Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
For about the last week my airport extreme has been showing a status message saying it may be overheating. It was behind my iMac so i moved it out onto the desk to be sure that it is getting enough circulation, and it is still having issues. Firmware is up to date and the airport is barely over a year old. I received it last year for christmas. Not sure what is causing this. Is it just a hardware problem?
I had the same issue and Apple replaced it with a refurbished that started having the same problem within a month.
Today, I pulled it out again and updated the firmware. Amber light came on again.
I checked out the settings and turned off enable file sharing (In Airport Utility, click on the icon of your base station and then select Edit from the popup window, then select Disks tab). I thought I would turn this off since my model does not have the internal disk.
Low and behold, the light went green and is staying that way.
New products like the extreme have 3months phone support from Apple.. (as I remember the sales pitch)..
Just ring Apple and get them to help.. this is brand new item and should not overheat in the first month of operation.
I am assuming two things:
Your 802.11ac AirPort Extreme has an internal fan near the top of the unit and air is drawn in & exhausted from the bottom. It may be possible that you have some "dust bunnies" building up in the base or that the fan is defective.
To get a better idea on what's inside, please take a look at the following iFixit teardown for this device.
If you have AppleCare in effect on one of your Macs, the AirPort Extreme is also covered. Get in touch with Apple Support and ask them to replace the AirPort Extreme for you. If you do not have AppleCare in effect on one of your Macs, and the AirPort Extreme is barely over a year old, I would still ask Apple to replace it for you. Nothing to lose
Apple considers the AirPort Extreme a sealed unit, so they do not offer repairs or repair parts for the AirPort Extreme.
If you cannot get the AirPort replaced at no charge, then you might want to open it up using the article that Tesserax provided as a guide. Normally, this would void the warranty, but if you have no coverage, it won't really matter. You might be able to clean out the fan to get it working more efficiently, or find out enough information about the fan to try to locate a replacement online.
Be very careful when taking components out of the AirPort Extreme, as ribbon connectors can break and other connectors may pull loose as well.
This actually helped me in discovering that my fan went bad. Thank you very much!
It worked!! Just turning off sharing files.
I had the same issue with my AirPort Extreme and was about to replace it when I read your solution. I unchecked file sharing and have had no problems since doing so. Thank you very much.
Worked!!!! Thanks
Same issue with 2 Airport Extreme bought around XMas 2017.
Thanks!! It works.
Thanks! Was having same overheating error message and the file sharing setting fixed it. Strange but it worked!!
Unchecking the "Enable File Sharing" fixed my problem of AirPort Extreme overheating message !!!
Light is now green.
Thank you.
Actually my light turned back on the other day so I had to check the file sharing option then the light turned off again.
Same here....read the entire thread, and was believing it was hardware....but I've got a green light again. No file sharing needed (just using for wi-fi), so no big deal.....
One more Airport Extreme that was fixed by turning off File Sharing. Thanks very much!!!
This solution worked like a charm for me as well - Airport Utility / Edit / Disks Tab / Uncheck "Enable File Sharing"
why is my airport extreme overheating?
