Airplay Icon Disappears on iPhone

The 1st thing i would suggest is to ensure that you are actually on the same network, (being wifi) and not just on 3G

Try that 1st... 😉

same problem. just posted similar question about the daily show.

Items I purchase from itunes to watch have the icon. then mysteriously it disappears.

I have one network all apple devices and confirmed same network. I can click the youtube video and the icon is there and video share works fine. Switch to itunes video and the icon is gone.

I have just reread my post and it sounds like i'm being a little smarmy, and come across arrogant in what i have written...

I didn't mean to, but knowing how some people have more networks available to them that they realise, i have 4 networks in my home, and then about 20 available to me in the surrounding area, and the phone doesn't always pick up the one it is supposed to... And sometimes it just sits on 3G without connecting to wifi at all..

SO worth checking all the little details is all i am saying... I know how annoying it can be to go through all the fault finding and find out it is something so silly after all that...

I've had some success with turning AirPlay OFF in the Apple TV settings and then ON again.

Reboot your computer and your router and see if the problem persists. That solves persnickety connection issues for me 90% of the time.

Just to be clear you don't have to be on the same WiFi but *the same network (be it wired or wireless)*.
For example my iMac is wired to a router (so no WiFi) that is wired (bridged) to another router that serves as a WiFi access point as well, my Apple TV is on WiFi and my iPhone/iPad is on the same WiFi, too.
They can "talk" to each other without any issues because they are all on the same network, sharing the same IP pool via the same DHCP server.

Example:
1. My router's DHCP server is on and set to assign IP addresses between 192.168.0.100 and 192.168.0.150 to devices
2. The router's IP address (gateway address) is 192.168.0.1
3. Subnet mask is 255.255.255.0

As long as *ALL devices use these settings* it does not matter if they are wired or connected wirelessly.

I think it is important to understand this 😉

I'm having the disappearing AirPlay icon problem as well in iOS 4.2.1. I haven't been able to figure out exactly when the icon/functionality disappears, but I have been able to use AirPlay, then I stop using it, and when I go back to use it again the AirPlay icon is gone. I'm using it with an AirPort Express. I've tried resetting my network settings on my iPhone, I have tried restarting my AirPort Express, and I've made sure I'm on wireless but none of that works. The only way I have been able to resolve it is to restart my iPhone... which is annoying.

I have ipad, iphone4 and new Apple TV and one Netgear router. Initially nothing would work as everytime I tried to use Airplay my Wifi would disconnect so I would see 2 seconds of video and then it would fail. I contacted Apple and we reset and restored everything - it still wouldn't work so they told me it was the router to blame. I was going to update the firmware but haven't been abe to get the download yet. In the meantime my video on Airplay started working without any problems but my photos only show the first photo then it gets stuck! I have ordered an Apple router so that router settings cannot be blamed. I should be receiving it early next week... will let you know the outcome.

This has happened to my iPhone a couple times. I just went into the iphone's settings, turned wifi off and back on again, and the icon showed back up.

My iPhone4 didn't show the icon, then suddenly it did, then suddenly it didn't. When it works it works beautifully. On the other hand my wife's iPod touch (brand new and updated) has never seen an icon. My onl solution has been simply to wait until it magically appears again.

I have the same problem. Rebooting the iPhone 3Gs and the airport express did not fix the problem. I hooked the phone up to iTunes and the icon magically appeared. I think that there must be some problem with the new operating system.

If your iPhone ever drops the icon, just go into the multitasking bar and hold down on the app's icon until it wiggles. Then touch the minus sign to completely close the app. When you open it again, the Airplay icon comes back in my experience. Basically if some type of connection problem or something causes you to lose the icon, it will come back on its own but it can take a while. Closing the app completely and opening it back up forces it to check for Airplay compatibility. That fix has never failed to work for me.

I would like to share my experience in using Airplay as follows:

1. Airplay icon is found in the Photo app but not in the iPod app.
2. Close the iPod app in the multitask bar: does not solve the problem.
3. Switch off, then switch on the WIFI in iPhone 4: does not solve the problem.
4. Power off, then power on the iPhone 4: Airplay icon is shown on both the Photo and the iPod app.

Hope it helps.

Same with 3GS but it ultimately loses the icon again. What's the permanent fix?