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AirPlay won't connect from iTunes to Remote Speakers

I have an Airport Express with remote speakers attached through the audio out port, an Airport Extreme, a MacBook Pro, and an iPhone. For some reason relatively recently, I seem to be unable to connect to the AirPlay speakers attached to my AirPort Express through iTunes. I simply get a 'Connecting to ___" with a running status bar, and it hangs. I can connect fine with my iPhone, it is just iTunes on my Macbook Pro that is the issue.


Thus far I have....

  • Restarted iTunes, my MacBook Pro, my Airport Express, and my AirPort Extreme.
  • Disabled and re-enabled Airplay on the express, changed the speaker's name
  • Ensured IPv6 is disabled on both Airport devices (As suggested in other discussions on this forum.
  • Downgraded my express from 7.6 to 7.5.2 and back up again.
  • Changed the express from joining a wireless network to extending a wireless network
  • Ensured my iPhone is not already connected to the AirPlay speakers, including restarting my iPhone.
  • Spent hours looking online for a solution
  • Pulled my hair out


Any suggestions? I really only use the express for AirPlay since I picked up a printer with built-in wireless, and not having that is quite frustrating. Any help is appreciated!

iTunes-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Dec 18, 2011 10:45 PM

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37 replies

Dec 21, 2011 3:00 AM in response to dbo789

Similar but not identical problem.


Two iMacs, one with iTunes 10.5.1, one with 10.5.2.


Three airport expresses around the house.


iMac with 10.5.1, iPad 1, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3G can talk to all devices.


iMac with 10.5.2 - airfoil can talk, iTunes can only see the airports.


The difference is that I don't get a Connecting to bar.


If I select the dropdown in iTunes and pick an airport it _instantly_ flashes the button and returns to Computer. No bar, no timeout - instant return.

Dec 25, 2011 4:24 PM in response to dbo789

I have the exact same issue. Can connect using airFoil, but not directly using itunes. Just hangs on "connecting to "Airport Express..." and eventually times out with a silent dud (on my macbook pro). Another computer in the house that is using wifi only can however connect directly using itunes. The one thing that changed int he house is adding an airport extreme basestation as our main router, and we now use the express to "extend" the network (and connect to speakers). -- Just tested something. When using ethernet, I can not connect to airplay express (even if wifi is turned on and "connected"). Wifi only will allow itunes to connect using airplay. might be soemthing with the way the extreme routes to the express (our express extending, and not joining).

Jan 2, 2012 8:44 AM in response to dbo789

My Solution: Run repair permissions from Disk Utility and reboot.


I had a similar issue here. iOS devices, airfoil, 1st generation Apple TV will all connect to speakers but iTunes 10.5.2 won't from iMac. Tried it from a macbook air and it worked. Tried a different user on the iMac to verify it wasn't a corrupt ~/Library file but it still failed. Downloaded and installed a fresh copy of iTunes. Still failed. This would seem to indicate there is a general problem with osx. Ran Disk Utility to repair permissions and rebooted. Now it works.


Repair permissions will frequently fix strange problems and is a good first try to fix any anomoly. My sister was having a problem with Thunderbird not displaying windows on anything but the first email to be sent. Had her run repair permissions and it works.

Jan 3, 2012 5:23 PM in response to Chris D Searle

actually, my issue was like yours, mine didnt connect, and eventually timed out.


one thing i forgot to mention was that you should run the premission fix several times until it comes back clean. when i ran it the second time, it fixed a bunch of things that didnt get fixed the first time. . . . .


behavior i have seen before with the premission fix utility.


dont forget to reboot. if you dont, it wont work . . . . .

Jan 24, 2012 7:27 AM in response to dbo789

I have also had problems with my airport express. The light is on but no one is home. Today, I can't get my iMac to play, that feature is unavailable. Previously, this has happen frequently with my iPad the last 30 days or so. There seems to be no pattern to when it drops out or comes back although with the iPad, rebooting or connecting it with the computer seems to help.

Feb 11, 2012 2:03 PM in response to dbo789

Also posted in iTunes won't play through Airport...: Apple Support Communities


Some success. But Lion Server 10.7.3 is having trouble with the older g remotes now.

After setting up a few things while talking with Clarke at Apple Server Support we had a Lion 10.7 compatible version of Server Admin 10.7 installed and could reach the server firewall. Short answer: had to turn it off to get the aiport express remotes to accept streams from the server.

The new downside is that Airport Utility 6 can't deal with the older 802.11g airport express remotes. Further the server can't select them if they have been power cycled. The only way to get the server's copy of iTunes 10.5.3 to see the first two g remotes is to restart the whole server. Restarting iTunes isn't enough. Logging out and back in isn't enough. Haven't found a more surgical way to reconnect.

Need to try to punch only the necessary holes in the server firewall and use it instead.


I'd really love to see a very well documented description of the steps that iTunes goes through when connecting to airport express remotes with the differences when running on a server. ALL the steps, including handshaking and those high port numbers and just what keeps getting screwed up, like with the new 10.7.3 server update.

Mar 2, 2012 7:48 AM in response to dbo789

This Should Work:


Run this command in a Terminal window:


networksetup -listallnetworkservices


This will list all network interfaces. Ethernet, Wi-Fi, etc. To turn off IPv6 completely on the ethernet port, run


networksetup -setv6off Ethernet


Likewise, to turn it off for Wi-Fi use:


networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi


Check your Network prefs pane under advanced and you'll see a new item has appeared and is checked for IPv6: Off.


User uploaded file

Mar 2, 2012 2:56 PM in response to ezedodo

Well, that's a switch I didn't know about, and probably couldn't find.

Ultimately it worked.

Oddly, at first it flipped the problem. After using "networksetup -setv6off Ethernet," the two oldest and one middle-aged AP Express 802.11n could reconnect, even after power cycling, but the two newest 11n Expresses couldn't. After about 4 minutes they showed up in Airport Utility and after another 3-5 minutes showed up in iTunes (also restarted program). The first time it took a while to reconnect to them. Now they switch on and off with only a short delay compared to the 11g remotes.


Thank you very much.


Now the big question for whomever is firmwaring the Airport system: Why hasn't this been addressed since the problem showed up way back in system 9? Didn't they think both IPv6 and Express would be used together in the past decade? By default?

Mar 11, 2012 4:41 PM in response to petertpnt

My Mac Pro has both Ethernet ports hooked up. The first is Ethernet 1, other Ethernet 2, but for the command "networksetup -setv6off Ethernet" it didn't make a difference. The odd part is that in System Preferences > Network under Advanced button the pop-up menu no longer shows Link-Local only, but it did still show up until restarting the computer.

The good news is that the remotes all work. The bad is that sometimes a remote airport express will seem to be connected from itunes or the Remote app but I have to turn it off and back on from airplay to make it work. No known cause for drop out, suspect SBG6850 and losing reserved list of IPs/MAC addresses.

AirPlay won't connect from iTunes to Remote Speakers

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