Home AirPlay on AirPort Express 2 problem

[noenken]

Hi there, hope this is the right place for my problem.

I am using an AirPort Express 2 with some cheapo active speakers just for AirPlay. That works fine from iOS devices but my M1 Air doesn't even see the device in the network. The AirPort is wired up to my switch, has wifi disabled and gets it's IP from my PFSense machine over DHCP. From my MacBook I can AirPlay to my Homepods or AppleTV 4K without any issues. But for some reason it won't show me the AirPort as a target.

Any ideas?

 

[waw74]

rebooted everything? Mac, router, wifi devices

if you search for "M1 airplay issues" you get a TON of results, so it might be software related.
the airport is "airplay 1" it's possible the M1 Mac has issues with that.

if you use the app below, you'll be able to see if Mac is seeing the airport, you'll want to open "local -> airplay.tcp". you should see all of your airplay devices listed.
If the airport shows up, then it's an OS X problem
if it doesn't, you've get network issues of some kind.

there's also an iOS version, if you want to see if it shows on your other devices.

‎Discovery - DNS-SD Browser

‎Discovery is a utility that displays all of the Bonjour services available on the local network or on Wide-Area Bonjour domains. Use it to debug your latest program, detect computers connected to your network, or just keep tabs on what services are available. Perfect for network admins or...

apps.apple.com

 

[noenken]

if you use the app below, you'll be able to see if Mac is seeing the airport, you'll want to open "local -> airplay.tcp". you should see all of your airplay devices listed.
If the airport shows up, then it's an OS X problem
if it doesn't, you've get network issues of some kind.

That was a huge help, thank you! I got it working now and I think it was a network setting on the Macbook Air. Specifically I had to turn IPv6 back on. That is something I turn off on almost anything because... "What for? I don't own a planet to spread out a network of that size, right?"

Now, I have to say I think it was IPv6 because after setting it to auto the off option just disappeared. But I tried everything else before without effect so I am relatively confident that it was IPv6.

By the way, the second gen Airport Express actually runs AirPlay2.

And I still don't understand why I was still able to AirPlay audio and even video before without IPv6 to my homepods and Apple TV 4K.
No f...ing idea. But it works now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯