Airplay unreliable

Selecting my Airport Express as the output for Mac audio frequently results in error messages—"Can't connect to Airport-Express"—and lags behind streaming video by a few seconds when it does work.
Also, selecting Airplay for just iTunes BLASTS music.
I've seen suggestions to use Airfoil, but $25 seems like a lot of money to fix a built-in OS feature.

"Can't connect to Airport-Express"
Reset your AirPort Express > Resetting an AirPort base station FAQ
AirPlay works with a reliable Wi-Fi connection.

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Photos with airplay is slow and unreliable

Using airplay to display photos on my ATV2, I find that switching from photo to photo can sometimes be slow, or it could just freeze and not respond. Any suggestions? I've tried it with airport express network, would extreme work better?

Hi,
Tap Settings in your Home screen then tap General / Reset / Reset Network Settings.
Restart your iPad.
Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears. Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPad. To turn iPad back on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake until the Apple logo appears.
Try ATV2 again.
If that didn't help, try the Extreme.
Carolyn

Very unreliable Airplay on MacBook Air 2013

Hey there,
I've been, for what seems like forever, experiencing very stuttery Airplay streaming. Strangely this only happens when streaming music via iTunes. Airplay Mirroring and Airplay-Video work fine. There is no difference between streaming to an Apple TV (3rd gen) and an Airport Express (older gen, the plug-into-outlet-thingy). The reasons why I find this strange:
- only iTunes seems to be affected.
- cannot be a bandwith issue since AirPlay Mirroring work well
- iPad, iPhone, Windows Laptops are not affected
- the MBA 2013 has WiFi-issues, but those are related to bluetooth being in the same 2,4 Ghz band. Bluetooth is disabled.
- no issues with Ethernet (Ethernet goes to the same AirPort Express which talks wirelessly to the router, so there is a direct connection. I have to do this because in clamshell Bluetooth has to be on)
- old router with 2,4 Ghz only. (but other devices work!)
- Airport Express is connected via Wifi, Apple TV is via Ethernet.
- no WiFi-pollution. Suburbs.
When streaming, sometimes the audio will stutter, sometimes stop for a few seconds, sometimes stopping completely (iTunes however says music is still playing) forcing me to either pause and resume in iTunes or, if that does not work, reconnect the AirPlay device.
One additional thing: Using iStat Menus I can see how much traffic is currently being used. Mostly this issue only happens when upload is over 120KB/s. Well that's weird.
Streaming a movie to the Apple TV uses up to 2 MB/s without problems.

I realised I had the same problem after buying a lovely new Bowers and Wilkins A7. I was devastated.
The symptoms were very similar to yours - frequent dropouts when streaming audio only. Good, strong wifi signals between devices that could 'stream' hi def video without problem and no problems when streaming from an iPad.
However, i seem to have remedied the problem and haven't had one dropout since.
I am no techie but I think airplay sends audio and video in different ways;
Video is sent and cached - in any video sent to Apple TV, you can see the white bar grow along the bottom of the screen and, as long as this stays ahead of the point you are watching, you should never have any stuttering issues. I assume the file is downloaded and temporarily stored in the apple tv's memory. I know we use the term 'streaming' for this but it is more like a straightforward download.
I am guessing that Audio is genuinely streamed (and not cached). I imagine that the protocol had to be written like that as not all airplay speakers are going to have internal memory to download the temporary file to.
i was also assuming that, although I had a strong wifi connection between my devices, any wireless technology is vulnerable to interference from a variety of sources. This doesn't necessarily manifest itself as a weak signal but rather may cause momentary interruptions.
My iTunes library was on a Mac mini on the same floor and near to the airplay speaker. The router is on the floor below. This set up meant that the Mac mini was wirelessly uploading data next to the speaker that was downloading from the router. I believe the Mac mini was polluting the wifi causing interruptions in the signal.
I moved the Mac mini to the floor below and connected it to the router with an Ethernet cable. I don't know if this improved the connection but I assume it did as well as stopping the Mac mini pumping out wifi.
You mention that your problems are worse when you are uploading - could it be the device that you are uploading from is interfering with the wifi signal?
As I said above, i have not had one dropout since moving the Mac mini away from the airplay speaker.
I hope you are able to do the same.

How to display my iPad 2 on my macbook air's screen WITHOUT using AirPlay?

I want to know how to do this using a "wired" solution. I understand I can achieve this via aps that access AirPlay but it can be unreliable with spotty wifi connections.

Make sure your iPad and iPhone are running iOS 6 (required to have a "unified" phone number for iMessage). Also make sure your phone number is listed on your phone number is listed under You can be reached by iMessage at and Start new conversations from on your iPhone in Settings>Messages>Send & Receive.
If it still isn't working, on your iPad, go to Settings>Messages>Send & Receive, tap the ID, sign out, then sign back in. Confirm that you phone number is now listed.
On your Mac open Messages and go to Preferences>Accounts, choose you iMessage ID on the left, then on the right, click Sign Out, then sign back in, make sure you check Enable this account, and that your phone number is now listed and checked under You can be reached by iMessage at.

ITunes 10.6.3.25 on ethernet connection loses airport express speakers but iPhone 4 airplay works

Hi,
I have started experiencing a problem this past week (Aug 2012) that I see sometimes reported here. When I run iTunes 10.6.3.25 on a Win7 machine that is connected by ethernet to my router, the airport express speakers would regularly disappear. I can always connect to these airport express via airplay from my iPhone 4. In fact when the airplay speakers disappear from iTunes on the ethernet-connected machine, I can reliably make them reappear by turning on the Music app on the iPhone. But after a while the airplay speakers would disappear again. On a Win7 laptop connected via wifi to the network the same version of iTunes seems so far not to exhibit the same problem.
Has anyone discovered what the underlying problem is or found a solution?

I ran into the specific problem in another thread. There are more than 100 connections from the apple TV's to iTunes. You can do a netstat -a (windows or Mac), and verify the problem. iTunes is smart enough to stop allowing more than 100 connections but stupid to allow the ATV to create so many connections.
Now for what you really want! Set all of your ATVs to wifi only. Even setting the iTunes host to wifi might help also. I think that wifi is more unreliable, and forces connections to drop, keeping the count under 100.
I also turned off ip v6. That could help you also. I originally had problems on a Mac mini, and built a windows 7 box to try to fix the problem. The wifi trick worked on both platforms. Several of us have bug reports into apple. I have a wired house also, and am very angry to NEED to use slow wifi to overcome this problem. The ATV gen 3 has been able to keep up with 1080p over wifi, so it doesn't hurt too much. What really hurts is spending over 40 hours troubleshooting this bug.

Apple TV 6.0.2 Airplay, homesharing, wifi troubles

After updating to the latest Apple TV 2013 software update (version 6.0.2) my apple TV WIFI is wrecked.
Netflix, youtube, homesharing, airplay... they all stopped working decently. Lagging or not working at all.
I have done a factory reset connected to my mac. I have done a router reset. I hav been busy for 3 hours, tried everything but my Apple TV seems worthless.
Is there a possibility to go back to the 6.0.1 version?
Is someone in Cupertino reading this and planning a quick update? I don't like my little black box being bricked by this 'update'

Mine worked just fine until this latest update. Now nothing but problems , unreliable to say the least. Sometimes loses sound , sometimes doesn't connect altogether. Reboots, restores , modems and router reboots, I have tried it all. It will work for awhile, then act up again. It is the Apple TV itself after the update. I have tried with several iPhones and iPads all with the same results. Also, my home theater receiver is airplay compatible and it works just fine through my receiver , but not the Apple TV.
APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS....
<Edited by Host>

How to use Airplay to sync iPad with Apple TV

I have a new imac which is linked to my Apple TV, but I want to sync my iPad to the Apple TV so I can view apps. Do I need to download Airplay on the iPad. Couldn't find a download link. Help please!

You cannot sync with the Apple TV. You can use AirPlay to stream iPad content to your TV.
Read this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4437

How can i use airplay with apple tv on a set of audio speakers?

hello there,
i've got a problem with my stereo apple tv combination.
my TV does support HDMI so i can use my apple tv on my HDTV. only my audio is being played on my internal speakers of my HDTV. I do have a set of speakers. but it doesn't support optical audio out. so i was wondering if its possible to use an Airport Express en plug my speakers in there. then wirelessly send the audio from my apple tv to my Airport/speakers. do any of you think that thats possible?? cause i really can't find another way to transfer my audio to my speakers...
Thanks alot!!

Unfortunately you can't send audio from the Apple TV to an airport express, but you can send audio from your mac/pc to the airport express via iTunes/Airplay, you could also send audio from an iPod/iPhone to the express. The express supports both optical and 3.5 mm in a unified port.

How can I get permission to use Apple's Airplay Technology for new and innovative Speaker System?

Hi there!
I want to integrate Airplay technology in a new and innovative Speaker System.
I've searched the internet, but couldn't find anything.
Does anybody know how to get the permission to use it?

Apple
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA 95014
408.996.1010
...ask to speak to someone about licen$ing.

How can I get an itunes movie from macbook to apple tv via airplay, how can I get an itunes movie from macbook to apple tv via airplay

how can I get an itunes movie from macbook to apple tv via airplay?

You don't use Airplay. You set up Home Sharing on both and under the Computers section of AppleTV you'll then find it under Movies (or Rentals if rented), assuming it's in a compatible format.
AC

How do I get multiple Apple Tv's to show up in Airplay?

I have two apple TV's hooked to my network. iTunes is running on an iMac. When I click the AirPlay icon, only one of my ATV's show up.
How do I get both to show?
thanks
David

Hey David,
If you are having an issue with being unable to get multiple AirPlay devices such as your Apple TVs to show up in iTunes I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article -
iTunes: Troubleshooting AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Happy computing,
Brett L

Is it possible to airplay more than one device at a time, for example splitting the screen into quad-view?

I was told by someone that it is possible to connect up to 4 devices at a time through airplay, but I can't work it out.
Is this information incorrect? I'd like to have 4 devices displayed at a time; or at least 2.
Thanks

No you can't.
Audio can be sent to multiple speakers in some cases (eg from iTunes), but not video.

Cant see my airplay icon, cant use my remote app on either of my devices

Hi
I have the gen 3 apple TV and somehow i can no longer airplay, from my mac book pro, ipad, ipad mini or iphone. It used to work on all of my devices and now I cant see the icon.
When I open my remote app it tells me that I have to turn on Home sharing on my itunes or apple tv. It is turned on, on all of my devices.
I have been trying to trouble shoot this issue (all of my devices have the latest updates) and I still cant use my remote or air play
Any suggestions on how to fix this?

I was able to fix the issue by unpluging the apple tv, router, and modem all for about 2-3 minutes and then replugging them in

AirPlay no longer recognized by iOS devices. Is recognized by OSX devices.

I've trolled the discussion forums but to no avail. Airplay was working last night on my iPhone and iPad, but it no longer is recognized: I don't have the AirPlay icon in the doc or in the volume controls within the apps that it used to appear in. It is recognized by my MacMini and MacBook Pro within iTunes.
I haven't changed any settings. I reset all my devices, including my AirPort Express. Also, all software and firmware are up to date.
Thanks

I finally got the iOS devices to work. I had to power them down and restart them several times, but it worked. This seems to be an issue that will hopefully be resolved with an iOS update in the near future.

Itunes 10 and Airplay no longer works with my Airport Express

As soon as I installed the update, my Airport Express (802.11g I think) has stopped working. You can JUST hear a faint audio signal if you turn the amp up full. Any ideas gratefully received.

I noticed this too and think it's by design. The new master volume slider in the AirPlay window is set at the highest volume in your list of speakers. Drag either the master volume or your external speaker slider to max, and you should get normal volumes out of your Airport Express speakers.
Unfortunately, the volume slider on the iTunes window seems to be the master volume now, rather than just the volume for the computer. So if you mute the computer using that slider, you mute all speakers. To mute just the computer, you have to do it though the AirPlay speaker list now. Unless I'm missing a preference setting somewhere... thought there used to be something in iTunes or Airport Utility that let you toggle this behavior, but I don't see anything now...

Airplay unreliable

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