AirPlay Q&A

No sound? No picture? No hope? These answers to frequently asked AirPlay questions will help

QAirPlay just isn’t working.

AIf your Mac, iPhone or iPad isn’t doing anything when you attempt to AirPlay audio or video and you didn’t have problems previously, the most likely culprit is a Wi-Fi glitch – so the first step is to toggle Wi-Fi off and back on again.

Still no joy? Reboot your router, the device you’re trying to stream from and the device you’re trying to stream to.

QI’ve got a picture but no sound.

AThis is often caused by something really simple that’s easy to do by accident; having the volume on the destination device turned off or muted, or having toggled your iPhone or iPad’s Silent Mode on with the Ring/Silent Switch.

If you can see orange on the switch, your phone or iPad is currently muted. Simply flick the switch to unmute it.

QI’ve got sound but no video on my TV.

AIf you’re seeing an icon and title on screen but no video, you’re only streaming the audio from your Mac; use the AirPlay icon inside the video app or in the YouTube clip in Safari instead. Otherwise, try toggling AirPlay off and on (if you’re using an Apple TV) or turning your TV off (completely off, not standby mode) and back on again.

QMy audio stops unexpectedly.

AIf it’s not a Wi-Fi congestion problem, this can happen when your Home app has been set up to use a specific HomePod, Apple TV or AirPlay speaker as its main audio source. Even if that device isn’t currently playing audio, if someone asks Siri or another app to do something on that device it may then pause playback everywhere else in your home.