Airport Express - "An Unexpected Error Occurred"

Airport Express A1264 (802.11n compliant), trying to set it up using OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) OR Snow Leopard (10.6.8).
I do a hard reset on the Airport Express by depressing the reset button and plugging it in. The Airport Setup utility recognizes that there is an Airport Express, I am able to connect to it and try to set up a new network by entering a password, network name, etc. In BOTH system versions the AE is updated and it says it's restarting, but that is it. The WiFi network name never appears and the connection times out - I get an "unexpected error occurred" message. The AE is not recognized again unless I reset it but that doesn't fix my problem.
What I've tried:
-Have already adjusted IPV6 to no effect.
-Unable to get the AE to join my existing WiFi network.
-Have tried to set up the AE with ethernet cable connected and disconnected.
Current setup is DSL line -> WiFi router/DSL modem -> AE
-> Mac desktop
-iPhone/iPad etc. via WiFi router
Any ideas? I'm pretty sure at this point it's a dud.

Power up the Express for a few minutes, and then hold in the reset button on the device for 10-12 seconds and release. Allow a full minute for the Express to restart.
Connect an Ethernet cable from one of the LAN <--> ports on the 2Wire gateway to the WAN "O" port on the AirPort Express
Open up AirPort Utility
Click on Other WiFi Devices
Click on AirPort Express
That will bring up a window that looks similar to the illustration below
Network Name........Type in a short, simple name for the wireless network
Base Station .......Type in a device name that you want to use to identify the Express
Password.......Type in a password that will be used for both the wireless network and device password
Verify the password
Click Next
When you see the message of Setup Complete, click Done
You should be able to log on to the new network and enter the password to connect

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Are you using the IMac in your profile, or are you using the iPhone or iPad to set up the Express?
If you are using the iMac, what operating system is installed on the Mac?

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I could not "see" my Express via my wireless router or via the Airport Utility until I reset it to Factory Settings by unplugging it then holding in the tiny reset button while plugging it back in, waiting for the flashing yellow LED signal before letting go.
Then I set it up to DHCP - "connect to wireless network" and DOWNGRADED the firmware to 7.3.x
I would tell you the exact Firmware but I can no longer "see" the Airport express............ AGAIN or still.....
BUT at least I am listening to music streaming from my MacBook Pro... Hmmm.
I log back into the router (Linksys WRT110) and it no longer shows the Airport Express as a DHCP client AND the Airport utility can no longer "find" any Airport Devices..
So if I don't move, or there are no cosmic events, or maybe my KARMA is effecting the device or my "VIBES" are good, but I'm not sure if will continue to work.. Sure would like to use this little device from hel*.
Since I have had this Airport Express I have spent many hours trying to get it to work.
It works just long enough to fool me and then takes a dump...
Maybe this time?
5 Minute later...
Music was playing. I went into iTunes and switched from Airtunes to Computer speakers. When I tried to switch it back GUESS WHAT?
[An unknown error (-15006) occurred while trying to connect to remote speaker "Airtunes"]
Wonderful Green LED though. Totally useless piece of equipment AFAIK.
Message was edited by: Daniel Shattuck

Airport Express - when extending with a second Express I get "Unexpected error occurred" and wifi goes down

I've had one Airport Express G2 running smoothly for months and now trying to extend it with a second Express over LAN cables (ie join existing network). When doing this I get "Unexpected error occurred. Try again." error and then the working base station goes offline (wifi down).
I have tried various ways of going about this and sometimes managed to bring the second one online to try different configs. But it only stays online briefly before both devices go offline (up and down constantly).
Also tried restarted the process from scratch on both devices several times but keep landing up with the same result as soon the second device gets connected.
Any ideas?
thanks

You do not indicate whether you are trying to configure the extending AirPort with an iPhone or iPad....or....with a Mac or PC.
Can you provide a bit more information in that regard?
Assuming that you are using an iPhone / iPad for the setup, or a recent Mac......the setup utility will practically configure the extending AirPort for you automatically. All that you really need to do is name the device and the setup "wizard" takes over from there.
While the utility might initially indicate that the AirPort Express will be setup to extend the network, the real key is checking to make sure that the next setup screen indicates that the AirPort is being configured to extend using Ethernet. If you don't see extend using Ethernet, then the setup will not be correct.
Once the extending AirPort has been setup, if you then go back into AirPort Utility to check the setting for the extending AirPort, the actual setting for the AirPort will be "Create a wireless network".

Airport Express won't connect to network, blinking amber light, and "unexpected error occurred."

I have two aiport expresses - both have the problem. Both continue to have a blinking amber light, when I go through all the setup activities, after completing the factory reset multiple times, I simply get "An unexpected error occurred."
In fact after I do this, my laptop has issues connecting to the network. I have Verizon Fios, not sure if that means anything.
Haven't seen this covered in any of the troubleshooting materials; they just keep going to factory reset to solve all problems, which I've done several times with each device to the same end.
Any ideas?

Hi - You can install 5.6 on Mountain Lion but it is tricky - here are instructions from a post by guru Bob Timmons -
The workaround is to use a utility like Pacifist to manually extract the application and then manually install it in the Utilities folder - see this link:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1167965/mountain_lion_and_the_ancient_airport_ba se_station.html
Another workaround....if you have Time Machine backups.....is to back in time to locate AirPort Utility 5.6 and restore it to the desktop. Then drag it into the Utilities folder.

"An unexpected error occurred. Try again." Extreme/Express cannot connect to existing network

Recently my Speedstar wired modem died. So I had a relatively unused NETGEAR DG834GT wireless modem. Had no idea the old AirPort Extreme Base Station with modem was giving me crappy Wi-Fi speeds. I am enjoying speeds almost 6 x faster now. However I had to reset my entire Wi-Fi network and create a new one. I have an ethernet cable connected from the NETGEAR to the AirPort Extreme. I just want to extend my new Wi-Fi network so I have AirPlay back up and running on my three separate surround sound systems.
SPECS
OSX 10.9.4 (both MacBook Air and Mac Mini)
AirPort Utility 6.3.2
AirPort Extreme (2nd generation)
AirPort Express (1st and 2nd generation)
NETGEAR DG834GT (Mode g & b, WPA-PSK Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)
AirPort Utility initially displayed all three Airport devices, but with the exclamation mark. I assume it was because I had set up an new Wi-Fi network with a new wireless modem so I had to "Forget" network and start over again.
I've reseted each and every AirPort device to factory setting. AirPort Utility recognised each "new" device, and I selected "Join existing network." After several tries, AirPort Utility continually tells me that "An unexpected error occurred. Try again." This happens every time.
I followed Apple's Support advice: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597 "AirPort base station not seen or "An unexpected error occurred" appears in AirPort Utility 6.3" to no avail (configuring it to Link-Local).
What can I do so both my MacBook Air and Mac Mini can talk to each other (instead of opening AirDrop all the time) and for AirPlay to work on my three surround sound systems? One would assume that all AirPort devices should be able to readily and easily join an existing network. Is it due to my NETGEAR not playing nice with Apple AirPort devices due to it's wireless capabilities? I even entered through the NETEAR setup wizard and checked if any devices had connected via MAC, but it had none listed.
What should I do?

Reset the express to factory settings.
Place it in the same room as the TC..
If you are going to extend wireless do not connect ethernet.. just go through the setup from the airport utility.. if it fails.. welcome to Yosemite. The worst piece of network for ages..
Do you have ipad.. even an iphone .. load the airport utility on and run the setup from there.. it is much more reliable.

TS4597 AirPort base station not seen or "An unexpected error occurred" appears in AirPort Utility 6.3 - It did the above steps and cannot get airport utility to allow access to the Airport extreme in order to reconfigure please help

I tried following the article's instructions by going into System Preferences / Network and changing the configure ipv6 tab to Link local only and I STILL am getting the same error. Can someone please advise how to get this ariport extreme back online and configured

I'm in a frustrating predicament with this error, so if folks have any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated...
A few days ago my internet stopped working as best i know out of the blue (3rd gen Airport Extreme with a couple iPhones, iPad, Apple TV's, Mac's (one with Mavericks) on it). In trying to fix it, I powered down everything and reset the router. When the router is initializing (seen through the Airport utility), the internet starts working again on the Mac in which I'm running the Airport utility. (a browser in background loads a previously unloadable webpage). I'm then left with a screen where the Airport utility is waiting for me to enter set-up info:
If I leave the Airport Utility in this state and don't hit next, my internet works fine on my Mac. If I set-up this info, however, my internet no longer works (in Airport Utility the Internet globe has a orange circle saying internet disconnected) and I get a screen saying "An unexpected error occured. Try again." I've tried toggling a number of router settings, restarting the router, but nothing seems to fix it.
I've taken the router to Apple, where they were able to create a network fine with the router. I also bought a new AE router, and tried an old AE express router, but all attempts get the same error. I've also tried using the iOS Airport utility, but that doesn't seem to help. I've tried the older version (5.6) of Airport Utility run on a non-Mavericks Mac, but that didn't help.
I had a ISP technician come out, but they basically said the plug (we don't have a modem, but just a ethernet plug in our apartment) in which you're getting the internet from us is working, and it's your router. They're diagnostics said the router is 'throwing off a bunch of errors.' That being said, they've confirmed the setting on the AE are okay (as far as they know...).
Any thoughts here? I'm not especially network-proficient, but searching around has pointed me to potential issues with mavericks, IPv6, and the latest version of the Airport Utility.
I'm desperate - please help!
Much thanks in advance.

External hard drive networked via AirPort Extreme gives "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)" roughly every two days

My lab has about 10 Mac computers. We all access a central hard drive by the way of wifi provided by AirPort. It's just a regular external hard drive (Seagate Desktop Drive) that I turned into our central storage space by plugging it into AirPort (USB). It works pretty well. We seem to be fine with viewing the file directories, opening files, saving, deleting etc., for a day or two. But then after a day or two, when when trying to modify files or move new files onto the central hard drive, we get the error message: "The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50)"
Any suggestions as to what may be causing this problem?
All of the computers are 2011 iMacs & MacPros. The AirPort is 802.11n WiFi. The hard drive is a Seagate USB 3.0 Desktop Drive.
Thank you for your insight/suggestions.

Thanks for your reply. I agree about the communication issue. Let me explain my setup and what I am trying to do and perhaps you can answer my questions or make suggestions.
I have a MAC Mini with a Sony TV for the video monitor. The Mac Mini is hard wired to the AE (Airport Extreme). The AE has a 2 TB HD hooked up to the USB Port. I have a 17" Mac Book Pro on the WIFI Network.
I am trying to use the MAc Mini as a "Media Server" of sorts. Once I get iTunes running the way I plan I am goign to hook up my Apple TV (2nd Generation) to my television downstairs.
What I am trying to accomplish is have iTunes on all my computers look to the External HD on the AE for the files. This is why I am having my (-50 errors).
So far I have noticed that if I go and try to download from iTunes purchased videos that are not ont he computer (to the external HD) it will also occassionaly give me teh -50 error.
Is there a way to change where the files go when I download them? Say I want to download videos to the computer but not to the external HD? However I would want to still be able to move them to the External HD.

After hard reset of time capsule, airport utility cannot setup again. "an unexpected error occurred. try again"

After starting airport utility, it searches and i select my time capsule. AU grinds for a minute and comes back with "An unexpected error occured. Try again."

Hi Philjp,
If you are having issues connecting to your Airport Time Capsule, even after a factory reset, you may find the following article helpful:
Apple Support: AirPort base station not seen or "An unexpected error occurred" appears in AirPort Utility 6.3
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597
Regards,
- Brenden

I have an Airport Extreme, it's only flashing amber and won't go solid green. I use my ipad 2 to try and setup the Airport and I keep getting "an unexpected error occured, try again."

I have an Airport Extreme, the light is only flashing amber and won't go solid green. I use my ipad 2 to try and setup the Airport and I keep getting "an unexpected error occured, try again." I've tried my iphone 4 with the same result. I've tried the utilty on my pc and same result. The airport is producing a great wireless signal and working to all devices. I really just want to get in and set the password.

eddiedaly wrote:
I have reset several times with no success.
When you did those resets, did you continue to hold in the reset button until the status light blinked several times? If you didn't, then you didn't do a full reset.
Here's what I do to reset an AirPort base station: I unplug it, press in the reset button, then, while continuing to hold in the reset button, I plug it in. (Yes, doing this can be easier for people with more than two hands!) I then watch the status light and wait until it flashes rapidly several times.
I have a Time Capsule that I couldn't configure at one point. To recover from that I had to unplug it for many hours. You might try unplugging your unit overnight.
By the way, you've been misled by poor field labeling on this forum into typing a large part of your original message into the field intended for the subject. In the future just type a short summary of your post into that field and type the whole message into the field below that.

'An unexpected error occurred' using AirPort Utility to configure an Extreme

Hi all, I've been fighting with this problem for a while. I have a 2011 Mac Mini running OS X 10.7.5 and AirPort Ulility 6.2. I also have a new-ish AirPort Extreme A1408. They've never really seemed to work properly together. The only way to configure the device is to manually launch the AirPort Utility, go "file > configure other" and enter the password "public" to log in and manually change the settings.
If I hard-reset (which I've been doing to troubleshoot another issue) and simply choose "Other AirPort Base Stations (1)" I can see my router in the drop-down. It goes through the process of gathering information and joining the default wireless network (I'm using the unsecured default right now as a matter of fact), but then the process ends with 'An unexpected error occurred'. Even with that message displayed, the default wi-fi connection stays up (clicking cancel kills the wi-fi connection immediately).
I can always go back through the "file > configure other" process and set it up manually, but then it never appears in the AirPort Utility as a connected base station - all I see is a green light for Internet and a "No configured base stations have been found" message.
Here's what I'm seeing in the Console:
13-05-25 11:12:27.000 PM kernel: MacAuthEvent en1 Auth result for: 20:c9:d0:20:4c:10 MAC AUTH succeeded
13-05-25 11:12:27.000 PM kernel: wlEvent: en1 en1 Link UP virtIf = 0
13-05-25 11:12:27.000 PM kernel: AirPort: Link Up on en1
13-05-25 11:12:27.000 PM kernel: en1: BSSID changed to 20:c9:d0:20:4c:10
13-05-25 11:12:27.889 PM configd: network configuration changed.
13-05-25 11:12:27.914 PM UserEventAgent: CaptiveNetworkSupport:CaptivePublishState:1211 en1 - Probe
13-05-25 11:12:27.914 PM UserEventAgent: CaptiveNetworkSupport:CaptiveStartDetect:2322 Bypassing probe on Apple Network 204c0f because signature is in the known good cache
13-05-25 11:12:27.915 PM UserEventAgent: CaptiveNetworkSupport:CaptivePublishState:1211 en1 - Unknown
13-05-25 11:12:27.923 PM configd: network configuration changed.
13-05-25 11:20:29.000 PM kernel: wlEvent: en1 en1 Link DOWN virtIf = 0
13-05-25 11:20:29.000 PM kernel: AirPort: Link Down on en1. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).
13-05-25 11:20:29.795 PM UserEventAgent: CaptiveNetworkSupport:CaptivePublishState:1211 en1 - PreProbe
13-05-25 11:20:29.806 PM configd: network configuration changed.
Looks like after I open AirPort Utility, the connection to the default wireless network is established, the system goes to probe the base station, says "nope I know this guy already", then the process spits out the 'An unexpected error occurred' message, I click "cancel", and the link is dropped.
Does anyone know why my AirPort does this? Is it a network configuration setting somewhere in the Mac? I've had this thing for a while and of course decided to dive into the Apple ecosystem entirely dropping to a single Windows gaming rig, only to find that the special magic doesn't work for me

Read this please, before assuming your AirPort Extreme is broken. The links at the end will likely resolve your issues. First try to rollback your AirPort's firmware to 6.1.1, which should restore your Internet connectivity. If it does, but you'd rather have the most recent upgrade available, follow the steps given in the following links, 6.1.3 should work fine for you then.
After numerous attempts by apple IT reps to persuade me that my modem was somehow the cause of my AirPort Extreme broadcasted WiFi network suddenly losing connectivity after the 6.1.3update, I found the truth that helped me to correct my own problem, and successfully use 6.1.3 rather than the rolled back version 6.1 i had been forced to resort to.
If rolling back your Airport's firmware fixes your connectivity issue, or your dns server has been erased by the update to 6.1.3, I speculate that these links will help you out greatly.
It turned out, that this was A KNOWN ISSUE to Apple! With an actual fix Published by Apple themselves! They've just got it hidden away because they must have wanted to drive me to the brink of insanity. . Luckily for Apple I worked with an amazing rep *(Thelma) who at least acted as if she didn't think I was a crazy person. I found the fix on my own after 16 grueling, redundant and fruitless, hours of troubleshooting (time wasting) with "senior" Apple techs.
Let me tell you, 'I told you so' has never sounded so sweet. (Thelma) was ****** that no one in the company bothered to fill her in on this issue or solution and had her support send me a new AirPort just before I discovered the fix. After the discovery, she told me not to bother sending either back, and apologized for the run around that took up weeks of my life.
With out further ado and with thanks to Softpedia for posting the info-
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Airport-Time-Capsule-7-6-3-Affects-IPv6-Tunneling -328680.shtml
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Apple-Releases-Fix-for-IPv6-Tunnel-Error-Under-Ai rPort-7-6-3-331186.shtml
*name(s) changed to protect the competent
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen), iOS 6.1.3
I have this question too (1) Reply Categories: Airport Extreme Tags: airport_extreme, firmware, airport, ipad, wifi, 4, router, extreme, multiple_devices, internet_access, update_error, dns_error, amber_light, no_dns, 6.1.1, roll_back, 6.1.3

HT3728 I keep getting 'an unexpected error occurred. Try again.' error message when trying to reconnect to my AirPort Time Capsule. I have soft and hard reset and, eventually, factory reset the device. What do I do to correct the error?

I keep getting 'an unexpected error occurred. Try again.' error message when trying to reconnect to my AirPort Time Capsule. I have soft and hard reset and, eventually, factory reset the device. What do I do to correct the error?

Hi Philjp,
If you are having issues connecting to your Airport Time Capsule, even after a factory reset, you may find the following article helpful:
Apple Support: AirPort base station not seen or "An unexpected error occurred" appears in AirPort Utility 6.3
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597
Regards,
- Brenden

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After following setup guide my Airport TC 2TB will not get past the amber flashing light. Message is "an unexpected error occurred. pllease try again."
my cable modem allows me to connect to internet
my Airport allows me to connect to the internet while it is searching and preparing my network. When I cancel out after the error message above I lose internet connectivity.
Any help would be appreciated.
louis

Completely isolate the Mac and the TC from the network.. plug the TC lan port by ethernet to the Mac.
Factory reset the TC.
Factory reset TC Gen 5 or AE Gen 6
Unplug your AE/TC .. hold in reset and power the TC/AE back on.. without releasing the reset.. wait until status led flashes rapidly.
Make sure in the ethernet settings you have ipv6 set to link local and the dhcp set for ip. It should give you an address of 10.0.1.2
Open the airport utility, using the top menu.. File, Configure Other.
Type in the address, 10.0.1.1 .. no password is required at this stage.
Click ok and the main setup will open.
Set all the names short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.
Set the TC to the right mode .. dhcp+nat for router or off (bridge mode) for bridge.
Set wireless to create a wireless network.
No luck then the TC is faulty and needs to be returned.

An unexpected error occurred. Try Again.

I was having trouble with an AirPort Express, so I performed a factory reset. Now when I go into AirPort Utility to try to configure it, it spins for a while saying it's "Reading previous settings..." then it tells me "An unexpected error occurred. Try Again." I've tried this several times now with factor reset between each to no avail. Any suggestions? (Or is the AirPort Express simply shot?)

It should not be reading previous settings.. make sure you are doing the full factory reset and not a hard reset.
Also do the setup in full isolation to the network.. at least to begin with.. using ethernet connection.. turn off wireless in the computer. That gives you the best chance of success.
How old is the express? And did you upgrade it to latest firmware?? Thereupon you are having these issues.. downgrade the firmware again.

"AN UNEXPECTED ERROR OCCURED (ERROR CODE -600)" HELP...

I was trying to open a FC EXPRESS HD and this message came up:
"THE OPERATION COULD NOT BE COMPLETED"
"An Unexpected Error Occured -ERROR CODE -600-.
If someone can help me. I'll appreciate.

It appears that the last time Final Cut Express was used, it didn't completely quit. Open the Activity Monitor in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to force quit it if it shows up; if it doesn't, save your open documents in other applications and quit the loginwindow process. You may now be asked to log in again or be logged in automatically depending on how the computer is set.
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Airport Express - "An Unexpected Error Occurred"

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