No sound with Airplay

Troubleshooting
1 
AmpliPro ™
by MicroNova © 2025
Version: 0.4.6
Main Unit Firmware Version: 1.9
Latest: 0.4.6

I’m not sure when it stopped working but currently I cannot get any sound output when using airplay. I’ve tried with 3 different apple devices and they all work on other airplay devices I have but not with the amplipi. The device connects but I get no sound output and there’s only some very quiet clicking when changing volume that is heard. Eventually the apple device will disconnect from airplay but no errors are shown.

I poked around the shairplay config and see it’s using lb1c as the output device but I don’t see that as an alsa device. Is there a config wrong somewhere?

general =
{
  name = "Airplay house speakers"
  port = 5200
  udp_port_base = 6201
  drift = 2000
  resync_threshold = 0
  log_verbosity = 0
  mpris_service_bus = "Session"
};
metadata =
{
  enabled = "yes"
  include_cover_art = "yes"
  cover_art_cache_directory = "/home/pi/.config/amplipi/web/generated/v1"
};
alsa =
{
  output_device = "lb1c"
  audio_backend_buffer_desired_length = 11025

root@amplipi:~# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac], device 0: HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0 [HifiBerry DAC HiFi pcm5102a-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: cmedia8chint [ICUSBAUDIO7D], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Loopback [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 2: Loopback [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 3: Loopback_1 [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 3: Loopback_1 [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 4: Loopback_2 [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 1/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 4: Loopback_2 [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 5: Loopback_3 [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 5: Loopback_3 [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 6: Loopback_4 [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 6: Loopback_4 [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 7: Loopback_5 [Loopback], device 0: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 7: Loopback_5 [Loopback], device 1: Loopback PCM [Loopback PCM]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
2

Welcome to our discourse, soccerties!

Sometimes during startup some ALSA configs don’t load properly, this should be solvable by restarting the unit, either by physically removing the cord in the back or by going to Settings → Configuration → Hardware Reboot

If that doesn’t work, going to the updater and updating to 0.4.6 again by going to Settings → Admin Panel → Older Releases and selecting 0.4.6 from the dropdown menu is another fix as that will replace any screwed up configs

3

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately after both a hard reboot and reinstall of 0.4.6 the issue persists. The stream title changes correctly to what’s playing but no sound is output. The shairplay config is still referencing lb1c even though I don’t see that device in alsa.

I think airplay last worked for me on 0.4.4. I remember having a failure when upgrading to 0.4.5 and had to reinstall it. Not sure if that could have introduced the airplay issue.

Anything else I could look at?

4

Well I downgraded to 0.4.4 and reset everything and from there I got airplay1 streams to work. However airplay2 streams did not work.

Then I upgraded to 0.4.6 and airplay1 still worked and airplay2 still does not. I can live with only using airplay1 so that will work.

I could not determine what changed with the upgrades the only difference I noticed was on 0.4.4 device lb2c is used and on 0.4.6 uses lb1c but it seems both those aliases reference the same device.

5

Good to hear you were able to fix some of the problems. Just a heads up the lbXc you are seeing are configurations that wrap the alsa loopback devices that we use to seamlessly switch between different streams.

I wonder if updating to a new version of shairport-sync may solve your airplay 2 issues. We will have to do some internal testing to see if an update has any drawbacks.