Under The Microscope

Airfoil & Apple TV Users Should Avoid tvOS 10.2

Update (May 18th, 2017): Airfoil for Mac 5.6 restores direct streaming to all models of Apple TV. Get the latest version now from the Airfoil page. It is now safe to update your Apple TV to the latest tvOS.

Update (September 25th, 2017): Airfoil for Windows 5.2 and above restore full Apple TV compatibility as well. Grab the latest from the Airfoil for Windows page.


Summary: To prevent loss of connectivity with Airfoil, Apple TV users should not upgrade to tvOS 10.2 at this time.

On March 27th, Apple released tvOS 10.2 for the latest generation of Apple TV. Changes made by Apple in this update have broken Airfoil’s ability to transmit audio to the newest generation of Apple TV. This issue affects both Airfoil for Mac and Airfoil for Windows, and prevents Airfoil from successfully sending audio to the Apple TV. If your Apple TV is still running tvOS 10.1.1 (or lower), stick with that for now to maintain connectivity with Airfoil.

Next Steps

We’re currently researching this problem, and hope to work around Apple’s changes with a future update. In the meantime, Airfoil users should avoid tvOS 10.2, sticking with their current version of tvOS instead. Be sure to disable automatic updates on the Apple TV as well. You can do this by going to Settings -> System -> Software Updates, and toggling “Automatically Update” to Off.

More to Come

We’ll post more news as soon as we have it, so watch this blog, as well as our Twitter account. When a new version is available, Airfoil itself can alert you, so be sure Software Update is on in the Preferences.

6 Responses to “Airfoil & Apple TV Users Should Avoid tvOS 10.2”

  1. Mr blob says:

    Airparrot apparently works as they updated their software to support the new OS weeks ago. Maybe you should have found this out in the beta version.


  2. Dave says:

    This seems like a huge oversight and warning would have been nice. I use(d) Air Foil on a regular basis AND use auto update on Apple TV (I guess it is my fault). I do hope you fix soon.


  3. Chris says:

    Same here. AirFoil and Spotify are the core of my family’s music experience. I’m sure you’ll get around it.

    Cheers!

    ps – I’m happy to test possible fixes.


  4. Robert says:

    I was out of town this week. Got home yesterday and received a popup from AirFoil, but when I looked at my AppleTV, it was too late – already updated to 10.2. Since others have found a way around this, I hope you guys can do so too. And quickly since I was using AirFoil to stream music to my ATV daily…


  5. Frank T says:

    Thank you for the warning! I saw the notice you put in Airfoil when I opened it and went to turn off updating in the AppleTV itself so for now I’m okay. Hopefully you get this working soon!


  6. Paul Kafasis says:

    Mr blob: Thank you for your feedback. While it would be nice to instantly have the fix we need, that is unfortunately not the reality of the situation. We remain hard at work on getting this sorted.

    Dave: Unfortunately, I’m not sure what more we could have done. We tweeted and blogged about this, in addition to placing an alert inside Airfoil itself. When Apple breaks things with little or no warning, we don’t have a lot of control.

    Chris: Thanks for the encouragement! 8)

    Robert: It may still be possible to downgrade back to tvOS 10.1.1 if you desire. Otherwise, watch for more news.

    Frank T: Glad we could assist in the short-term. Watch for more.


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