My Airport Extreme intermittently shuts down completely.

Update: It's been almost two weeks since I moved the AE to other side of room using a different electrical socket with surge protector...Rock solid so far. What is going on here...What made the difference? The socket, the surge protector, the physical location in the room??? They appear to be supersensitive to something that causes the shutdowns...

could hdds or a powered usb hub plugged in to the AE be an issue?

i haven't had a shut down since 2 months now.

Just adding my name to the list. I have two AE, one downstairs and one upstairs connected via Ethernet. One downstairs has been rock solid. Newer one upstairs will randomly shut down, sometimes it takes months, other times weeks.

Both plugged into UPS.

-Kevin

Update: It's now been about a month since I moved the AE to the other side of the room and it's been working flawlessly. No issues whatsoever. I cannot give an explanation why multiple units had so issues plugged into a socket 10 feet away. I will continue to give updates in the future and check this forum.

I had the same issue, replaced my Airport but that didn't help. Then I had an electrician at home for other reasons and mentioned my problem. He noted that I used the same power outlet as my refrigerator and he suggested that the refrigerator compressor starting and stopping could have something to do with it. I then changed to another power outlet and since then my airport has worked flawlessly.

It appears this model is Extreme-ly sensitive to the electrical current of the socket it's plugged into. To me, that's a design/component flaw and needs to be addressed by Apple. I suggest that everyone who is experiencing this shut-down issue should try plugging their AE into a different socket location at their home or office.

Was out of the house for a month... During that time the AC for the house was off. The Airport stayed on the entire time. Since I've been home the unit has been reset a dozen times.

I Was wondering if the power fluctations when the AC powers on might be causing the unit to shut down. Seems this might be a solution to the problem.

Same issue here. Purchased my 802.11ac in March 2015. Problems exactly as described started a few weeks ago in early June. Was solid up until then, but then I started getting periodic dropped connections and the power light would go out. As others have mentioned, unplugging and plugging back in resolves the issue temporarily (failures every 2-3 days now).

I had an older gigabit Airport Extreme plugged in for the longest time in the same place and never had any problems, but I'm starting to suspect the theories about sensitivity to power fluctuations in the newer model may be true. The timing of these dropped connections corresponds to when we started using A/C in my house this year. Although these circuits are completely isolated, I can imagine a large power draw when the A/C compressor kicks on could briefly limit the power to other things in the house. As danielknorris mentions, could this be the root cause. If so, I'd expects reports to increase in the summer months.

I have an Apple Store appointment tomorrow to swap out this unit. I hope to report this solves the problem, but will post again if it doesn't.

I dont think this has anything to do with the AC. I have two units in my home and most of my failures have been around 7-10pm when the AC isnt powered On!

maybe its the internet port thats sensitive to fluctuations to power in the broadband cable. I remember my cable operator telling me that sometimes there can be a power surge in cable lines just like in cable television.

Swapped mine out yesterday under warranty. So far so good. Will post again if the same issue crops up.

I just got an Airport Extreme about a month ago. It start to shut down last week... It happened about 3 times now... Will try to replace outlets to see if works.. The problem is my cable modem is fixed so I can't move it that far.. Very disappointing have that happen with an Apple Product..

Are you using a shielded LAN cables? If yes, try to use an unshileded cables to avoid potential differences between devices connected to AirPort.

Just like everyone else on this thread, and elsewhere, my Airport Extreme started doing this last month. Took it to the genius bar, but it's a month out of warranty.

I was about to throw in the towel and buy a new one, but thought I'd plug it in until I did. I noticed that the unit has air vents at the bottom, so (on a whim) I laid it on its side. It's been a good three days now, and it has yet to shut itself off.

Since this solution is right up there with waving a dead chicken about, it might be important that I laid it down with green pilot light at the bottom. I didn't check the phase of the moon, though.

Hope that works for someone out there.

I bought an Airport Extreme 802.11ac two weeks ago, to extend my existing TimeCapsule 802.11ac. After one day it shot down and continued to do so almost every day for a week. My TimeCapsule is in my office, but we have poor wifi signal in our living room so I decided to set up an extra Airport Extreme. Several posts in this thread suggest that the problem is caused by a poor power supply and that unstable power can cause this problem - for example if it is connected to a power outlet close to a refrigerator. It so happens that my new Airport Extreme was connected right next to our refrigerator (on the other side of the wall).

I tried to swap my TimeCapsule and my new Extreme, and then both of them worked without any problems for four days. I swapped the them back and my Extreme started to shut down again. So it sounds likely that unstable power caused by our refrigerator has caused the problem because of a very sensitive power supply in the Extreme, and it looks like the Time Capsule power supply is a lot more robust.

I ended up returning the Extreme and bought an Airport Express instead. It is connected at the same place as the Extreme - just next to the refrigerator, and it has worked for two days now.

IN India we have two supplies at home. One is called domestic - 220V 10 A and the other is called industrial (referring to cottage industries) which is 440v 15A. Refrigetors, small or big, are plugged into those indistrial lines, as required by law. So manufacturers dont give an option to run it via the donestic line.

NOw the router is plugged into a stabdard 220v ac mains.

I Dont think there is an interefrrence. Although the conpresssor of the fridge turning on again might lead to voltage fluctuations.

ANyone knows a one-device voltage stabilizer?