Airplay not working from Mac M1 to Wiim Mini

[Rider]

The problem occurs only from Mac M1 / Monterey. I can Airplay to this Wiim without problems from an iPad. I can also Airplay from this Mac to an Apple Airport Express. I cannot airplay from Mac to Wiim Mini with latest updates. i can see the Wiim on the Mac. I can even connect. But it doesnt play music.

My Wiim Mini has a fixed IP address. All other things work fine. Any ideas?

 

[WiiM Support]

Hi Rider, can you please use the WiiM Home App and select the Device tab > Tap the device setting gear icon > Wi-Fi Status > Turn on the "Enable IPv6" switch? If it still doesn't work for you, please help send a feedback to us via the WiiM App so we can troubleshoot it further. Thank you!

 

[Rider]

Thank you for your answer.

I checked the switch and IP6 was already enabled. I switched it off and on again, did a factory reset but still I cannot airplay from Mac. I restarted the Mac too and now it is even worse: the Mac crashes (restarts) immediately if I try to airplay to the WiiM. There is something very much broken with Mac and WiiM airplay.

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini9,1
Chip: Apple M1
Total Number of Cores: 8 (4 performance and 4 efficiency)
Memory: 16 GB
Mac OS Monterey 12.6.1

 

[Rider]

Ok, I did some research into this problem, and this is what I found out:

First, it is not only related to the WiiM, but other third party products have similar problems with Airplay from Mac. Sonos for example. But not all third party products and no Apple products are affected. That means: WiiM implementation of Airplay could be improved.

The problem shows when the Mac is connected to the router via Ethernet. This causes all kind of problems with Airplay, even crashed the machine. When I remove the cable and switch on Wifi, Airplay works as expected.

It is not possible to have Wifi and Ethernet running at the same time. When Ethernet is plugged in, it will use that. And Ethernet is important when you connect to a NAS and need higher speeds.

So as a result, I cannot Airplay to the WiiM. I will use DLNA instead, but that is not my expected outcome.

 

[perkri]

I have a similar issue also. Very disappointed, as by all accounts, I should be able to stream my iTunes library to the Wiim Pro over a WiFi network. When I try to connect to the Wiim in iTunes, it crashes immediately. I have opened a ticket with their Help center, which has been of no help after 10 days of waiting for a reply... While I can get it to work from my ipad/iphone, the main music library on my Mac, is not accessible.

Says very clearly in all the materials, that it is Airplay compatible. Well, doesn't look like it is.

 

[Rider]

I have a similar issue also. Very disappointed, as by all accounts, I should be able to stream my iTunes library to the Wiim Pro over a WiFi network. When I try to connect to the Wiim in iTunes, it crashes immediately. I have opened a ticket with their Help center, which has been of no help after 10 days of waiting for a reply... While I can get it to work from my ipad/iphone, the main music library on my Mac, is not accessible.

Says very clearly in all the materials, that it is Airplay compatible. Well, doesn't look like it is.

Thank you for your answer. So I'm not alone with this problem.

I used to play the iTunes library with Airplay to my older Airport Express, connected to the amplifier. Never had any problems.

Now I wanted to exchange the Airport Express with the WiiM. Better and newer hardware and software. This is when the problems started.

I don't have any solution now except not using Airplay from my Mac.

I do have a Plex server running on the Mac for streaming videos. Plex can also be used as a DLNA server. Switch it on in settings and point the iTunes Music Library to Plex.

Plex will index the music library and after this, the music is available for the WiiM. It is not exactly the solution I wanted, but at least I can stream directly from Mac to WiiM. You can use the WiiM-App for this.

I hope a future update will remove the bugs so that we can stream via Airplay as it is supposed to work.

 

[perkri]

One would think this would be a straight forward thing to set up for them. Looks like I'm getting a NAS sooner than later

 

[DryTortuga]

While there may be a bug in the WiiM airplay implementation, there are lots of M1 users that have reported airplay issues to a variety of third party devices (like Sonos). This could also be a Mac OS bug. Have you submitted an issue with Apple? Have you tried turning off WMM on your router if supported? (A lot of users says this fixes the issue). Have you tried upgrading to Ventura (OS13)?

 

[daniel.jay]

I am in the same boat - can stream from iPhone but not Mac to Wiims. For what it's worth, Airfoil works perfectly, so you're basically just relying on some third party software to do the airplay implementation correctly.

 

[Pcryan5]

FWIW - (not much methinks) it does work M1 / Ethernet to WiiM PRO via airplay

 

[WiiM Support]

I am in the same boat - can stream from iPhone but not Mac to Wiims. For what it's worth, Airfoil works perfectly, so you're basically just relying on some third party software to do the airplay implementation correctly.

Hi Daniel,

If your MAC is using the Ethernet, please try to use the WiFi instead. We found the PTP protocol (used by AirPlay 2) sometimes doesn't work reliably when MAC is connected to network via the Ethernet on MAC. Please give it a try and let us know if it works for you. If you still have problem, please send us a feedback so we can troubleshoot this further for you. Thank you!

 

[laurenell]

Same issue - M1 Mac, Ventura - airplay doesn't see the Wiim mini - actually it did see it once, but couldn't connect, usually it's simply not listed. I can use the Wiim Mac app and play other music sources through it just fine. Weird. BTW - tapping feedback in the app itself crashes it. Any chance the Wiim Pro is any better?

 

[daniel.jay]

Hi Daniel,

If your MAC is using the Ethernet, please try to use the WiFi instead. We found the PTP protocol (used by AirPlay 2) sometimes doesn't work reliably when MAC is connected to network via the Ethernet on MAC. Please give it a try and let us know if it works for you. If you still have problem, please send us a feedback so we can troubleshoot this further for you. Thank you!

I never saw this reply. I can confirm that your solution works - by disabling ethernet and turning on wifi, I can stream from Apple Music directly to the WiiM. It's important to note that AirFoil can do this without having to disable ethernet. Also, it's not really an acceptable solution as it precludes using the much faster hardwired connection.

 

[Brantome]

Also, it's not really an acceptable solution as it precludes using the much faster hardwired connection.

Surely bandwidth isn’t really an issue when streaming audio? A 24/192 track is barely 8Mbps. Perhaps Ethernet is more resilient, but speed surely shouldn’t come into it.

 

[daniel.jay]

That may be true for purposes of streaming audio alone, but we're talking about having to turn off the ethernet connection entirely, which for my media center mac is not a workable solution.

 

[Pcryan5]

FWIW - i use Ethernet and WiFi on my M1 Mac without any issues noted to date. What data flows where I have no insight to.

 

[daniel.jay]

Service order of network devices is set in the Network pref panel. Having both on may work for you, for my media center I want to route all traffic via the wired ethernet. I'm not familiar w/ any way to route only streaming audio from Music via wifi.

 

[Pcryan5]

Service order of network devices is set in the Network pref panel. Having both on may work for you, for my media center I want to route all traffic via the wired ethernet. I'm not familiar w/ any way to route only streaming audio from Music via wifi.

Well live and learn! Thanks Daniel.

 

[Raul Duke]

Mac Mini 2020 M1 Mac OS X Ventura 13.4.1 My Wiim Mini Just stopped being able to connect Wiim Mini via wifi at all. Used it every day this just happened in the last few days if that helps track this down. Does anyone have a solution short of having to buy a Wiim Mini pro hooked up via Ethernet ?

Thanks in advance
Raul

 

[Bonky]

Sorry to hear about your problems. I have a M2 MacMini and a Wiim Pro connected via ethernet and a Wiim mini connected via Wireless.

Both work; (so I 'm not going to be able to help you much am I - but just to say it CAN work). I use Apple Music. I'm sure you've done it but have you tried to connect to the Wiim devices using Apple's control panel (rather than via the Apple Music panel)?