Airport Express Bricked by Mountain Lion?

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Level 1

127 points

Airport Express Bricked by Mountain Lion?

I upgraded to Mountain Lion and we moved so I had to reconfigure my Airport Express. Opening Airport Utility I see my AE, but can't manage it - I get an alert box that says:

This version of AirPort Utility doesn't support this base station. Use AirPort Utility 5.6 to configure or manage this base station. AirPort Utility 5.6 is available at AirPort Service and Support.

Ok, fine. Only when you follow that link you go to a version of 5.6 that can't even be installed. Searching more I discoverd that was because it was for older systems and found a link to a Lion version of 5.6, but alas - that cannot be installed on Mountain Lion either. So I searched more....

Soooo.... Um... Really? That's it? What am I missing - I must have missed the button to download the right version of Airport Utility for Mountain Lion, right?

Please tell me this isn't the way I am going to discover that my perfectly working WiFi is no longer in line with Apple's strategic aim at the living room... or the universe, and thus is being rendered instantly, surreptitiously inoperable...

Surely I just missed the right button.

Posted on Jul 28, 2012 2:09 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 28, 2012 2:33 PM in response to Joel Pro

Here's what's odd:

I have AirPort Utility 5.6 and it runs just fine in Mountain Lion.

I did, however, have it installed prior to upgrading to Lion and Mountain Lion.

Do you have any friends with an older Mac? Maybe if you just copy the 5.6 utility itself rather than trying to use the installer will work.

Or if you are near an Apple Store a Genious might be able to copy it onto your Mac.

I have to think that Apple will come out with a 5.6 version that will run on Mountain Lion.

Matt

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Answer 2

Jul 28, 2012 2:35 PM in response to Matthew Morgan

UPDATE:

I just copied AirPort Utility 5.6 from my MacBook Pro running Mountain Lion it my iMac also running Mountain Lion.

It works.

So, it looks like the problem is with the installer.

If you can just get your hands on a Mac with the 5.6 utility already installed or have someone put it on a USB drive for you, I think you'll be in business.

Matt

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Answer 3

Jul 28, 2012 2:50 PM in response to Joel Pro

ArsTechnica has a writeup about enabling Airport Utility 5.6 on Mountain Lion. Check it out HERE.

Hope that helps.

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Answer 4

Joel Pro Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 28, 2012 2:54 PM in response to Joel Pro

Matthew, you are right. It works. The installer does not however. So I used Pacifist and extracted the file myself from the installer and now I have it functioning again.

Thanks for that.

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Answer 5

sberman

Level 10

263,757 points

Jul 28, 2012 2:55 PM in response to Joel Pro

The latest Airport Utility is V6.1.

Here's the link to get it: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1537

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Answer 6

Jul 28, 2012 3:09 PM in response to Joel Pro

You're welcome.

Happy to help.

Matt

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Answer 7

Jul 28, 2012 3:18 PM in response to sberman

Yes, but we assume @Joel Pro is using an older Airport Express since he is asking for help using version 5.6. Like Airport Utility version 6.0, 6.1 does not support administration of AirPort Express 802.11g and AirPort Extreme 802.11g base stations.

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Answer 8

Joel Pro Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 28, 2012 3:20 PM in response to sberman

sberman wrote:

The latest Airport Utility is V6.1.

Here's the link to get it: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1537

Airport Utility V6.1 does not work with Airport Express B/G. That was the whole point. The latest, perhaps - but to a fault.

Just saw Alfred DeRose's link above (thanks!) - indeed Ars used Pacifist too. It is an alternative way to open installers that - uhem - don't cooperate. This is where I downloaded it:

http://download.cnet.com/Pacifist/3000-2094_4-10135915.html

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Answer 9

Jul 28, 2012 3:25 PM in response to Joel Pro

You're wlcome. Glad it worked.

I was in the same boat. Still have two Airport Express b/g that work fine. I use them for creating a personal WiFi network when travelling and using hotel Internet. They work like a charm, but it was a pain when Apple dropped support from Airport Utility 6.0. As long as 5.6 continues to work, I'm ok.

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Answer 10

UKenGB

Level 2

306 points

Jul 31, 2012 8:34 AM in response to Joel Pro

I was in the same boat, having upgraded to Mountain Lion and found I could no longer configure my older AirPort BaseStations, yet the earlier AirPort Utility cannot be installed.

Luckily I already had Pacifist and so I extracted the app and it runs fine. But I have to wonder if this was down to Apple's incompetence or planned obsolescence 😟

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Answer 11

Joel Pro Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 31, 2012 9:02 AM in response to UKenGB

Surely intentional. Something this basic does not escape Cupertino. I would assume it is related to the fact that older base stations (b/g) are rather non-optimally featured for devices of the near future, you know, things with "TV" in them.

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Answer 12

Jul 31, 2012 9:44 AM in response to Joel Pro

Joel Pro wrote:

Surely intentional. Something this basic does not escape Cupertino.

Much as I do love a good conspiracy theory, this is exactly the kind of thing that could be overlooked or low on the priority list when rolling out Mountain Lion.

Matt

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Answer 13

Joel Pro Author

Level 1

127 points

Jul 31, 2012 10:09 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

Disagree. High likelihood it's intentional. There is a list of supported devices that get tested with each new version of anything. iEcosystem is small this would probably have been discovered. Anyway it's going to become unsupported at some point, why not now-ish?

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Answer 14

Jul 31, 2012 10:17 AM in response to Joel Pro

Joel Pro wrote:

Disagree.

Yes, I know you do.

Matt

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Answer 15

UKenGB

Level 2

306 points

Aug 1, 2012 6:14 AM in response to Joel Pro

Thking about it further, I think it's a mixture of both. AirPort Utility 6 was released a while ago for Lion and that had dropped support for the older BaseStations, so that's planned, but intended with a back door that allows you to keep using AU 5, all of which is not unreasonable.

Then they introduce Mountain Lion and 'miss' the fact that this eliminates the possibilty of installing AU 5. Or maybe once they did notice, they had other more important things to sort for the ML release.

So although I'm not happy with the current situation (luckily resolvable with a bit of ingenuity), I don't actually believe it's entirely devious on Apple's part.

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