It seems to be normal for certain AirPlay devices (such as AirPort Express) to show up with local link lP addresses. This does not preclude them from working, however.
That said, there are still apparently some remaining issues with AirPlay that Roon is still working on after some recent bugs. You might be falling victim to those issues, it appears. I will note, however, that the zones should be able to be enabled, and should stay enabled. I haven’t seen a problem with that on my variety of AirPlay devices, even with the ones that display local link addresses.
Thomas, I don’t see your participation in this thread, perhaps because it was never approved for others to see:
In your original post you stated:
Beyond that, today you stated:
Can you clarify a little bit of the current state of these zones in your setup? Are they no longer disappearing?
Also…you have two usernames on these forums, which might not be in your best interest. To get support, you should post to Support using the login associated with your Roon credentials.
first, many thanks for the feedback about the two usernames. Not ideal, but happened.
Regarding the state of the zones; I’ve selected the best suited options on the forms and the link I’ve received from the sales support didn’t allow me to enter free text.
So, current situation: I see the zone, it is enabled and it shows it’s name and below “via Airplay 2, 169.254.x.x”. So it shows the Airport Express with the Link Local address. Responses to a mDNS request comes back with:
These are no zones. I just showed the mDNS response for the airport express device, which is has the hostname ae-wohnzimmer. It has one properly DHCP assigned IP address, but there is also - as far as I know standard for airport devices - the link local address. Unfortunatly roon picks up this link local address.
When trying to playback on that device, the playback does not start, counter does not move, and it goes back to paused/stopped after 20 Sec (roughly).
This is the log line I see when trying to playback which also shows that roon tries to use the link local address:
When I hit play the “signal path” lights up in green. Pause button appears, but timer does not start. When I move the slider, the timer updates. Either when playback has already started or if I start it at the new position, nothing happens and after ~20 second the pause button disapears, the play button shows and the signal path indicator turns grey.
Thanks for reaching out with your query. In the past when we have seen similar issues, it was related to the firmware version on the Apple Express. Can you please confirm what firmware version you have installed? Have you tried enabling Airplay Compatability Mode in Device Setup, and if so, has that triggered any change in behavior?
Thanks for that information, I have noted this in the investigation ticket. Do you by any chance have any settings related to a PIN being required for your Airport? According to this post it seems like the setting might be Airport Utility → Music → Password.
Yes, I have a PIN set for Airplay playback. Each time when I deactivate the zone and re-activate it again, I need to enter the password/pin. Entering the correct password activates the zone, link local address is always shown.