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User profile for user: Suzanne S
Suzanne S Author
User level: Level 1
99 points

Airport Express does not show up for Airplay on iPhone under iOS 14.3

Anyone have an idea how to fix this?


  • Airport Expresses do not show up for Airplay on:
    • iPhone 12 Pro Max under iOS 14.3
      • They did show up under iOS 14.2 before the upgrade to 14.3
      • I've been using all of this gear for years without such a problem.
  • Airport Expresses do show up on:
    • iPad Pro 10.5 under iOS 14.3
    • iPhone 6s Plus iOS 14.2
    • iPhone 11 Pro iOS 14.2
      • And still shows up now that upgraded to 14.3
    • iTunes on iMac under MacOS 10.13.6


  • The following airplay devices do show up everywhere, including the offending iPhone 12 Pro Max
    • HomePods
    • HomePods mini
    • Libratone Zipps
    • Apple TVs HD


  • The following did not help
    • hard restart of iPhone 12 Pro Max
    • soft restart of iPhone 12 Pro Max
    • restart the Airport Expresses through Airport utility


Thanks for any advice!

iPhone 12 Pro Max, iOS 14

Posted on Dec 18, 2020 4:50 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Suzanne S
Suzanne S Author
User level: Level 1
99 points

Posted on Dec 23, 2020 9:43 AM

I have solved this. Here are details in case it helps anyone else.


Since I had two Airport Expresses that both suddenly did not show up in the Airplay list on one of our many iOS devices I decided to try different ideas on each AE.

  • Tried toggling Airplay off then on again one AE, and found that it was greyed out in the "on" mode on both AEs.
  • This implied some misconfiguration of the AEs, so I power cycled one of the AEs. This fixed the greyed out control. The AE still did not show up
  • so I toggled the Airplay setting on that AE. Still did not show up,
  • so I hard restarted the iPhone, and then both AEs showed up again in the Airplay list.
  • They have both continued to show up and work very responsively since then. I have still not hard restarted the second AE, because I've been too lazy/busy to bring the ladder, and it is an interesting test. Eventually I will.


  • I conclude that some table of services available on the LAN was (suddenly) not picking up the AEs on that one phone, until some combination of power cycling the AE or toggling Airplay on that AE got the data out there in a mode where the hard-restated iPhone picked it up. 
    • Seems likely that the suggestion to reset network settings on that iPhone would have worked as well, based on this hypothesis. If there is a next time, I will try that first. This time I saved it for last because it is a minor nuisance.
    • Also seems likely that either the power reset of the AE or the toggle of Airplay on the AE would have worked on its own, if followed by a hard reset of the iPhone, but I didn't test it that way.
    • Interesting that fixing it on one AE fixed Airplay on both.


Note on AEs: Apple hasn't sold them in several years, but they have continued to update them (rarely), adding AirPlay 2, and some security update. Other than this episode, they have worked flawlessly, and are a high sound quality, reliable, inexpensive way to get Airplay 2 to high quality stereo gear where it is not built in.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: Suzanne S
Suzanne S Author
User level: Level 1
99 points

Dec 23, 2020 9:43 AM in response to ryane77

I have solved this. Here are details in case it helps anyone else.


Since I had two Airport Expresses that both suddenly did not show up in the Airplay list on one of our many iOS devices I decided to try different ideas on each AE.

  • Tried toggling Airplay off then on again one AE, and found that it was greyed out in the "on" mode on both AEs.
  • This implied some misconfiguration of the AEs, so I power cycled one of the AEs. This fixed the greyed out control. The AE still did not show up
  • so I toggled the Airplay setting on that AE. Still did not show up,
  • so I hard restarted the iPhone, and then both AEs showed up again in the Airplay list.
  • They have both continued to show up and work very responsively since then. I have still not hard restarted the second AE, because I've been too lazy/busy to bring the ladder, and it is an interesting test. Eventually I will.


  • I conclude that some table of services available on the LAN was (suddenly) not picking up the AEs on that one phone, until some combination of power cycling the AE or toggling Airplay on that AE got the data out there in a mode where the hard-restated iPhone picked it up. 
    • Seems likely that the suggestion to reset network settings on that iPhone would have worked as well, based on this hypothesis. If there is a next time, I will try that first. This time I saved it for last because it is a minor nuisance.
    • Also seems likely that either the power reset of the AE or the toggle of Airplay on the AE would have worked on its own, if followed by a hard reset of the iPhone, but I didn't test it that way.
    • Interesting that fixing it on one AE fixed Airplay on both.


Note on AEs: Apple hasn't sold them in several years, but they have continued to update them (rarely), adding AirPlay 2, and some security update. Other than this episode, they have worked flawlessly, and are a high sound quality, reliable, inexpensive way to get Airplay 2 to high quality stereo gear where it is not built in.

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User profile for user: ryane77
ryane77
User level: Community Specialist

Dec 21, 2020 10:16 AM in response to Suzanne S

Hi Suzanne S,


Thanks for posting. As we understand it, your iPhone 12 Pro Max doesn't seem to be finding your AirPort Express for AirPlay purposes, but other devices do. Is that right? We're glad to assist.


For clarification, are you referring to speakers that are connected to audio out on your AirPort Express, or something else?


As a start, it sounds like it might help to try resetting the network settings for the iPhone 12 Pro Max. This resets any saved Wi-Fi networks/passwords, VPN/APN configurations, and cellular data settings, so be sure that you have your Wi-Fi password handy before resetting. Then tap Settings > General > Reset Network Settings, re-connect to your network, and test it out.


Let us know how that works.


Take care.

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Airport Express does not show up for Airplay on iPhone under iOS 14.3

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