AirTunes cutting out

When streaming music from my iTunes through my AirPort Express to my speakers, I'm encountering a recurring problem. A song will play through the speakers for a minute or so, and then cut out, and then the AirPort Express will start flashing orange. I've hit the reset button a number of times to no avail. Any advice?

Firstly, ensure you've installed the latest firmware on both base stations (released a few weeks back) and upgraded to iTunes 6.0.2. Also that your PowerBook has the latest AirPort version installed.
If that gives you no joy, you could try different channels on the base stations (eg. 1, 6 or 11). And try it with interference robustness on and off.
If that's no good, check whether there are any sources of potential interference near the base station (i.e. other electrical appliances).
As a last resort, you could try setting the base stations to 802.11b or g only (depending on your model of AirPort card).

Similar Messages

Airtunes cuts out between songs

Hello,
Sorry if this has been addressed, I've searched and found a few people who have airtunes cutting out mid-track, but mine tends to cut out at the end of a track. I have to press stop then play and it starts again - only for it to stop again after two or three tracks. It's really annoying - I keep having to get out of the bath!
I'd be very, very grateful if anyone could help. I only set up my Airtunes network last week (I have three amps set up around a pretty small flat, each with an Airport Express attached), so have only ever used it with iTunes 7.
Thanks very much!!
Mac Mini 1.42 GHZ PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)
Mac Mini 1.42 GHZ PowerPC G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Sorry, I can't off you a solution, but I have this happening too, but during songs. This didn't used to happen. What I can say:
- MacBook Pro 2 GHz & PowerMac G4 466MHz
- iTunes 7.0.1 (both)
- AirPort Express with firmware 6.3
- MacOS X 10.4.8 (both)
- Quicktime 7.1.3 (both)
The MacBook Pro is wirelessly connected to a Belkin hub that then talks to the AirPort Express wirelessly. The PowerMac is connected to the hub by cable. The wireless portion use 40 bit WEP. This issue affects both computers.
I would try with an older version of iTunes to see if that makes a difference, but I don't have access to one, though having tried out AirFoil (by Rogue Amoeba), I suspect that the issue is either with the new AirPort Express firmware update or something that iTunes depends on, since it experiences the same symptoms.

Airtunes cutting out wirelessly-trying ethernet connection-help

Ihave an Imac with a local wireless network to a lynksysN router-connected to a PC.( I use files betweent the PC and the Mac) I have two airport express-one for each stereo in the home and an apple TV. I get a lot of cut outs on airtunes....so since I have the abilty to wire the house I have put an ethernet cable from the Imac to the Lynksys router. Now my internet is faster on the Mac. Now how can I play my music on the Mac via the airport express devices. When I disable the airport to the router I no longer can see mutlitple speakers, or my apple TV in my itunes. All I really want is to have my airtunes work without cutting out. I know I have all the required hardware and I just don;t quite understand how to make it all work yet. Thanks

I am also streaming music using iTunes to an airport express from an airport extreme. I also have the music cutting in and out problem and may have just solved it tonight by changing the channel setting from the default automatic to a channel that doesn't seem to have interference. For me, that seems to be channel 1. Automatic was always picking channel 11 and that cut in and out.
BTW, my airport express is only 70' away, but downstairs and my floors are concrete. Anybody else have such short range?

AirTunes cuts out too much

I've had AirTunes hooked up for about three months now. Sometimes the connection between my Mac and the stereo goes for the whole day without a problem. Sometimes - like today - it cuts out for a few seconds then it's back on again, repeat. Also, my Airport Express wireless connection sometimes does the same thing, on/off/repeat. Sometimes my computer can't find my Airport Express closed network; but it has no problem finding the neighbors' open networks. This problem manifests itself without regard to what time of day it is, what the weather is like outside, whether or not someone is using a cellphone or the cordless phone we have, whether or not the cable TV (we have a cable modem) is on/off, whether the lights are on, distance between the computer and the Airport Express, I have checked the connections of my Airport card, Airtunes cables, etc., etc. ad infinitum.
This happens with streaming content like an internet radio station as well as with songs in my iTunes library resident on my hard drive.
I have the latest iTunes. I have the latest OS updates.
Things I have tried with "success." Unplugging Airport Express, letting it reset. Quitting and rebooting iTunes.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Is this a specific problem that I can solve with an unknown (to me) software update/upgrade/purchase? Is there a chapter in the two OS X books I have (Tiger for Dummies and Tiger: the missing Manual) that I haven't read? Is there another book I can buy that will guide me to the right solution?
Note: I am really tired of the "just unplug the cable and let it reset" answer. That's how things are solved in a Windows world. The problem with those answers is that I might have to unplug and thus reset the Airport Express several times in one sitting!

A number of things to try:
- disable WDS. WDS will limit your range.
- drop bandwidth from 802.11g to 802.11b (G service is 50 ft, B service is 150)
- try re-positioning the Airport Express base station
- change the channel the base station uses (may be a conflict with other devices in your home).
As a last resort, you can do what I did...hardwire the Airport Express...I too was getting tons of drop outs, due to 2GHz cordless phones,microwave interference, distance and number of walls traversed.
Report back on your progress & good luck!
Rob

AirTunes CUTTING out periodically... Help?

I originally thought iTunes kept pausing but now I've realized the signal to the AirPort keeps cutting out. The song keeps playing in iTunes but the signal to the AirPort/AirTunes keeps going all jerky, cutting in and out with annoying frequency. Could my AirPort be dying? I've had it for 4+ years now. I just reset it and renamed the network, etc. I've also tried deleting the file in my preferences but to no avail. Is there anything else I can do?
Spencer

Have you updated to iTunes 8?
I did and I've had many connection problems since then. It started with my AirTunes not working, then I tried all the suggestions here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1701084&tstart=0
Some solutions worked for a short time, now AirTunes won't work at all and when it was playing it was jittery, the volume control ceased to work (blared at me last time).
All day since I updated iTunes there's been nothing but problems. I'm leaving it off now so it doesn't interfere with my Wifi connections. I have an Airport Extreme and an Express, and a few times now both devices couldn't be found (it happened while I was playing my touchy AirTunes when it was working a little bit). As long as I don't play iTunes, everything else is peachy, with no disconnections from the internet or anything.

AirTunes cuts out after working

Hi all
I have a problem when using my AppleTV as an AirTunes device. Music plays from my iMac to the AppleTV for awhile, then cuts out. If I deselect the AppleTV in iTunes as a speaker, then reselect it, music once again plays for awhile then again cuts out. This is the second AppleTV that has this issue, so I suspect it's a software issue.
Anyone had success in addressing this issue?

I've been having the same problem and I just found a fix that is working for me. Using iTunes 8, an Airport Extreme, and a new Airport Express, iTunes would stream to the Express but would cut out for a second every 5 seconds or so. I found an application called Autobahn (http://www.getautobahn.com/) that I observed grabbing some network activity. I uninstalled it and the problem disappeared. The file won't show up in a Spotlight search, it is invisible. If it's on your Mac, there's an uninstaller located in USER/Library/Application Support/Swarmcast (that's where it is in 10.5.5). Good luck!

AirTunes cut-outs with wired network (solved)

To whom this may be helpful,
There are several discussions about Music cut-outs when using the AirTunes, but all of these discussions were focussing on a wire-less connection.
In my case, however, I have a wired Ethernet connection from my Mac to a 4-port-router, to which the AirPort Express is also connected. I got the first cut-outs about a year ago and it has been gradually getting worse, up to the point where it would cut out after every 5-10 seconds, pausing for 5 seconds. This is when I gave up using AirTunes.
Next, nothing much happened until I noticed a few weeks ago that my network had become notoriously slow. I first suspected a degrading ADSL connection, but I changed my mind when my router died. It turns out that my network performance was gradually degrading due to problems in my router (probably bad memory, forcing it to drop packages when the checksums were incorrect).
After having replaced the router, the network is up and running again as before and AirTunes runs smoothly again. With that in mind, you might like to test other units in your network!
Mac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I buyed 2 of the Airport Extreme, never got them working fine, till yesterday...
I have A Zyxel ADSL WLAN Router Switch. WPA-PSK as I wanted a secure Network. Both of the AX were connected with static IPs. WLAN was always working fine, but I had many cut outs with airtunes. I wanted a solution with lossles streaming audio with the possibility to connect my Receiver digitally. That's why I bought my first Apple hardware, as I was always told, Apple=Plug'n play. Very frustrating!
I tried other switches, Routers, WLAN adapters and cards, nothing worked. Airfoil does not support multiple speakers yet, so it's useless for me.
In the FAQ of the Airtunes, Apple mentioned to use lower security, as some Computers probably do not have enough power to stream music flawlessly. But my Computers really do have enough power! I think the AX does not have enough power to do that. So I created another wireless network with one of my AX. I set the security to WEP-40bit key and joined this new Network with my other AX. Not the best solution, as I'm now connected to the Internet or to the AX to use Airtunes. Cables could fix that problem, but then I could use a wired system instead...
I use Channel 11 for the AX WLAN (the only clean channel in my area), Multicast to 11, only G mode for Wireless and a 5 characters WEP-40 key and no WDS. Seems to work at the moment.
I hope this will help others with the cut or drop out problem

HT202663 AirTunes cuts out at the same time every hour for about 20 seconds

Since converting my iMac from Lion to Mavericks a week ago, my Airtunes network dies at exactly the same time ... 51 mintes and 35 seconds every hour after the hour. It stays down for 20 seconds then picks up again without any intervention required. (iTunes itself does not stall).
My wifi network set up worked reliably for about three years before upgrading to Mavericks, streaming music from iTunes on my iMac to two AP Expresses and one AppleTV. I have an Actiontec router provided by Verizon/FiOS. The iMac is connected to the router via Ethernet.
The apparently precisely timed interruption problem manifested itself immediately after installing Mavericks.
Anybody else have anything like this?

I fixed the problem. For anyone interested I disabled the IGMP service in the Actiontec router.

AirTunes times out

Currently using iTunes 7.0.2. AirPort Express 6.3.
Previously, I had my AX set up as a remote base station using WDS to extend the wireless network from my Linksys router. I was also streaming audio from my Powerbook to the AX to my stereo.
A few days ago, someone else's shared music popped up in iTunes, and I realized I needed to secure my network. So I enabled WEP.
Once I did that, I was no longer able to operate the AX as a remote base station. It would flash amber, and would disappear from the network. I couldn't configure it with Airport Admin Utility or even ping it.
So then I tried adding it to the network as a client. This seemed to work, in that the light was green and it appeared in the remote speakers list in iTunes. But when I select the remote speakers, I get a "Connecting to Living Room ..." window that appears for a couple of minutes, then disappears, and the remote speakers selection reverts to "Computer."
I found this article, and tried disabling IP6 on my PowerBook to no avail:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304371
Any thoughts? It seems things are mostly set up correctly, because otherwise nothing would show up in the remote speakers menu. I'm at a loss as to why it can't connect to it.
TiBook 400 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Okay, I really solved it this time. There were two issues:
1. I was using the wrong MAC address. The Linksys has more than one.
2. Once I pointed the AX to the correct Linksys MAC address, I had to also enable WDS on the Linksys to point back to the AX.
So now it works, except that AirTunes cuts out every few seconds, but that's another question:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=731506
PowerMac G4 AGP/400, TiBook G4 400 Mac OS X (10.4.8) 1st Gen iPod; iPod Mini 4GB

Airtunes cutting in and out when using the internet.

Hi all,
I know this topic has been covered before and there is a support page for this problem on the apple website but I haven't been able to fix the problem using either hence the post so sorry for repetition.
As the title says my airtunes keeps cutting in and out, but it only seems to happen when I am actively using the internet. What I mean to say is that if the internet is connected and sitting there dormant it works fine, but as soon as a start to surf or download it cuts out, the higher the download/upload rate the longer the cut outs are until it stops all together.
My network contains the following,
2 Computers (1 iMac and 1 MacBook Pro)
1 Airport Express
The iMac is the host of the network, it also is the provider of the internet via a USB mobile broadband stick shared out via Airport (which cannot be connected directly into the Airport Express). Airport Express is used purely for Airtunes.
I could not change the channel setting to test for interference in Airport Utility as the iMac was the host. I tried changing the whole network channel on the iMac but the cut outs still occurred.
I use the MacBook Pro to send the audio from iTunes to Airport Express, distance would only be about 4 meters with no physical barriers such as stereo/cables/walls etc.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Jarrod.

Any idea's please?

AirTunes sound constantly cuts out on Laptop

Both me and my roommate play our iTunes through the single house stereo via AirTunes, me on my iMac and her on her MacBook. I never have problems with my playback, but half the time she uses it the sound will cut out constantly. There will be a few seconds of sound, then a few seconds of silence, on and on.
It's very annoying.
Neither of us experiences any problems or cutting out with using the internet at all, even while this AirTunes problem is happening.
We've tried setting the iTunes streaming buffer size to large. I've lowered the security on the Express to WPA only, increased the multicast rate to 11 and enabled interference robustness. We've also tried closing all other apps on her machine and installing more RAM. none of which has helped the problem.
She's using a MacBook2,1 and OSX 10.4.11
Any help would be much appreciated as this is driving us both mad.

Thanks for the welcome!
And for the info. At first i thought this might be a good lead, since for the first time in the months since i bought the Express my iMac iTunes started having this problem as well (though this is probably just because i hardly use the AirTunes feature). But lowering the multicast rate doesn't seem to have any affect on the issue either. So i've effectively ruled out the multicast rate as any sort of cause/solution to the problem.
I've tried watching the network activity monitor when this is occurring, but see no correlation between the network activity and the periods of silence from the AirTunes.
The wiring doesn't seem to be a problem either, as i can hook up either computer to the jack going into the express and it plays just fine.
Maybe i just have a dud Express unit?

AirTunes Repeatedly Cuts Out...

Using an Airport Express exclusively for AirTunes; recently moved to a new place-- the distance between computer & stereo has increased, but still well within 150ft... The connection to the airport express is very spotty-- iTunes constantly loses the connection to the remote speakers-- a few seconds on, a few seconds off. Of course, as I'm writing this, it's maintained connection for a few minutes, but that's rare.
Is this a range issue or interference with some other source (from the neighbors perhaps)? Would a second airport express strengthen the signal or is this a lost cause?
Got the recent firmware updates, iTunes is up to date; have done the hard and soft resets of the airport express multiple times...

I had a similar problem with airtunes as Kumquat, I think. Airtunes repeatedly cut out. I seem to have fixed it with latest 6.3 firmware for Airport express, setting security to lowest 40WEP, turning on interference robustness, setting different channel, and setting maximum buffer in iTunes. This seems to hold even when microwave is in use, which is a first for my network.
However, I took the advice of downloading the Apple Airport management Tools which have given some interesting results.
I run two airport express unit on same network and have two Apples - one an iMac G4 (2.1) running 10.3.9 and 802.11b airport card, the other an iBook G3 (PowerPC 750) running 10.3.0 with airport 802.11b. AEs are set to 'b' only. (Computers are different software build because I forgot password for the G3)
Running airport client monitor on each gives:
G4 signal -40dB and noise -100dB with transmit rate steady at 11Mbps until I run iTunes (6.01) when transmit rate drops frequently to zero and trace looks like an irregular saw blade.
G3 shows signal strength positive ie +60dB and noise +5dB and when running iTunes (4.7) the transmit rate remains steady at 11Mbps.
I don't understand the difference between the signal strengths of each compute - why one is on positive scale and one negative.
And I don't understand why the transmit strength behaves so differently between each computer. I'm going to log on another G4 with similar hardware/software build in the next few days and see what the difference is.
You might ask why I'm bothering given that Airtunes seems to be fixed at the moment but no doubt, like many of you, I expect the problem will return and understanding more about the causes should help me when it does.
Incidently Airfoil 2.0 gave similarly varying transmit rates on the G4 so I guess that lets iTunes off the hook.

How do you stop airtunes dropping out with AEX/Extreme bridged airports?

I finally found out how to get my Airports networked so that I could use the internet and airtunes to work at the same time, only now neither works well. The connection to my speakers cuts out every few minutes, simultaneously disconnecting from the internet. This is driving me nuts. Does anyone know how I can get this to stop?
Thanks,
Peter

I finally found out how to get my Airports networked so that I could use the internet and airtunes to work at the same time, only now neither works well. The connection to my speakers cuts out every few minutes, simultaneously disconnecting from the internet. This is driving me nuts. Does anyone know how I can get this to stop?
Thanks,
Peter

Airtunes konks out after sleep?

Setup: iMac G4 connected to the internet via a router. I use the Airport Express solely for AirTunes, not as a network connection. I've downloaded and installed the latest software and firmware updates for everything I could find.
iTunes and Airport Express work great--until I put the iMac to sleep. After it wakes up, the speaker selector in the iTunes window shows the Airport Express name dimmed (italicized), and playback won't work. My workaround is to launch Airport Setup Assistant and choose "Change Settings on an existing Airport." Once the assistant has identified the network and found the base station, the Airport becomes available again in iTunes.
Help?
iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

I've been having the same problem and I just found a fix that is working for me. Using iTunes 8, an Airport Extreme, and a new Airport Express, iTunes would stream to the Express but would cut out for a second every 5 seconds or so. I found an application called Autobahn (http://www.getautobahn.com/) that I observed grabbing some network activity. I uninstalled it and the problem disappeared. The file won't show up in a Spotlight search, it is invisible. If it's on your Mac, there's an uninstaller located in USER/Library/Application Support/Swarmcast (that's where it is in 10.5.5). Good luck!

AirTunes drops out only when I have visitors

My AirTunes works great most of the time. But as soon as I have a few people over, it starts cutting out randomly, enough that I have to turn it off. Several of my friends have decided to use other technologies to play music without CDs as a result. Meanwhile, what can I do? Is it their cell phones? Is it just interference from human bodies?
I have interference robustness checked.

Thanks for your post. My network is like this:
In my office, I have an old (2004?) Airport base station connected by ethernet to a cable modem, and by USB to a printer. Clients using this network for internet access include my pre-Intel PowerMac (in the office, running iTunes), my 2002 Flat Panel iMac running 10.3.x (in the kitchen, connected via aftermarket USB wireless dongle), and my wife's new-ish MacBook Pro (OS 10.5.7). Between the base station and the Airport Express (802.11n) is one wall, but in that wall is a fireplace with lots of brick and stone. Direct distance is about 25 feet.
I'm running the network as b/g compatible. The base station is configured as "create wireless network" and the express is configured as "join wireless network." Using channel 11. WEP 128 bit security. Multicast rate 11 Mbps. Transmit power 100%. No cordless phones or baby monitors in the house. Am I missing any details?

AirTunes cutting out

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