How do I configure an older airport express with Yosemite?

While I completely agree that this is really, really annoying. Sometimes progress means not supporting hardware that was introduced nearly 11 years ago.

I can't think of another piece of wireless hardware I've gotten this kind of life out of, (usually it's around 4-5 years before the radios start acting funny and / or it doesn't support a standard I need). I've been through 3-4 100+ dollar wireless routers in the same time period from other vendors. It ***** that it's being made obsolete by software, but the fact is that it's an obsolete piece of hardware at this point, and the choice is either jump through some hoops if you need to reconfigure it from scratch, or (gasp) spend another 100 dollars for another 10+ years of quality wireless product.

Sheesh.

I agree, its a bit S8&t when you can use a windows machine to do something a mac can't do, with an apple product!

However I found this http://coreyjmahler.com/2013/10/24/airport-utility-5-6-1-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/ which works a treat.

and yes it works on Yosemite as well.

There's no need to borrow a PC or an old Mac. If you're able to, simply create a bootable USB volume (drive or even memory stick will do) containing Snow Leopard and Airport Utility 5.6. Boot into the Snow Leopard USB (restart and hold down option key), launch Airport Utility 5.6, and configure the Express. When you've done configuring, simply specify the original volume containing Yosemite as the startup disk (under System Preferences), restart, and boot back into the Yosemite volume. I did it this evening and it works fine. Only wish I had thought of doing this before buying a second hand A1264 Express on eBay, which I'm still waiting to be delivered! Admittedly, booting into Snow Leopard USB is still bit of a workaround, but it's more convenient than borrowing a PC or an old Mac. Probably also more secure than some other methods floating around, which suggest manual workarounds to install Airport Utility 5.6 on Yosemite.

Dear All, This seems to be a very non user friendly workaround.

Surely its possible to issue a utility that 'talks' to my old Airport expresses now that I have upgraded to Yosemite.

I don't use them in wifi mode but as the end of an ethernet run to stream music into my hifi's.

Looks like I will have to buy new units and turn off the wifi and use them as ethernet boxes.

Surely its possible to issue a utility that 'talks' to my old Airport expresses now that I have upgraded to Yosemite.

Unfortunately, Apple does not offer a way to do this on Yosemite, Mavericks, Mountain Lion, and most versions of Lion that would be officially supported.

There are various "solutions" on the Internet that all involve a user having to "trust" an unknown software author and override standard security settings on their Mac, but we are not able to discuss them from this forum, since that would violate the Terms of Use Agreement for this support site.

are you kidding me????????????????? how about a friggin answer that doesn't require me to have a masters degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon. Apple should be ashamed of themselves for developing newer software (Yosemite) that doesn't automatically pair with their older devices. its a conspiracy.....Apple just want us to continually buy more of their products. idiots

The problem is worse than that. Unless you happen to have access to a piece of system software that is now 3 generations (at least old) out of date (what hardware is it living on?), or a PC that you can put on your network, good stereo gear (I'm talking about quality analog stuff) cannot be used to play music on Macs or iOS devices. I thought I would just switch from the Express to AppleTV, but the latter has no analog out to feed into very good quality analog pre-amp that runs my aging but much-better-than-I-can-afford now audio system. And this because Apple apparently could be bothered to provide retroactive support to perfectly good Airport Express hardware. One of the most aggravating experiences I've had with Apple.

Please help!

I can't create a new thread 😟

I am trying to get a A1264 to connect to a Macbook pro 2014 with yosemite.

- Airport Express A1264 (from 2008)

- MacBook Pro Retina mid-2014

- Last updates Yosemite blah blah

I usually use my old Imac as a wifi sender. It's running on a VPN, cable plugged directly in the wall.

Please explain step by step what I should do. For now, I plugged the Airport in the wall and plugged the Ethernet cable in it. It lights green (no flashing). But Airport Utility (the new one and the old one) doesn't detect it and I don't have an option to set a new Airport. There is "configure others" but then it asks for address and password.

Thanks

Just as I was getting ready to write off Apple for good given all the challenging solutions above...I tried connecting my Airport Express (AEX) directly to my computer via the cat5 cable connection in the back of my iMac (21.5 inch late 2013) running Yosemite 10.10.3 to my AEX and I was able to after some trial and error and resetting of the Airport Express to get it discovered in the Airport Utility under “Other Wi-Fi devices” and it then appeared in the Airport Utility visual and then a red “1” appeared next to it in the Airport Utility version 6.3.5 visual map and I double clicked it to download an “update” and it is all now working fine!

I repeated the procedure on all of my AEX units with success. Some did ask for a “password” and that is when I hit the reset with an extended paper clip and it was recognized by my iMac/Airport Utility

Works great. I'm on Yosemite 10.10.6 MacBook Pro Retina 2013. After installing this version ignore the messages to update the Airport Utility and then configure your Airport Express. My Airport Express is probably 2003-2004.

dlabtiger's method did not work for me.

A sad situation when Apple drops support on a product and you have to use a PC to fix it.

If you have.....or can borrow for 10-15 minutes.....a Mac running the Leopard (10.5.x), Snow Leopard (10.6.x) or a PC with AirPort Utility installed, you can administer the older Express that way.

The most sane comment so far. I agree.