Unable to Airplay to Airport Express

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Unable to Airplay to Airport Express

I have been unable to Airplay connect to Airport express (2nd Gen). Airport Firmware version 7.8.1, iPhone 12 mini iOS 15.0.2 (and other device tested - iPad 6th Gen iOS 14.4.2.) Error just says unable to connect. Troubleshooting: Restarted Phone, restarted airport express, toggled airplay off/on on airport. Restarted iPad. Toggled bluetooth and wifi off/on on devices. Please help! Connects to a multi-room receiver requiring RCA cable connections. Worked beautifully last week.

Posted on Oct 21, 2021 10:33 AM

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Answer 1

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Tesserax

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158,424 points

Oct 21, 2021 1:22 PM in response to Carms

The keys to successfully utilize AirPlay are:

IPv6 must be enabled on, at least, the local network. In this case the Express would be configured for "IPv6 Link-local only."
Bonjour (Apple's implementation of mDNS) must be enabled. This IP protocol is used to "discover" AirPlay devices.
The AirPlay "server" & "player" must be on the same network subnet as AirPlay is not routable. One quick check is to verify that your iPhone/iPad & the Express are all getting a local IP address in the same DHCP range. For example, if your network is configured to use 192.16..1.x/24, then each of these devices would be in that same range, i.e., for example: 192.168.2, .3, & .4.

Again, I'm not aware that Apple's latest firmware versions "broke" any of this.

You may find the following user tip article, that I authored, helpful:

AirPlay Troubleshooting - Dropped Streams… - Apple Community

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Answer 2

Carms Author

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Oct 23, 2021 10:28 AM in response to Tesserax

I solved this accidentally, and if you can tell my why, i would love to hear it. I thought about trying to connect by ethernet to the main router, and realized that i had done this a long time ago, like months. I unplugged the ethernet cable and it instantly worked. no adjustment to settings needed.

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Answer 3

Bob Timmons

Level 10

185,534 points

Oct 23, 2021 12:38 PM in response to Carms

If the AirPort Express was configured to "join" your network......as you indicated above.....it would have been looking for a WiFi signal connection, not an Ethernet signal connection.

The Express was likely confused if both Ethernet and WiFi connections were present, and it did not know what to do. In other words, the "join" setting on the Express would not be correct if your intent was for the AirPort Express to connect using Ethernet.

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Answer 4

Tesserax

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158,424 points

Oct 21, 2021 11:46 AM in response to Carms

AFAIK, you should be able to use AirPlay to stream from either of these devices with the latest versions or either iOS or iPadOS. However anything is possible. There is no newer firmware for the Express.

Is this AirPort Express the only wireless router in your current network configuration? If not, what is the other wireless router and how do you have the Express configured with it? Join/extend, etc.?

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Answer 5

Carms Author

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Oct 21, 2021 12:43 PM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for the reply. Great question, I should have included: Mesh Wifi TP link Deco X20 Wifi 6 AX1800 with three nodes. More than adequate for our square footage. The airport express is joined to the Wifi with settings: connect by DHCP, network mode=off, router mode=off, airplay enabled, no password.

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Answer 6

Carms Author

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Oct 21, 2021 6:30 PM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for your tips. I turned on IPv6 on the mesh network, and set the Express to Link-local. The Airplay is "discoverable" since it shows in all the lists of devices to airplay to, just does not connect. and the IP addresses are all in the same range. Nothing worked. The thing that puzzles me is that it all worked great last Friday. No firmware updates or anything out of the ordinary, just updated my phone iOS to 15, kept the iOS the same on the iPad.

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Answer 7

Tesserax

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158,424 points

Oct 23, 2021 8:18 PM in response to Carms

Looks like Bob got back to you before I could, and as usual, his reply is spot on.

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Answer 8

Tesserax

Level 10

158,424 points

Oct 21, 2021 6:45 PM in response to Carms

Ok, thanks for the additional information.

Only two things I can think of for you to try:

If you have a Mac, see if it can successfully stream to the Express.
If you have another iOS/iPadOS, with an earlier OS release, give that a try.

If neither work, then there is either something amiss with the Express itself, or with some network setting. If either of these do work, then as you suspected, it could be the newer iOS/iPadOS releases.

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Unable to Airplay to Airport Express

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