Airplay audio cuts out intermittently

That's great that this sorted the issue for you. However, I can categorically state that the root causes of this issue is not a "wireless" issue. At least not in all cases.

I can say that because in my setup, everything is wired. I'm playing from an iMac to a airport express plugged into the same a time-capsule (airport extreme) as the iMac. Mostly it cuts out when the volume is low (as I tend to have it at night - around 25% of full volume)). It can cut out for extended periods - several minutes, then may play again only for a few seconds before cutting out again. Most infuriating!

Additionally, I have wireless turned off on both the iMac and the express. Everything is up-to-date with the latest patches.

Whilst mostly at low volumes, it does occur at other times occasionally. Often with the express showing as unavailable as an airport device for a while before becoming available again.

Hey fellow frustrated airplay users, I've recently fixed this and wanted to share.

I'd never had this issue until our internet was moved from ADSL to NBN (Australia's fibre-optic network). When I installed the new service I also updated my Airport Express, so my first guess was that it was a recent update issue and they would fix it. Then after reading a bunch of replies to this thread it became clear the issue was with AE's automatic 2.4ghz and 5 ghz channels. Airplay fails to work properly on the 5 ghz network.

The fix is to split the two manually then use the 2.4 ghz network when you want to use airplay. To do this:

1. Open Airport Utility

2. Select your Airport Express and click Edit

3. Select the "Wireless" tab

4. Then click the "Wireless Options" button

5. Check/tick the box that says 5ghz network name. This then splits the two bands. I kept the name suggested by Apple, as this makes it simple but you can name the 5ghz as something else like "this is the wifi network that won't play music"

6. Click "save"

7. Click "update"

8. When your wifi reloads, select the network that's NOT named "{network name 5ghz}".

9. Enjoy music without the dropouts!!!

I agree with Ed Adams...I was having the same problem. however I connected an ethernet cable from my router (verizon DSL) directly to the Apple TV 2nd Gen. So far its working perfectly...

I am having the same problems and am getting really frustrated with my apple products! I have an iPhone 4, iPod Touch 3G and an iPAD 2. All of the devices have the same problem where we play music via AirPlay and it plays for 10 mins then cuts out intermittenly which is very annoying when trying to listen to music.

I have read other options to solve this but the whole idea is to be able to walk around the house and stream music from my devices to my speakers instead of using the Remote app and going from there. Also I do not have the abilitly to have the airport station plugged into my router (D-Link DIR-655) as they are on different floors of my house. I was thinking about getting an apple TV for my Home Theatre system but I am strongly thinking about getting some other device, like Boxee that plays all media types and is 1080p.

I have an LG laptop with the latest iTunes and all devices are updated regularly. Any ideas to answers are greatly appreciated.

Mine started working when I connected my Mac to my "normal" network instead of the faster 5GHz one.

Same issues here streaming audio to Apple TV2 from an iPhone 4 (both up to date) using a current model Airport Extreme. I am watching the logs on my Airport Extreme and saw two events when the audio cuts out:

Jun 27 13:16:19 Severity:5 Associated with station 5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a

Jun 27 13:16:19 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a

5c:59:48:2a:d8:2a is my iPhone. It appears as though the iPhone loses wireless connectivity for a split second then starts back up again. Maybe there is a bug in the power saving code in iOS or something. Hopefully Apple fixes it soon.

I'm running a ping against my iPhone waiting for it to cut out again. Hopefully I see some packet loss which would confirm my suspicion.

I thought this was the culprit as well. It has been a constant thorn in my side for months! I was originally running on a jailbroken iphone, so I thought it may have had something to do with that. Once I restored the phone to a non-JB state and the problem persisted, I assumed it has something to with the wireless in iOS, since my airport express is using a wired connection. also, when i stream to the AE from itunes on a pc, the problem never occurs.

I was going to suggest using AirFoil for Mac, but realized you're talking about i-devices. I would delete this post if I could...

I noticed the same error... I just plugged in a new airport express in my living room and wanted to stream audio from itunes (my laptop) to my marantz 603. I noticed frequent dropouts. When I opened up airport utility, and looked at the access list of my airport extreme, it hadn't added the mac-adress/Airport ID of my airport express... When I manually added the mac-adress/airport ID of my airport express in the accesslist of my airport extreme device, all was good, and it flawlessly streamed music immediately... All a matter of 'access-rights' i guess..

I think it's an error in the automatic configuration script. Try to do it manually and you'll be fine I guess. Also, don't forget to check the airplay share settings in itunes and airport utility, you all have to manually give access rights with/without passwords.

Good luck! 🙂