How to install AirPort Utility 5.6.1 on Mountain Lion

Thanks... It just works...

Thank you, the article was great, exactly what i needed. I Just bought my first time capsule and was suprised how unfunctional it is. 5.6 works great and has dozens more features that 6.2. I wonder why? I wish there was a third party app that exposed the rest of the options availible.

I also love Douglas - THANKS!

My original 5.6.1 install is now malfunctioning. It's statating 'no networks found' even though it's connected. Will redownload to see if this corrects the situation.

I tried your solution this time and it went off without a hitch. The utility is working as good as it did under Snow Leopard. Thanks for your contribution.

I found your post really helpful, but took a shortcut. The great little app Pacificist, which is shareware and you can download and use for free, enables you to look inside install packages, extract parts you need—and avoid using the terminal.

I opened the install package in Pacifist and extracted (drag and drop) the folders you suggested, then put them on my desktop.

I found that all I needed was the Airport Utility from the Applications folder after extracting the files you suggest. Fired it up and worked fine. I changed the name (had to authenticate) (added 5.61 to the end) and moved it to Ulilities (again had to authenticate) and it worked fine. Then tried it again after deleting the other files. Worked fine.

With the Airport Utility 6.3 update, Apple has seemed to re-enable the “Archive Disk” button which has been lost since version 5.6.1. This is fantastic, as it was a great way of making a copy of a Time Capsule for offsite backup.

I've been using version 5.6.1 too!

Does anyone have any links to release notes saying that this was back in to stay or is it just going to disappear on us again? Has anyone tried it in this version?

I have run into problems too.

I followed it religiously. But at step #5 an error message came up.

Error opening xar archive: /Users/steveherrmann/Desktop/AirPortUtility.pkg

catv-86-101-56-35:tmp steveherrmann$

Help! (plez!)

You may have a bad download. Again, as I posted last December, the easiest solution to all this is not to go through the complicated Term instructions in the top post, but install Unpkg ( http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/ ) and use it to extract your downloaded .pkg file like any other archive.

SteveHerrmann try the technique described here: airport assistant in 10.8 won't work with airport express

That post has screenshots using both Pacifist and unpkg.

Simplest method: http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/03/08/airport-utility-5-6-on-os-x-v10-8-mountain-li on/.

You can download a working copy of AirPort Utility v5.6.1 from that page. All you have to do is drag and drop after downloading it (or run it from the Downloads folder, if you prefer). No need to fiddle with Terminal, scripts, or anything else.

I'd hug and kiss you if I could! You just saved me so much trouble and money!

Doug - Thanks millions.

Your technique also worked for Lion OSX 10.7.5, just like you outlined it.

The download was named AirPortUtility56.dmg, and the package name was AirPortUtility56Lion.pkg. By substituting those names were needed, the procedure worked beautifully.

By the way - 'AirPort Utility 5.6.app' can live happily in my Utilities folder with the later AirPort Utility. No need to rename.

Thanks again for your posting.

Not working for me - no AirPortUtility.pkg folder created.

On Mountain Lion by the way.

DabboD - I'm not a terminal expert by any means, but following Doug's technique worked correctly. After each step, verify that the folders/packages exist before proceeding.

Make sure you type the names of the files exactly as they appear on the download. I noted that the download for me was named AirPortUtility56.dmg, and the extracted package was AirPortUtility56Lion.pkg.

You MUST use the exact names on the files, or terminal can't find them.

You MUST type the terminal commands exactly as Doug has indicated - spaces where shown.

Hope that helps.