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Airport Express keeps disappearing

I have had an Airport Express Base Station for a few months and it has pretty much never stayted available for use for more than about 10 hours before disapperaing and going out of use (as far as AirPlay and AirPort utility can see). I want it ONLY for the AirPlay remote speakers functionality.


I am in the UK, and it is an AirPort Express Base Station (August 2012) version 7.6.3


Details:

  • (Note: My Airport Express Base Station is named APX1)
  • My router (BT Home Hub 3, with BT Infinity, using DHCP) says the device is:
    • Currently connected
    • Has an IP address (192.168.1.101)
  • Yesterday I was using the APX for AirPlay. Today it has disappeared from the list of AirPlay outputs.
  • I launched AirPort utility - V6.2 (620.33) and the device has an ALERT symbol next to it.
  • Clicking on it, it says: "APX1 was previously part of your network. Check that it is still in range of your network and plugged into a power outlet. Click Forget to remove this base stations from this network"
  • The signal strength was previously listed as "Excellent" and it ls 2 metres from the WiFi router.
  • The solid green light remains on the front despite the apparently problem
  • Unplugging it and plugging it back in seems to rectify the situation for a few hours, then it happens again.

APX settings:

  • Network Mode: Join a wireless network
  • Wireless Network Name: [my SSID]
  • Wireless Security: WPA/WPA2 Personal
  • Airplay: Enabled
  • Airply Speaker Password (none)
  • Internet: Connect using: DHCP


I have reset the thing MANY MANY times, including hard-resets, and setting it up again and again from scratch but I still need to cycle its power every 8-10 hours in order to keep using it.


Are there any specific wifi router settings I need to use?


I have searched the forums and found no satisfactory answers to these problems. Does Apple need to do a product recall here, or is it just me?

Airport Express Base Station-OTHER, Version 7.6.3 (August 2012)

Posted on Mar 4, 2013 2:09 AM

Reply
23 replies

Jan 3, 2014 7:43 AM in response to craiglonie

Hi @craiglonie


Yes, same here pretty much - it only drops out when you stop playing music (e.g. pausing a track for a couple of minutes). Although when it's playing there are occasional 2 second drop-outs.


When pressing Play again in iTunes it will usually say it cannot find the remote speakers any more. Sometimes simply turning WiFi on and off on the Mac will make the remote speakers re-appear, but after long periods I have to either restart the router or restart my Airport Express device.


I'm told the proper solution is to buy an Airport Extreme wifi router and replace the (black part of the) BT Hub with it.


But what's frustrating is that it does work intermittently. To me, WiFi is a standard and devices should either confirm to that standard or not!

Jan 3, 2014 7:51 AM in response to craiglonie

Other things I have tried, that have both failed:


  • Setting the APX to use a fixed IP address through DHCP settings on the BT HomeHub ("Always use this IP address")
  • Giving the APX a static IP address and putting it outside the DHCP range


AirPlay works perfectly through my Apple TV and I've never had it drop out, but because it only has an HDMI output, in order to play music through my Apple TV I have to have the TV switched on with its audio output connected to my amplifier.

Jan 13, 2014 5:37 PM in response to AR76

AR76 I really understand your frustration! I've spent many many hours checking forums, reconfiguring the AE, downloading older versions of airport utility, re reconfiguring the AE, and I still couldn't get my two airports to stay connected. Like you, my Apple Tv worked fine and never dropped off.


I went through the '..but its Apple, it should just work' hoo ha.


In the end i gave up and went for the same solution that oscar.e proposed earlier in this thread. I connected my modem/router to one of the airports via ethernet cable, setup a new wifi network through apple utility, bought another airport (my router was physically positioned to far from either of the amps i wanted to connect to) I now get my internet wirelessly from the new wireless network and can control both of my speaker 'networks' from my mac desktop.


I use the 'remote' app to drive itunes on my mac using my ipad and iphone. All works brilliantly. Never drops out now. It really is a joy after all of the mucking around.


So for all of the frustrated airport users looking to stream airtunes and get internet, printing etc all on the one wireless network, with no dropouts, save yourself a heap of angst and skip non apple routers and connect your modem directly to an airport.


Blue skies ...

Jan 14, 2014 2:58 AM in response to closingloop

I found the solution I connected both my AE to the router with cat 5 ethernet through a switch and simply changed the settings on th AE's to no network hasnt dropped out now for 2 weeks and cant see why it will

I was getting confused about the network thing .if you have them connected to you router try the no network setting in the AE edit options like i did good luck User uploaded file

Jan 20, 2014 10:28 PM in response to AR76

I've just started having a similar, though slightly different problem.


I have an AirPort Extreme (ver 7.6.4) base station (as my main wireless router), 2 AirPort Express boxes (with speakers attached) and an AppleTV box. All was working well, for more than a year, but within the last week or so the 2 expresses now disappear from my list of available devices in AirPlay (iTunes) and on AirFoil/Spotify (after, say, about 1-2 hours). Airport Utility says they're still active (green). If I restart the airport expresses they reappear on the device lists. I've tried deleting and reconfiguring the airport expresses, but again, they drop out.


Should I try reconfiguring the AirPort Extreme base station? Any other ideas?

Jan 23, 2014 8:13 AM in response to AR76

I finally bit the £169.99 bullet and bought an Airport Extreme, which replaces my BT HomeHub and plugs straight into the BT Modem.


All the problems have immediately gone away.


(And yes - re: solutions involving plugging the Airport Express itself in in by ethernet cable, I know, but the whole 'AirPlay' thing kind of loses its shine when you have to use CABLES).



Apple wins.


User uploaded file

Mar 24, 2014 1:03 AM in response to AR76

AIRPLAY solution shared by sleekitwan in various forums, eg Apple, BT:


Hi


First, before you lose interest - I have a solution that works so well to get BT Home Hub 3 working with 'Airplay' and Apple TV and my iPad 4, that I am so far unable to 'break' it. Please do try to break it yourself, and could you report back here or mark it with stars or whatever so I know what happened in someone else's setup?


I appreciate what you are going through, all I wanted to do was get 'Real Racing 3' running for me and the kidz on the TV that is attached to Apple TV box. Sometimes the Airplay icon appeared, sometimes not, it was chance - really frustrating.


The nub of it is this - you 'reserve' certain aspects of how the HH3 services the wifi network, so it directs data/communications via these 'reserved' ports specifically assigning them to the purpose you need - in this case, 'stuff' (technical eh?) going to the Apple TV so that Airplay works.


Apple forums somewhere list these publicised ports, and you go into HH3 management (tap in the IP address of the hub in 'safari' to get there, then put in your password for admin - it is 'admin' if you didn't change it already). In short, you use one of the games/applications that already are in the list for 'Port Forwarding', and I modified the name of a new one I made to make it like 'Airplay attempt using BT alarm' or something, because I 'copied' the BT safe alarm app details to start my custom one off. Lost yet?! Go into the HH3 manager, go to the A-Z I think it might be in 'advanced' and get 'Port Forwarding' up.


Ok, here's the things to set - if you peruse the apps/games they already list in HH3 for this sort of thing, you will see entries under 'TCP' or 'UDP' headings, and it's these sort of things we want to reserve. I only set the single specific addresses (it's just a number to you and me) that were listed on the Apple site as being to do with Airplay:


There are only 2 bits to set - you hit the button on screen in HH3 manager, to 'add entry', then select in the box marked 'protocol' that you want TCP or UDP according to the info I dug up from Apple site below - don't worry it is not complex to do you are just editing a couple of figures on a thing you don't use. Incidentally, I left the first two entries as they were (1024 was in there already) because I am just timid! So set it as below.


TCP 1024 -

UDP 1024 -


TCP 80 80


Any 123 123


TCP 443 443


Any 554 554


TCP 3689 3689


UDP 5353 5353


I took a pic of mine, for records, and this is what is in that pic. You have to enter the self-same number (eg 123 as above) no less than 4 times, this gives the results above.


On the bottom right, there is a button that says 'apply', so you hit that and it saves this new-fangled custom designed list of reserved ports/addresses for your 'Airplay BT alarm' or whatever you called it. THEN YOU MUST ASSIGN THIS CREATION OF YOURS TO A DEVICE - THE APPLE TV.


That's the basics of what I did - I have since restarted the BT HOMEHUB 3 several times, the Ipad 4 several times, the Apple TV has updated its software and has been restarted twice. STILL AIRPLAY WORKS.


So, I am reassuringly presented with the Airplay icon whenever I 'upswipe' on my ipad from the bottom of the screen - iOS 7.1 is on my ipad obviously, but that did not change the hit-and-miss of the Airplay icon until I made these mods to the HH3.


Over to you - try and break my solution please, and let me know if it works for you as well, or not. All I know is, Real Racing 3 can reliably be brought to bear on the Apple TV thing, and the Airplay icon is now never missing.


One more point - I think I also set the Apple TV IP address to be static - my ipad has had this situation for some time, along with the 'lease' set to a couple of weeks or something, so it does not try to select a different channel for wifi frequently? PLUS, I set something in the ipad I think, long ago (did not affect this issue as far as I can see), so that when the ipad 'wakes up' it does not decide to search for a better channel or IP address or something - that caused loads of glitches it seemed, then I found out my BT HH3 was on the end of dodgy phone cable not hi-quality shielded...but hey, that's a different bucket of bolts.


Good luck and let me know an outcome please, best to all.

Dec 18, 2015 4:35 PM in response to AR76

My case:

  • AirPort Extreme for serving Internet
  • Two separate Airport Expresses for AirPlay Speakers in two different rooms.


I had the same issues with 'Client Mode', where the Airport Expresses repeatedly disappeared.


Applying static IP addresses to all three routers (and my wireless printer) have made my network 100% stable.

Airport Express keeps disappearing

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