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Airplay Dropping Audio on Airport Express

D

DanielCalladine

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 19, 2008
59
0
Sydney
Hello,

I've been using an older Airport Express (A1264) for 5 years and it's just started dropping the audio. I'm streaming audio to it via a 5 year old TimeCapsule (A1355) from a Macbook or iPad or iPhone and it is still dropping out so I can only think that the problem is either the TimeCapsule or Airport Express.

They are both using the latest firmware and nothing has changed recently to cause this dropping out.

Is there anyway of working out if its the TimeCapsule or Airport Express. I don't mind replacing either if necessary as they're a bit old now but don't want to if they're working okay.

Thanks for any help you can give, Thanks, Daniel
 
DanielCalladine said:
Hello,

I've been using an older Airport Express (A1264) for 5 years and it's just started dropping the audio. I'm streaming audio to it via a 5 year old TimeCapsule (A1355) from a Macbook or iPad or iPhone and it is still dropping out so I can only think that the problem is either the TimeCapsule or Airport Express.

They are both using the latest firmware and nothing has changed recently to cause this dropping out.

Is there anyway of working out if its the TimeCapsule or Airport Express. I don't mind replacing either if necessary as they're a bit old now but don't want to if they're working okay.

Thanks for any help you can give, Thanks, Daniel
Click to expand...
Are there any internet dropouts or the base stations disappearing?
 
are there any new wireless devices in the house? not necessarily wi-fi
cordless phone, baby monitors, stuff like that.
any new blu-tooth items

anything move? or change?
New larger TV that's now covering the express.
 
Altemose said:
Are there any internet dropouts or the base stations disappearing?
Click to expand...

No everything else seems fine. I have noticed that the Airplay icon in iTunes turns orange with a note that says Airplay Device missing, so it looks like the Airport Express is dropping it's connection/

----------
waw74 said:
are there any new wireless devices in the house? not necessarily wi-fi
cordless phone, baby monitors, stuff like that.
any new blu-tooth items

anything move? or change?
New larger TV that's now covering the express.
Click to expand...

There aren't any other wireless devices in the house and we're out in the suburbs here so there's only a couple of weak wifi signals from neighbours.

Thanks for the replies though.
 
DanielCalladine said:
No everything else seems fine. I have noticed that the Airplay icon in iTunes turns orange with a note that says Airplay Device missing, so it looks like the Airport Express is dropping it's connection/

----------



There aren't any other wireless devices in the house and we're out in the suburbs here so there's only a couple of weak wifi signals from neighbours.

Thanks for the replies though.
Click to expand...

Try downgrading to 7.6.1 on the Express. It seems to be a more robust firmware.
 
5 years is a long time for a router. I had an old Airport Express/Airplay (wall plug type) fail on me - its constantly restarting every 30 seconds.
So it may be a hardware issue.

The only way to tell is to get a new refurbished AE (http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC414LL/A/airport-express-base-station-june-2012) for $75 and see if it works then.
If not it may be time for a new TC.

I assume you did the factory reset on both devices and set them up fresh.
 
eduardrw said:
5 years is a long time for a router. I had an old Airport Express/Airplay (wall plug type) fail on me - its constantly restarting every 30 seconds.
So it may be a hardware issue.

The only way to tell is to get a new refurbished AE (http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC414LL/A/airport-express-base-station-june-2012) for $75 and see if it works then.
If not it may be time for a new TC.

I assume you did the factory reset on both devices and set them up fresh.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I did get a new one and it does seems to have fixed the problem. The new one is a huge improvement over the old Airport Express.

I'm wondering now if I would see an equally big improvement by replacing my 3rd gen. TimeCapsule with the current one, in terms of wireless performance.

Thanks, Daniel
 
DanielCalladine said:
Thanks for the advice, I did get a new one and it does seems to have fixed the problem. The new one is a huge improvement over the old Airport Express.



I'm wondering now if I would see an equally big improvement by replacing my 3rd gen. TimeCapsule with the current one, in terms of wireless performance.



Thanks, Daniel
Click to expand...


A new Time Capsule probably would really make a difference.
 
Altemose said:
A new Time Capsule probably would really make a difference.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I should get one now.

If I were to keep my old 3rd Gen Time Capsule for backups and connect it to a new Airport Extreme would it work as well as a new Time Capsule, or would it be better to just get a new Time Capsule?
 
DanielCalladine said:
Thanks, I think I should get one now.



If I were to keep my old 3rd Gen Time Capsule for backups and connect it to a new Airport Extreme would it work as well as a new Time Capsule, or would it be better to just get a new Time Capsule?
Click to expand...


It would work but you understand the risks of such an old hard drive in the TC. You could get a new Extreme and a USB hard drive as Time Machine is officially supported on the new ones.
 
DanielCalladine said:
Hello,

I've been using an older Airport Express (A1264) for 5 years and it's just started dropping the audio. I'm streaming audio to it via a 5 year old TimeCapsule (A1355) from a Macbook or iPad or iPhone and it is still dropping out so I can only think that the problem is either the TimeCapsule or Airport Express.

They are both using the latest firmware and nothing has changed recently to cause this dropping out.

Is there anyway of working out if its the TimeCapsule or Airport Express. I don't mind replacing either if necessary as they're a bit old now but don't want to if they're working okay.

Thanks for any help you can give, Thanks, Daniel
Click to expand...
I have just started having this exact problem. I have the same model AE but have an AEBS (newer but not newest) instead of a TC. Never used to be a problem. Going to buy a new AE and see if it solves the problem. Will post back here with the outcome.
 
Curious to see how all this turned out for you guys, as I'm having a very similar issue. I'm using a 4 year old Airport Express for Airplaying music, and the audio tends to cut out for a few seconds here and there before resuming. The music itself doesn't pause, but picks back up a few seconds later after going silent for a few seconds. This happens constantly and it's really annoying, and it happens no matter which device I'm Airplaying from (devices include an iPhone 6s, an iPad mini 2, and a 2014 Macbook Pro 15").

My setup is a bit unusual so it may be part of the problem. I'm temporarily living with roommates for the year, and they already had their own brand new Airport Extreme (latest generation) for their wifi network. I came along with my own Airport Time Capsule and wanted to continue using it for my backups, but didn't want to do anything to their Airport Extreme, so I just plugged it in and am using it in bridge mode. It's working fine for backups, but now I'm wondering if it could possibly be causing some type of interference that I don't know about? I'm completely clueless when it comes to networking issues so any thoughts would be appreciated!!

Edit: Just looked up my Airport Express's serial and saw that it's actually an Airport Express 802.11n (1st generation) model, purchased in Dec. 2009. :confused: Didn't even realize it was that old! Maybe that's part of the problem, too...
 
Last edited:
Actually never mind, this article explained it quite well. As the article said, downgrading is actually stupidly easy. Seriously, I was expecting it to be way more convoluted than this.

Thanks again for the tip, I'll post again once I've had some time to test it.
 
boston04and07 said:
Thanks again for the tip, I'll post again once I've had some time to test it.
Click to expand...

Sounds good! While I am not going to promise that 7.6.1 will make a difference, in my experience it did have some reliability advantages when wirelessly connected to another AP as well as when being used in bridge mode.
 
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