AirPlay won't connect on Sequoia 15.2 with Firewall active

[ElGrandeMoskus]

15.2 comes with a bonus Christmas bug! Hooray.

I can't connect to my ancient AirPort Express unless I turn the Firewall off on my Mac (M1, MacBook Air).

The Airport Express is connected by ethernet, all looks the same.

I get a standard fail notification ("Network connection failed").

The Music app has connections permitted on the Firewall rules, I haven't changed anything.

Anyone got anything to fix this? I'm not shy of Terminal or whatever, but I'm stumped.

Edit: I've just turned off the firewall for now, and hope I remember to turn it on when I connect to a public network or download things... not ideal, really...

 

[Xyth]

I'm experiencing the same problem, but with a Denon stereo using Airplay. Only connects when the Firewall is disabled.

 

[MikeTR3]

Same here with MacMini M1, can’t use AirPlay, airport utility shows no issues. Had to turn firewall off.

 

[buckt0wn]

100& same issue.
Has somebody find a solution for that, that we can use AirPlay with active Firewall?

➜  ~ /usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --getglobalstate &&
/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --getblockall &&
/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --getallowsigned &&
/usr/libexec/ApplicationFirewall/socketfilterfw --getstealthmode

# Output
Firewall is disabled. (State = 0)
Firewall has block all state set to disabled.
Automatically allow built-in signed software ENABLED.
Automatically allow downloaded signed software ENABLED.
Firewall stealth mode is off

 

[Xyth]

Solved the problem, for me at least.

I use an app called Radio Silence, which adds a content filter to Settings > Network > Filters. Disabling Radio Silence in app had no effect but once I disabled it in Settings I'm able to use AirPlay again with the Firewall enabled.

I don't know if the issue is with Radio Silence specifically or with Network Filters in general, but might be worth checking if you guys have any installed and whether disabling them helps at all.

 

[JohannesO]

Same here. Disabling Network-Filter (Little Snitch) didn’t help, only disabling firewall.

 

[ispcolohost]

I just had this issue after updating my m4 mini to 15.4, talking to a Sonos. I could see my Sonos Amp but airplay would fail to play to it. It failed whether firewall was on or off. I do use a vlan tagged network interface, but that's been the way for a long time. Chatgpt gave me some useful troubleshooting steps, such as:

List all the mDNS devices:

dns-sd -B _airplay._tcp

This showed all six of my Sonos Amps around the house, and other Airplay things like a Denon receiver.

A command to query the device using its mDNS name:

dns-sd -L "Office Amp" _airplay._tcp

Lookup Office Amp._airplay._tcp.local
DATE: ---Fri 11 Apr 2025---
 8:07:22.507  ...STARTING...
 8:07:22.617  Office\032Amp._airplay._tcp.local. can be reached at Sonos-F0F6C1111111.local.:7000 (interface 7)
 acl=0 deviceid=F0:F6:C1:11:11:11 features=0x445F8A00,0x1C340 rsf=0x0 fv=p20.84.1-63251 flags=0x4 model=Amp manufacturer=Sonos serialNumber=F0-F6-C1-11-11-11:2 protovers=1.1 srcvers=366.0 pi=F0:F6:C1:11:11:11 gid=F0:F6:C1:11:11:11 gcgl=0 pk=...

Attempt a connection:

nc -vz Sonos-F0F6C1111111B.local 7000
Connection to Sonos-F0F6C1111111.local port 7000 [tcp/afs3-fileserver] succeeded!

And then finally to try killing the airplay helper and audio daemon:

sudo killall AirPlayXPCHelper
sudo killall coreaudiod

That final part resolved it for me, with firewall still on.