macOS 11.3 Music and AirPort Express AirPlay Problem (Cannot play more than 7 seconds)

Same for me. iPhone connects fine to the Airport Express and plays flawlessly. It’s hit or miss with the music app on the iMac. Sometimes will play for hours and sometimes quits after several seconds. The temporary fix always appears to be hitting the button to jump to the next song. As soon as the new song starts, things are either fine for a while or it stops again after several seconds. So frustrating because this is an excellent feature to have for someone like me with devices all over the house connected to all kinds of speakers. Should have been resolved long ago.

Well at least I'm not the only one to have this exact same problem. Apple, you need to fix this!

My M1 MacBook Air fails when setting Music to AirPlay to my Airport Express that I have connected to my stereo. Sometimes it will work for a short time after a reboot, but then fails, and most times just fails immediately.

Meanwhile, using AirPlay from my 2015 MacBook Air to the same Airport Express works flawlessly, as it always has.

I've tried the Apple recommended fixes, including factory reset of the Airport Express. Nothing fixed it.

A big thank you to dpieracci for pointing out that System Preferences/Sound can be used to set all sound to go to the Airport Express. It's useful as a temporary work-around, but of course I really don't want all sounds from laptop to go to my stereo.

Apple asked me for information concerning this issue. It's over my head right now to do sysdiagnose and Timestamps. The issue has persisted since day one and hasn't changed with any updates. Just thought I would share this to see if anyone else having this problem could relay this information to Apple.

1. A sysdiagnose from all sender and receiver devices involved (e.g. iPhone, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod) 

2. Timestamps for when you started using AirPlay and when the issue occurred 

3. A description of the issue that includes the names of the devices involved 

4. The steps you followed when the issue occurred 

5. In addition, a video recording or screenshots of the issue will also assist us

Thanks, samelot. Your "fix-airplay.command" solution also worked for me. I stream to HomePods which would fail without your solution (or rebooting my Mac).

The Airfoil app also works flawlessly, without having to reboot the Mac. Airfoil is a great 3rd party solution for using AirPlay.

Hopefully, Apple will come up with a permanent solution.

I have an iMac M1, 2021, using Monterey.

Same problem for me with my new Mac mini M1 and not with my old MacBook Pro intel....

I have to reboot if I want use Airplay with my airport...

Yes, I have the same experience. Works after a reboot, but stops after the MacBook has been hibernating for a little while.

Poor performance of Apple...

Thanks, samelot. The "fix-airplay.command" worked with me on M1 Macbook air on Big Sur 11.6. Haven't tried yet updating to Monterey.

Same here M1 Macbook Air, 11.3.3 update. My iphone works to both my Airport Express stations (both v 7.8.1). Music seems to lose the link to either Airport Express after 7-8 seconds of play. Interesting Podcasts works fine to the Airports. There is something wrong with Music.app - needs a fix.

Same here, but

• sometimes the playback from Big Sur to Airport Express 2 starts working for a few hours, and then stops again (most of the time it doesn't work)
• most of the time it doesn't even play 7 seconds - after switching to Airplay from Apple Music there are few second of silence, and then an exclamation mark appears over Airplay button in Music
• it works perfectly from all iPads and iPhones in the house
• I have M1 Mac with Big Sur 11.3 and latest AE2 firmware

I have a similiar problem:

Streaming from M1 MacbookPro to HomePods work from OS. Streaming from iOs Devices to Airport Express 2 works. Streaming from Big Sur OS to Airport Express 2 does not work. I can Choose it as output, but after 30 seconds of trying, an issue window appears.

It seems to be a combination of new hardware and new software. I’ve kept a couple of old iPads as they work just fine with the new software. It’s something with their new CPUs and the new software that’s not working correctly with the AirPort Express.

Even Airplay to Mac has the same problem. Works after a fresh reboot, but if the laptop lid is closed then the sound is gone after opening the MacBook lid again. Amazing that they don't seem to have tested this feature on an MacBook Air M1? Perhaps it's only my machine :( Feedback would be welcome.

I am having the same problem here: MacBook Air M1 (11.3.1) streaming to two HomePods (14.5) with no sound after 7 seconds. Only solution so far: restarting Music.app

Cheers,

Mark