, this only happens at the END of a song, and never during a song in progress. The visualizer in iTunes continues throbbing, so I know music is still streaming from iTunes. In fact, the network switch between my laptop and the AE continuously blinks, as if traffic is still being sent to the AE. However, there is no sound out of the AE (using it's analog out). I have to pause or stop the current track, then hit play, for Airtunes to work again.

This began happening since upgrading to the latest firmware (7.4.1). I've reset the airport multiple times, reset its configuration, and still get the same results. When Airtunes drops out, I've checked the AU and found the Airport still active. I've checked the log, and it's empty aside from the connection established messages and the ntp clock sync messages, both of which happen outside the time of the airtunes drop out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro 2.0, Mac OS X (10.5.1)

Posted on Mar 21, 2009 4:49 PM

81 replies

andrewth

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2009 4:24 AM in response to andrewth

Apologies, this morning it's back to it's old self.
Stopped playing after just 3 songs, then needed restarting constantly.
Still not fixed after all then.

Sep 29, 2009 5:54 AM in response to andrewth

I now have a case number with Apple support for this problem. I emailed Apple a month ago, at their request, attaching a playlist that demonstrates this problem. So far no response, not to that email, or subsequent emails.

I've also noticed some other threads which seem to be talking about this exact same problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10146184&#10146184

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10107504&#10107504

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9872145&#9872145

No doubt there are more. Come on Apple! This is clearly a serious bug that is wasting huge amounts of time and effort, and causing great frustration for many Apple customers. If you're listening please do something about it!

RckStwrz

Level 2

419 points

Oct 5, 2009 1:43 PM in response to fdawg4l

I just wanted to add myself into the lot. I've got the same problem. On my network, main base station being a Time Capsule, I've got an iMac, MacBook Pro, AppleTV and an Airport Express. Music goes silent after the first song. Makes me sad.

C Ogle

Level 5

7,030 points

Oct 5, 2009 1:47 PM in response to fdawg4l

I don't see this mentioned anywhere in the thread. Did you by chance remove the checkmark next to the songs in your library? If so, that will cause this behavior.

Oct 6, 2009 2:59 AM in response to C Ogle

I've just checked my system, and the checkmarks (ie the tick) is still there next to all the tracks in my library, so I don't think that's it, but thanks for the suggestion.

Oct 26, 2009 4:55 PM in response to fdawg4l

I'm also having the same issue, multiple bit rates, from 192-320 etc. I too was working fine until an update, I don't know which one, and thought perhaps that once I got the latest iTunes, it would be fixed.

I will note, that it doesn't happen _as often_ when streaming internet radio via iTunes.

I ran across this thread, and thought I'd try the crossfade.

My setup: Mac Pro, OSX 10.6.1. iTunes 9.0.1, airport 7.4.2, HP 1824 switch, Cisco 1132 AP. (Nothing here should be out of order)

Nov 10, 2009 6:38 AM in response to fdawg4l

Hi. I wanted to chime in as well...

+1 user experiencing this problem.

Has anyone received any feedback from Apple?

thefleX

Level 1

0 points

Nov 24, 2009 6:31 AM in response to raverpoke

I have the same problem as well. Bought the AirPort Express a month or two ago, and at first it worked more or less fine. But now every time I stream to my stereo the streaming always stops when iTunes starts a new song. When I double-click the song, the AirPort picks up the song again. But at the end of the song the same thing happens. When I started reading this thread I did the cross-fade thing and apparently this works. BUT I don't want the cross-fade actually.
Hope to get some update or something that will solve this issue.

andrewth

Level 1

0 points

Nov 25, 2009 5:12 AM in response to thefleX

I don't find that the crossfade solves the problem. Plus the dip in volume sounds rubbish when there's no gap between tracks.
I was streaming while using the computer the other day and it didn't stop playing.
Maybe inactivity on the iTunes host machine is part of the issue.

Dec 2, 2009 4:28 PM in response to andrewth

PROBLEM SOLVED AT LAST

Upgraded appleTV to v 3.01 and problem gone away, on my system at least.

Brent J

Level 1

0 points

Dec 4, 2009 11:30 AM in response to fdawg4l

I had some luck by ensuring my Airport Expresses were only connecting on the 2.4 GHz band. Prior to that they were connecting to my Extreme on the 5 GHz band. Haven't had any issues since.

To do this, in my Extreme setup I made sure to specify a different name for the 5GHz (e.g. MyWifi-5) network so I could explicity tell the Expresses not to connect to the other (e.g. MyWifi). Otherwise, they automatically select whichever network is faster.

Hope this helps somebody else.

Dec 6, 2009 3:41 PM in response to fdawg4l

Hi all

After weeks of frustration, I am very pleased to have come across this discussion. Like everybody else, my speakers which are connected to Airport Express went silent at the end of each song, even though iTunes appeared to be playing the next song. If iTunes was paused and then re-started, sound would recommence, until the end of that song. All songs are encoded at 320kbps and stored on an external hard drive.

I know it hasn't worked for everybody, but since I tried squared99's suggestion of selecting the multiple speaker option in iTunes, I have listened for hours with no more problems.

Obviously, Apple have got to resolve this problem but in the meantime I hope this fix continues to work.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Dec 14, 2009 1:24 PM in response to steinwayplayer

I was not suffering from this problem until the latest Airport Client update. However I am not using wireless to stream music - all the computers are attached directly to the LAN. I have one Mac sharing out the music library and other Macs that use this library and send music to speakers via Airtunes. This was working without a hitch until the latest Client update. It is curious that in most (all?) situations when the music stops playing at the end of the song - iTunes has a dialog box up that says "Connecting" like it has either lost connection to the Airport Express or to the shared library?

I have not had any issues with the playing stopping after a song if I am streaming music directly from a Mac to the Airport Express - ie not using the shared library on another computer.

I have reset most everything I can and all software is up to date - perhaps too up to date now 😟

G

Dec 15, 2009 3:42 PM in response to fdawg4l

Hi,

Count me in as well, been doing it for over a year and I have just learned to live with it and use the pause button on my remote or use my iPhone. Running 10.5 on a Mac Mini, Apple TV, 2 802.11n Express Cards .. I haven't tried the cross fader yet but I am about to....will let you know how that works out. So far in the past 20 minutes it has cut out on me 3 times.

Dec 15, 2009 4:05 PM in response to fdawg4l

The crossfader trick does not work, in fact it actually paralyzes iTunes when the issue occurs. Now I have to restart iTunes instead of just pressing play / pause...

Airtunes stops after end of song.