Updated to itunes 9: now Airtunes won't connect,

I don't see my AppleTV as remote speakers anymore from my Mac Pro, but iTunes still sees the device fine for syncing. So I tried running iTunes on my MacBook, and it sees it just fine. They're both connected to a TimeCapsule wired (disabled wifi on the MacBook to be sure), both running SL 10.6.1, both running iTunes 9.0 (70). Both have their firewalls turned off to be sure it's not that either.

Huh!?!? I've tried enabling/disabling AirTunes on the aTV, resetting the aTV, restarting iTunes... and the laptop just sees it and the desktop doesn't. The only difference I can see is that I have the aTV sync to the desktop - but why would that exclude it from the speakers? (If that's even related...)

Thanks for reminding me about Airfoil! I already own a registered copy, and I just tried it. It seems to solve all my problems! I've never tried hijacking iTunes with Airfoil before, because it was never necessary, but it works brilliantly. (Actually, I may be speaking too soon, since the music just cut out briefly, but returned within a second or two.)

This discussion attracted the attention of MacNN, which wrote an article stating "It is unclear if Apple is preparing a software update to address the issue." That article got picked up in today's Mac OS Ken podcast, where I heard it.

http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/09/14/update.causes.connection.failure.to.remot e.speaker/

http://macosken.com/

I have airfoil and just updated to iTunes 9 and Airfoil 3.3.3. I either can't connect (via airtunes or airfoil) or I get choppy music that cuts in and out. Airtunes doesn't connect to airport express at all.

Frustrating...

Hi Ryan:

The same thing happend to me. I purchased a TV show and iTunes informed that I had to upgrad to iTunes in order for the show to play. So I did and now I do not have sound. Oh brother.

Did you get your problem fixed?

Miss Lil

Good news (for me at least) - there was definitely some user error, though I wish it was clearer in the UI...

There is a 'Preferences / Devices / Look for speakers connected with AirTunes' checkbox that was enabled on the laptop and NOT on the desktop, so that's why the AppleTV didn't show as a speaker option. Not sure if checked or unchecked was the original default, but in any case at some point it got selected/unselected on one machine. I was looking at the iTunes / AppleTV and iTunes / Advanced preferences and found absolutely nothing, so... thus part of the confusion. (Actually had clicked through there and just saw my iPod restore images, didn't look close enough below...)

Secondly, apparently the reason the AppleTV wasn't showing up in iTunes was because I hadn't left the menu selection on the AppleTV IN the 'connect to iTunes library' menu. Or... then again, maybe it was and maybe there was a problem. Wish I had paid closer attention. But I think the behavior changed between firmware versions since while troubleshooting this, I did a complete factory restore and after going back to the 1.0 (?) OS on it, the aTV magically showed up on my laptop's iTunes - which it hadn't been before. (Speakers had been on the laptop, but not the aTV in the 'Devices' part of iTunes.) So there I was actually seeing the aTV in iTunes, went and did the software update to get current (2.4?), and suddenly it didn't show up anymore. I just finally randomly got it to show when I clicked into the menu, still didn't see it, backed out of the menu but at the last second had seen it flicker back into existence on iTunes. So (I think) it just no longer advertises itself as much as it used to, and I could no longer find it. Didn't think I'd have to park in the 'connect' submenu to see it in any case. Grrrr.

So that long story short, it's working now - make sure you enable the 'look for speakers...' option in iTunes and make sure you navigate to the aTV actual stream/connect to iTunes library sub-menu (showing the connect code) if you hope to see it on iTunes. Hope that helps someone - haven't gotten to try streaming enough to see if I have any of the other issues with dropouts people were reporting.

_*PROOF of iTunes 9 or Snow Leopard 10.6.1 BUG:_*

Configuration:
Mac A: Early 2008 Mac Pro, Snow Leopard (10.6.1), iTunes 9
Mac B: PowerBook G4 (titanium), Tiger (10.4.1), iTunes 7
Airport Express: Airport Express (802.11g), firmware version 6.3, connected only thru wifi via Belkin
Access Point: Belkin F5D8232-4 firmware v2000

Scenario:
Mac A displays the AE in its drop-down list at lower right, but "Airtunes" window 'connecting to ...' AE progress window times out in FAILURE, reverts to Computer connection. Every time.
Mac B display the AE in its drop-down list at lower right, and Airtunes CONNECTS to it just FINE.

I haven't tested wired mode, but assume that works or Apple wouldn't have ever let iTunes 9 out the door. Shame they didn't finish testing it.

Apple, when will you guys have us a fix?

Thanks,

Jason

Having same problem. Streaming from MBP; System: 10.6.1; iTunes 9. Music dropping out intermittently. Very annoying. Tried rebuilding music library, restarting AirPort, restarting AirPort Express—all without any change. From the chatter, it certainly seems like this is a problem with iTunes 9. Apple, we need a fix to this ASAP!

UPDATE: After seeing a friend experience exactly the same issue on Windows XP with iTunes 9, I can say that Snow Leopard can't be the culprit.

Apple! Help us!

Thanks,

Jason

Mine does the same - 'Network Connection Failed'. I am on Vista 32bit

In fact, all the itunes window has in the lower right corner, regardless of what music playlist i'm in, is 'burn disc' option. It used to list 'computer' or the remote speakers. Happened only after installing itunes 9. No other changes. Not using snow leopard.

Same problem here, I've got an XP machine attached to an Airport Extreme and an Airport Express, all drivers and firmware are up to date. I've tried all so called 'fixes' and possible network setups, but in the end it appeared that it is just ITunes 9.0 that can't handle a continuous stream of music. The only thing that helped was to downgrade to Itunes 7. It is not the first time I noticed Apple software and hardware is just not compatible, kinda ridiculous.

I am getting the error "an error occurred while connecting to remote speakers." I upgraded to 10.6.1, and to itunes 9. I think the problem started after itunes 9, not the 10.6 upgrade, but I can not be sure.

I can quit itunes and try connecting again and sometimes it works, but %75 of the time, IT WILL NOT CONNECT.

This needs to be fixed ASAP.

I'm having the same issue. I try to stream to airtunes. I get about 2 seconds of audio then the audio stops, but the song is still playing. If I switch to the computer speakers you can hear the audio again.

If anyone has a fix let me know.

no doubt it's an itunes 9 problem.

my macbook running os x 10.5.8 and itunes 8.2.1 has no problems connecting to the speakers.

my mac pro with os x 10.6.1 and itunes 9 just can't.

Every single time Apple updates iTunes the Airport cuts out and Apple remains completely silent not offering any help to their customers. It's Friday night and all I want is some tunes coming through my speakers but Apple can't get it together to put out a an update that jives with all it's devices. Is Apple a real company - I can understand some issues in the early days but this far along they should recognize this as a big issue and ensure airtunes is considered when updating iTunes. C'mon and get it together boys.