AirTunes stopping

Hey I have the same problem.
Did you find a solution yet? other than a factory reset?
My airport worked fine for the first year, only now since a few months it has been losing connection with my stereo,.... pausing and hitting the play button again jumpstarts the music but only for 3 sec, 4 sec only to vanish again. Real frustrating.
Any suggestions are very welcome
grts D

Just to adding myself to the affected users. This is on an older Airport Express (802.11g) connected via Ethernet.

What I know:

-iTunes continues to play even though music from the Airport Express has stopped.

-The green light on the AX flashes to indicate network activity (I changed the default). Also: the AX is connected via a switch that also flashes to indicate network activity. So the streaming appears to continue although there is no sound.

-The PCM indicator on my receiver is still lit, indicating that the AX is at least trying to communicate with it. I have noticed that after a period of inactivity the PCM light on the receiver will go off, so my guess is that the AX will turn off the (optical) audio circuitry if isn't being used.

-The dropout always occurs between songs.

-The dropout happens whether the AX is connected to the network wired or wirelessly.

-Resetting the AX to the factory default did not solve the problem.

-Restarting the song either through Pause/Play combo or Skip Back almost always returns the sound.

-This doesn't happen at all with a newer Apple TV connected via Ethernet to the same switch. The ATV works flawlessly (but at 48 khz).

I have exactly the same issue. Every 10-15 minutes, there is no sound when I play music through AirTunes (it happens between the tracks).

Now, I have installed the previous version of the firmware (7.4.2) and hope that I won't have this issue anymore until Apple fixes it.

Well... the older firmware appears to have the same issue.
Apple, please fix it!

This problem was introduced with iTunes 8 and obviously has never been fixed.
Apple seems to be very reluctant with this. They now call it Airplay and if you take a closer look into it, nothing is really working either.

Disabling iTunes DJ, Genius and Ping helps a little, because these services do produce a lot of network traffic in the background. (I wonder what kind of information is send to whom?!)

If you downgrade to iTunes 7 you get far better Airtunes playback, but you miss the ability to connect your brand new iPhone4. Here are some links to those discussions:

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9169923
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8860420
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8780319#8780319
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8780318#8780318

Apple is a little behind when it comes to wireless applications: i cannot send songs or photos from my iPhone via bluetooth to my wifes sony phone, i cannot sync my iPhone without plugging it in... and so on. It is because iTunes is NOT something for you to enjoy your music, it is a tool for apple to make a lot of money. So don't be fooled.

I guess Mac Meyer is right... Thanks!
Yesterday, I switched off "Ping" in the Settings of iTunes and the issue of AirTunes stopping does not occur anymore.

Exactly the same here. I have Airport Extreme, Airport Express, MacBook Pro, iPad, iPhones, iMac, etc, and tge setup has worked perfectly for the past 5 or 6 years until the last few months. Now, I now suffer music dropout when streaming from any of the above devices. I also, occasionally, lose Internet to my MacBook Pro.

It goes without saying, I have done everything. Resetting, re-sighting, rebuilding, etc. The only thing that usually helps is if I put the laptop, iPad, etc., within a foot or two of the Airport Express. I haven't had to do this for the last 5 years though.

I can only think this has something to do with the latest iTunes release. Unless we all have faulty Airport Expresses!

Come on Apple. This needs sorting.

Garry Robson.

I found a solution at last! At least it works for me. I am back to non-dropout airtunes 🙂

After much resetting, re-sighting, etc., I went back to 'channels'. Guess what? Success (for me at least) on Channel 12 - and ONLY Channel 12 !! Even holds good when reconfigured into WDS extended network. Happy days!

Add me to the list of affected users. I experience the problem when streaming from either my iPhone 4 or my MacBook.

Apple keeps talking the AirTunes feature up in their press conferences and ads, one would think they should try to fix such a major bug!

I am suffering from exactly the same problem. With an Airport Express connected via Ethernet. In between songs, about one-third of the time, the music stops although I look at iTunes and iTunes tells me it is playing a song. I will try turning off Ping and see if it helps.

I have exactly the same issue with my AirPort Express that has been working perfectly form longer than a year. The issue appeared after updating the firmware to 7.5.2. I have tried almost everything to solve the problem, but it is still there.

Now, even the Channel-12 fix provided in this thread doesn't help.

I hope Apple will fix it.

I've replied to a similar post, but this one seems to fit my situation much better.

Same problem: new iMac, Snow Leopard, Belkin N-band router, first generation AirPort Express (801.1-g band), iTunes 10.1.2. I had reset the Express yesterday (with Apple's help), and the AirTunes worked great for about 90 minutes. Then, all of a sudden, the AirTunes quit in the middle of the song. I noticed that the connection light was a steady green.

I went to the computer and saw the "multiple speakers" option in iTunes had disappeared. iTunes plays fine on the computer speakers, but I have no other options. I tried to reconnect to the AirPort Express, but the utility couldn't update the unit. PLUS I also rebooted computer several times, but no success. My last option will be to physically connect the Express to the iMac and reset it again, but I fear the problem will occur again.

In light of Mac Meyer's post, I was using my own music mix, not iTunes' DJ, Genius was disabled as was Ping. I have no iPhone or iPad, so that becomes irrelevant.

Question for GarryRobson and MaXaP -- and any others: where are you referencing "channels" or "Channel-12"? Any advice would be appreciated!

Help!

I might also add that I had none of these problems with my older iMac (Intel), or with the older versions of iTunes. This problem began when I updated the computer and iTunes.

Joe

I've been struggling with this problem too. I've tried two different Airport Express units, one brand new and one older version. Older firmware, newer firmware, and no difference. This is really frustrating to me. I purchased equipment and set up time to be able to do this, an advertised Apple iTunes feature, and it's essentially broken. Unusable.

Help!