Scott G Sanders

iTunes 8 and AirPort Express Fix

Ok, It took me a little bit to figure out why iTunes 8 (8.0.1 and 8.0.2) will no longer stream to my AirPort Express (6.3 Firmware).  I searched the Apple forums and the Net, but did not find any solutions.  My Apple Airport Express was connnected with the green light and iTunes allowed me to select it, but there would be no audio coming from my home theatre. 

Last night I went through with the AirPort Utility and reconfigured the AirPort Express and to double check my firmware was up to date.  After sleeping on it I decided to see what I could do in the iTunes prefereces. 

I found a solution (workaround)!!!!

  1. Open up preferences and under the devices uncheck Look for remote speakers with AirTunes.
  2. Hit OK and Close iTunes.
  3. Open iTunes and go back to your preferences and check Look for remote speakers with AirTunes.
  4. Hit OK and you should be set to stream to your AirPort Express

So, it seems the issue has to do with iTunes, not your AirPort Express. 

iTunes 8.0.1  and 8.0.2 still an issue.

I am running Microsoft Vista Home Premium.

I’ve noticed this happening everytime my Apple Airport Express gets unplugged while iTunes is running.

I have not had any issues with iTunes 9.x.x.


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36 responses to “iTunes 8 and AirPort Express Fix”

  1. susu Avatar
    susu

    i’m not sure if this is a stupid question but,
    does iTunes 8 have the ministore [you know, the bar tht’d appear on the bottom of iTunes with the mini vs of the itunes store lols]

  2. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Thank you soooo much for solving what appears to be a lack of testing on Apple’s part. I had so many problems getting airport express working, that this glitch made me sick until I red your post. You should put it on the apple forums if you haven’t already.

  3. Scott Avatar

    susu, I do not think the mini store is still around. However, I only looked for a few minutes as I never used this feature in previous versions. There are recommendations offered in the Genius Sidebar.

    Chris, feel free to post a link to this entry on the apple forums site.

  4. adam Avatar
    adam

    awesome. out of all the other ‘fixes’ I found online, this is the only one that has worked for me… thank you for sharing.

  5. DrUrsus Avatar
    DrUrsus

    Do this to allow an airport express to work with iTunes 8. If you have tiger, go to system preferences > Firewall > choose new > other > UDP Port 6002 For the description name it Airport Express Fix? You are basically allowing Incoming UDP at Port 6002, the rest will be blocked (UDP that is). You can also go to advanced and uncheck block UDP traffic, but I would do the above first. You may also want to add iTunes Music sharing by checking the box to the left of it.

    I don’t have leopard, but I think it is easier. In the firewall just allow iTunes. Most of the problems like these are due access via firewall. Don’t believe me? Turn off the firewall, and you will see iTunes streaming no problem to the Airport Express. There are some people with different problems, like needing to upgrade their airport firmware etc. I can’t believe Apple let this happen. I am pissed about it. I have a computer science degree, and used to be a software engineer, but became a doctor, plus, I just switched to a Mac 2 years ago, so I am not as familiar with it. If anyone who knows what they are doing out there sees a problem with my UDP fix, please let everyone know.

  6. ben Avatar
    ben

    YOU’RE the BEST
    thanks a lot mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    that makes 1 week that i have been looking on all forums and the solution was as easy as that!!!!
    By the way i even did not upgrade my airport utility firmware because the new one doesn’t work well with my gearbox it does work even with the 5.3.1
    thankssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

  7. DrUrsus Avatar
    DrUrsus

    I’m here to help. I had to figure this thing out myself, so I wanted to share the wealth 😉 I hope more people read my post. I’m glad it worked for you.

  8. Eddie Avatar

    We have one OS X (10.5.5) computer and one Vista laptop both with iTunes 8 and both machines used to be able to access our AirPort Express.

    After the iTunes update, only the Mac can access the airport. The Vista machine’s iTunes doesn’t see the AP Express. We tried the solution you provided, but it doesn’t seem to work. Is your iTunes running on a Mac or Pc?

  9. Scott Avatar

    Eddie,
    I am running Vista home Premium. iTunes 8 saw my AirPort Express, but when I choose to stream to my AirPort Express there was no audio. Your issue on your Vista laptop does not match my issue. I would suggest resetting your AirPort Express and possibly running the AirPort Utility and reinstalling the firmware. This might just “shock” the system.

  10. ben Avatar
    ben

    hi it’s Ben again
    the issue repeated again and now i can’t repair it i tried everything reinstalling
    itunes 8 etc but back to the same situation i reinstalled the latest version of airport utility 5.3.2
    i m on windows XP sp3 & didnot change anything since friday but i don’t know why it won’t work
    i have a green light on airport express & i can see it in utility but no sound
    no particular message in itunes as well
    that’s getting me crazy!!!!!!!
    HELP PLEASE!!!!!!
    thanks beforehand

  11. Scott Avatar

    ben. That is the same situation I had. Try the steps in the original post. Make sure you close iTunes after you unvheck look for airtines speakers.

  12. TimoS Avatar
    TimoS

    I have access to Airport but not to my remote speakers. I tried to uncheck “Look for remote speakers with AirTunes”, then closed iTunes, opened it again and then checked again “Look for remote speakers with AirTunes”. No help.

    I have Mac OS 10.4…

  13. linda Avatar
    linda

    THE only tip that actually worked! Thank you for that Scott! Why can’t apple simply put this on their pages??

    Now any tips for getting the printer back online again ( plugged into airport!)

  14. Scott Avatar

    I always unplug my AirPort Express when I am not using it mainly because it gets warm, see my previous APE fix. So, as a result it seems I must follow this procedure each and every time I want to stream my tunes. It appears that it is an issue with the APE going off the network. I did not have this issue in iTunes 7.x and I hope it gets addressed in the next 8.x release.

  15. linda Avatar
    linda

    alas scott, your fix worked beautifully for 1 song, then crackled out again….despite a few retries- it doesn’t work for long….and still no printer working, despite it being found in airport utility….

  16. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Voila! After a week of searching… your solution worked. I’m actually running iTunes 8.0.1, and it STILL exhibits problems… I finally was able to select the Airtunes speaker (with 8.0 I was not even able to do that) and by unchecking/checking the box, I’m listening to music as I write this. Thank you.

  17. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Let me add that Apple is really slipping on the one thing that separated them from the rest of the PC industry… usability. It’s sad to experience such problems… they only have around 30 products to QA! They need to step up the quality assurance.

  18. Jehan Avatar
    Jehan

    Thanks! Worked for me!

  19. Justanother Avatar
    Justanother

    Thanks for the tip. Worked fine.

    Some keywords for others looking this: My speakers works worked in os x, but not in Windows and this blog sloved the no sound / no audio problem in Windows.

  20. john Avatar
    john

    Santa’s gonna leave a little something extra under your tree this year Scott. Tunes are back on and life’s back to normal. You’ve just been bookmarked!
    THX

  21. James Avatar
    James

    Ben

    Did you manage to figure out why you have no sound? I have the latest iTunes and a brand new Airport Express on my XP PC and it has just stopped working. The issue is very similar to what you are/were experiencing. i.e. everything looks fine (green light, able to select remote speakers etc) but I just don’t get any sound.

    Any help is appreciated!

  22. Volker Avatar
    Volker

    WOW – great …. i almost went crazy with this bug… 🙁 but hopefully solved

  23. Kerry Avatar
    Kerry

    Hi
    I have itunes 8 on my mac osX10.4, set up to two airport express devices, to stereos iun lounge and bedroom. After some trial and error I have now eliminated my problem I had where every song played in itunes (via airport, or streamed from itunes radio selections via airport) was skipping on the second airport setup. Annoying to say the least. I had to swap airport express devices to each others location. The second device is newer than the original that I had in the lounge. Once swapped and renamed via Airport utility, all works fine except itunes still shows the old names/setup so now I have to choose ‘bedroom” for the “lounge” and “lounge” for the “bedroom” from itunes selection popup. I cannot figure out how to get itunes to recognise the newly named devices as being correct. All else hunky dory. Any ideas? Do I delete itunes preferences and rebuild/restart it?
    any ideas welcome
    thanks

  24. Kevin Barrow Avatar

    My thanks to you — I was having the same “it should be working; why isn’t it?” problem, and your tip to restart iTunes solved it!

  25. David Halbach Avatar
    David Halbach

    Thank you very much, the upgrade apparently unchecked the remote speakers on my Mac and I couldn’t figure it out. Thanks again

  26. Rolo Avatar
    Rolo

    Nice workaround. Simple and effective. Only unfortunate that it is needed in the first place.

    As a PC user, I’m quite used to ‘just turn it off and back on’ type of solutions. Is Apple that way too? Maybe this does not happen to Mac users. In any event I will open up the UDP port as suggested by the Bear to see what happens.

    Thanks again for sharing the solution.

  27. Morse, Barnes-Brown Pendleton Avatar

    Doesn’t seem to make a difference in iTunes 8.1.1

    1. Scott Avatar

      I am not sure what to tell you. I am using the latest public version of iTunes ver. 8.1.1.10 and this still works for me. I wish you luck as this is very annoying.

  28. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    I’m an 8.1.1 user – I had to do it twice for it to work.

    Thanks for the help!

  29. aidan Avatar
    aidan

    on a macbook, try connecting with the power cable plugged in — sounds crazy, but worked for me. see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9963428#9963428

  30. Raleigh Avatar
    Raleigh

    I had XP and Airport express, and streamed music fine. I just purchased a Vista 64bit, the setup that is 4X faster than my OLD setup, and now the sound is glitching on the airport express, but flawless on the PC speakers… Any suggestions? I may return the computer. Vista is not worth the hassle and I doubt that 7 will be any better.

  31. Jake Avatar
    Jake

    I didn’t have the Airport Express problem with iTunes 8 but I just up(down)graded to 9 (actually 9.0.1) and the drop down menu is missing from the lower right corner of iTunes. I tried your workaround but without the menu I can’t toggle from computer to Airtunes. Any suggestions?

    1. Scott Avatar

      Jake,
      Did you uncheck, close iTunes and recheck the Look For remote speakers connected to AirTunes? under the devices tab in iTunes preferences?

      The other option is to reset your AirPort Express. It could be that is is not truely connectable.

  32. Jake Avatar
    Jake

    Yep. Did that then updated my firmware for the Airport Express but this version of iTunes (9.0.1) no longer shows a drop down menu for the “computer/airtunes” option. I started having problems with the last version (8.whatever.it.was) with the signal dropping out occasionally but at least it did have the airtunes option. back in the good ol’ days of iTunes 7 it worked beautifully. I wish I hadn’t up?graded.

    1. Scott Avatar

      Jake, Sorry, but I am at a loss. Can you see your AirPort Express listed as a device on your router’s setup page?

  33. […] iTunes 8 and AirPort Express Fix September 200835 comments 4 […]

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