Windows iTunes Airplay icon disappeared, how to fix or reinstall?

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Windows iTunes Airplay icon disappeared, how to fix or reinstall?

Windows 10, iTunes 12.9.1.4, 2 Apple TVs and a Philips Airplay speaker

Today my Airplay icon stopped appearing on iTunes. At first, it appeared but would not connect to the Airplay devices (a problem I posted about recently here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8606784, and which I haven’t yet been able to solve as suggested). I rebooted the computer, attempted to repair iTunes, rebooted the whole network, rebooted and checked for updated software on all the Airplay devices, turned off/on Home Sharing, logged out/in my Apple account, and still the problem persists. Occasionally after a reboot, the Airplay icon will be visible for a brief second, but will disappear again.

What now? I assume I should reinstall iTunes--unless someone has a better solution, which I would love to hear!!

I want to be able to restore my playlists, play counts, etc once I reinstall iTunes.

Everything I see online talks about having backing up and having iTunes organize and consolidate files. I don’t fully understand what this does, but I don’t think I want it:

I have spent countless hours organizing my files exactly how I want them. I just want to be able to preserve the plays and playlists and see all my music in iTunes after reinstalling. Is this possible? If so, how do I do it?

My music collection is about a terabyte, all on one hard drive and I don’t see a need to use Consolidate, which sounds like it will make a second copy of every file. That seems unnecessary. Right?

So in short: anyone have a solution for the disappearing Airplay icon, or who can explain to me how to preserve play counts and playlists without modifying or making a copy of my entire music collection?

Thanks in advance!!

Posted on Nov 15, 2018 8:55 PM

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Answer 1

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adamcohn Author

Level 1

7 points

Nov 24, 2018 2:12 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you TT2 for your help. Unfortunately it didn't solve it, but for closure, here's what I did:

Followed the uninstall/reinstall steps, which thankfully maintained my files, organization, playlists, etc. THANK YOU!
Phoned Apple support.
- They suggested a reboot sequence which helps sometimes: reboot router, then apple tvs, then PC. Still not fixed.
- Tried ensuring that all devices were on the same band, the 2.4 or 5ghz band. Still not fixed.
- I upgraded the firmware on my Archer C7 router. Still not fixed.
- Attempted to circumvent the router by using the iPhone as a hotspot. Was able to connect the Apple TV and the PC to that signal and successfully use AirPlay.

At this point, we thought that the problem must lie in the router. I got off the phone, ended the hotspot and reconnected as normal. Guess what: the entire AirPlay system started working again!

I'm not sure why that fixed it, but it did. Apple also sent me this doc which lists the recommended settings for wifi routers: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support I have gone through and made sure that all my settings match the recommendations. Hopefully that will keep this running in the future.

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

Nov 24, 2018 11:20 AM in response to adamcohn

It may be that your speaker isn't compatible with AirPlay 2. Reinstalling iTunes doesn't mean recreating your library, but you should nonetheless maintain a backup.

For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.

The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. When reinstalling right click on the downloaded setup file and use run as administrator. It may also help to temporarily disable any non-Microsoft anti-virus.

Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down the page in case one of them applies.

The further information area has direct links to the current and recent builds in case you have problems downloading, or want to revert to an older version if the current one won't work properly for you at the moment.

Your library and device backups should be unaffected by these steps but there are links to backup and recovery advice should it be needed.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

Nov 24, 2018 5:03 PM in response to adamcohn

Thanks for the follow up. Glad to hear you got there in the end. 🙂

tt2

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Windows iTunes Airplay icon disappeared, how to fix or reinstall?

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