iphone 4s problem with airplay losing conection after few seconds ?????

Hi U2SockMonkey,

I tried your suggestion, "After you get connected and you're playing music over AirPlay on your 4S, take a walk down the street and move out of range if your wifi network. Once you've done that, return and try playing music on your AirPlay device again. This typically will allow playback for 10 - 30 seconds and then it crashes again."

When my iPhone 4s is airplay streaming to the isolated, non-networked, Airport Express it works flawlessly I can leave the house, return and start streaming immediately and indefinitely. Since it is not connected to a network, there is no network to crash.

On the otherhand, when I use the same iPhone 4s to access the other Airport Express (identical BTW) that is part of my home network, it crashes in 5 seconds and takes down my Qwest router and network. Every time.

I still have my iPhone 3s. It is using iOS 5.0.1. It can airplay stream to either AX, the stand-alone one or the networked one. No problem. Plays indefinitely.

My partner has iPhone 4. It is using iOS 5.0.1. It can airplay stream to either AX, the stand-alone one or the networked one. No problem. Plays indefinitely.

The only combination that is a compete and utter FAIL every single time is iPhone 4s and a NETWORKED Airport Express.

So, if you want to use airplay on iPhone 4s while waiting for Apple to do a software fix, you'll need to separate the Airport Express from the home network and not use it as a "bridge" or "extender" and absolutely don't let it "join" the home network. Instead, use the AX out of the box (or restore factory settings) plug the mini-stereo cable into the jack before plugging the AX into the wall. It will, by default, create its own weird stand-alone apple network. You'll need to switch to and join that separate network on the iPhone 4s. Then you can airplay stream to that AX indefinitely. If you want to stop the amber blinking light on the AX, you'll need to go into Airport Utility and configure the separate AX. The AX is blinking because it is unhappy not having an internet connection (among other things). You can configure it to "ignore" those issues, and it will turn solid green. You can also rename the apple network there, and name the speakers. I call the network and the speakers with the same name (dining room speakers). You can also add security (password) if you are so inclined. But the worst that happens is a neighbor might stream music to your speakers. There's no internet, so there's nothing to connect to or snoop on.

That is another point. When your iPhone 4s is signed on to this new stand-alone AX netowrk, you will not be able to access the internet. So while you are Airplay streaming, your phone is crippled. It keeps trying to use the AX network to obtain data, but the little AX isn't sending any.

BTW, using an AX in this non-networked mode is fantastically more robust than when it is networked. I have had zero music drop-outs airplay streaming to it, or using iTunes to it. On the other hand, my other networked AX still drops the music every once in awhile. Go figure.

I'm not endorsing this as a "solution" to the problem. It's bizarre that my iPhone 4s won't play nice with a networked airplay speaker. But it is something that might work for those of you who do not need your airplay speakers connected to a home network.

when I try to talk to my siri it keeps on saying I'm really sorry about this, but I can't take any requsts right now. what do i need to do about this?

Apple's underpowered servers that can't handle the requests from Siri (I get that error message all the freaking time, too) has nothing to do with the problem we're reporting and discussing about here. We're reporting errors with getting Air Play to work via various ways that take down our wifi servers or stop working after working for 10 seconds or less.....

Can't believe so many are having similar problems to me (OK, actually I can believe it),

I have a Denon RCD7 Airplay enabled Receiver connected via a BT Homehub router. I've been using Airplay just fine for months with an iPhone 4 and iPad 1 with no problems....Then I upgraded to an iPhone 4S. Airplay works for about 10 seconds before dropping out. At this point the Denon receiver drops off the network completely and won't even recognise the Access Point again until the BT Homehub is rebooted. Airplay from the 4S seriously screws something in the Router...

In the meantime Airplay from the iPad still works fine. I still have my old iPhone 4 (boxed ready to be sold) so got it out and tested it. Yep, Airplay from the iPhone 4 still works fine.

This is clearly a 4S-specific problem that Apple need to address. If they can fix it in the 4S then great but if not then they need to say the 4S has introduced incompatibilty 'x' with certain router types 'Y' so we all know where we stand.

OK I thought I should post an update on this issue as I have actually gotten it to work, not 100% of the time but I am now able to play an whole album and not only that actually leave the house and successfully reconnect to the Zeppelin Air. Unfortunately I am not 100% clear how I have achieved this but I would like to share this info incase it helps anybody else, for the record I still believe that it is a problem with 4S.

OK so I beleive that this might be the most likely candidate to the resolution of my issues, I have assigned a static IP address to my Zeppelin Air, I did this through the Zeppelin Air's webpage configuration.

Now I in order for me to successfully connect to the Air I kill the power to both the Air and my router as they are both on the same power source. I then switch on the Air using the remote and if necessary reboot my 4S for it to show that there is an external speaker source within my Music.

I then connect to the Air before selecting a song to play.

This has worked for me over the past few weeks fairly consistantly, hopefully this helps some of you having the same issues.

I took my Zeppelin Air back and got my £500 refunded. Then went to Apple and purchased two Airport Express units. One I have connected in my lounge to the BT home hub and my original speakers in the lounge the second AE in the bedroom also to the home hub and another set of speakers. I can now stream music from my iphone 4S or Macbook Air to either or both sets of speakers at the sametime. Brilliant. This is all I wanted to achieve with the Zeppelin, but for less money and I now have a multi room set-up. The AE are easy to setup although I had to reset and have a second attempt before the second AE would join the BT home hub.

I am going to get another set of speakers and a third AE for the Kitchen next weekend.

Best of luck.

I got an answer from Apple today - after sending a bug report:

...

After further investigation it has been determined that this is a known issue, which is currently being investigated by engineering. This issue has been filed in our bug database under the original Bug ID# 10406943.

...

I spoke to soon. Whilst it worked for a while, maybe a day the 4S can no longer see the airport express. The old iphone 4 and the macbook air can both see it. I give up, hopefully the bug reported above will fix the 4s for all airplay devices.

'It just works - NOT'

Sorry 10 weeks after release of Iphone 4s airplay is still not working with B&W zeppelin air

GOOD MORNING APPLE - PLEASE WAKE UP - PLEASE STAND UP

poor akku, poor air play, wlan sync works only partually,

problems with cloud....have i forgotten something

that would not happend to steve !

I'm having the same REALLY, REALLY FRUSTRATING issue.

4s, Airport Xtreme and Zeppelin Air.

If I use airplay through the Airport Xtreme, it plays for around 5 min, and then the Airport Xtreme restarts. It comes back online after a few minutes ... whereafter I need to mess around resetting stuff to get another 5 min.

This morning, even the airplay icon in the music player on the 4s was missing. Not sure how I got it back, but I'm now forced to use the Remote app, which in turn means I have to start the Macbook Pro just to play a little music. Might as well just press play on my docked ipod. This is silly!

Seeing the way B&W handles their premature product releases, I pray that the fault is entirely on Apples side, otherwise there wil never be a solution. B&W may have the worst cutomer service I have ever experienced, so hopefully I will not have to go that way again.

Tossing in a "me too." I have an iPhone 4 that exhibits this issue when playing to an AirPort base station. I've gone through all the troubleshooting I can think of... I don't have a home phone, so no interference there. It happens when I'm home alone so no one is using the microwave (which is located on a different floor of the house). Even so, I've changed to every wifi channel option that existed, and the issue did not go away. I have updated software on my iPhone, base station, restored them and everything. The issue happens when streaming from my iPhone 4 to someone else's Apple TV 2 on someone else's network. I don't recall having this issue with AirTunes (back in the day) with my old 1st gen iPod touch.

One thing I have noticed: My (Verizon) iPhone displays the roaming symbol (circle) when the audio stops. Seems that not only is my iPhone falling off wifi but also off of 3G. My other Verizon phone (newer BlackBerry) is always close by and does not fall off the 3G network ever, if at all, so I don't think it's a VZW thing. It's worth noting that I've noticed when Apple products sleep they lose their wifi connection (I'm assuming this is expected behavior) and I can't help but wonder if that has something to do with it.

I would like to try another user's suggestion of restoring the base station and then not connecting it to my home network. It's my understanding I'll have to have an ad hoc network, essentially, just for AirPlay, and this wifi network will not have an Internet connction. My only concern is that my iPhone isn't smart enough to know to use the 3G connection for obtaining my podcast stream but then use the AirPlay wifi network to play to speakers.

I'm somewhat happy to know Apple is working on a fix, but I'm disappointed in the longevity of this issue. It amuses me, to some extent, as it seems alot of widespread issues with Apple products are wifi related. I recall updates that "broke" wifi on certain MacBook models in the past, as well as a certain 2nd gen iPod touch that disliked WPA2 networks.

I have some good news: My 4s now plays without dropouts to my iHome iW1! But still it´s the iPhone 4s I have to blame: It seems like the device cannot handle some default WiFi settings, most people use.

My settings on Time Capusle 1st Gen., Firmware 7.6 - no idea which changes resulted in the positive effect:

1. Mode: 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)

2. Channel is set to "auto" (nothing new here I guess)

3. Private WPA/WPA2

4. Multicast Rate 1 MBit/s

5. WPA Timeout: 999 days

6. IPv6-Mode: Host, automatic

7. DHCP-Lease: 1 day

8. I reserved a unique IP for each device in my network (makes DHCP kind of senseless but OK...)

That´s it. I guess it´s 5 & 8 what made the final change but it may also be a combination of all.

Would be great if you could give some feedback, so we can figure out which setting makes the difference.

"8. I reserved a unique IP for each device in my network (makes DHCP kind of senseless but OK...)"

No, not senseless at all. I reserved addresses for the hand full of devices I have ... so nomatter how many family or friends I let connect to my network, I'll always have these addresses for my use. It also makes it easier to see who is connected and how much bandwidth they're using because you can name these reserved connections.

So, we are to wait. B&W dont seem to give a **** - just give a link, from thier facebook page - to here and tell us to contact Apple! wonderful.

well not exactly their fault is it? I spoke to B& W support and they knew about the problem, but helpless to sort as it's an iOS5 issue.