Apple’s tvOS 27 and HomePod OS 27 updates contain a bug which breaks the ability of Apple TVs and HomePods to play AirPlay streams sent by Airfoil. This page provides more information on this issue, as well as alternate options for getting audio streaming from your Mac to your AirPlay devices.
Apple’s recent tvOS 27 and HomePod OS 27 updates prevent AirPlay 1 connections from working correctly, including those attempted by Airfoil. As a result, Airfoil will fail if you attempt to stream to Apple TVs running tvOS 27 or HomePods running HomePod OS 27. Instead of streaming audio to the device, an error will be displayed.
We’ve labored to work around this issue, thus far without success. Ultimately, the bug here is on Apple’s end. and we've reported this issue to them. We also encourage affected Airfoil users to report the problem through Apple’s Feedback forms for the Apple TV and HomePod. You can reference our bug report (Feedback Report #FB24452968) in your feedback.
We remain hopeful that Apple will correct the bug in their software. Once they do, Airfoil will again be able to send to Apple TVs and HomePods as before.
You can work around this issue with our free Airfoil Satellite for Apple TV app. Just download it to your Apple TV, then open it. Once you do, you’ll see Airfoil Satellite on the Apple TV appear as an output in Airfoil.
You can then stream your desired audio to it. That audio will play as expected through the Apple TV's default output.
At present, there is no workaround available for using Airfoil to stream to HomePods which have been updated to HomePod OS 27.
You may wish to replace Airfoil with SoundSource to stream via AirPlay. For more details, see “SoundSource provides an alternate option for streaming from your Mac” at the bottom of this page.
If your Apple TV has not yet been updated to tvOS 27, or your HomePod has not yet been updated to HomePod OS 27, it will continue to play streams from Airfoil just fine. To retain that functionality, you may wish to prevent the device from updating its operating system. using instructions below.
To prevent your Apple TV’s software from being updated automatically, adjust settings on the Apple TV itself.
Open Settings on your Apple TV.
Scroll to System and click to enter.
Scroll to Software Updates and click to enter.
Scroll to Automatically Update, then click to toggle this to Off.
This change will prevent your Apple TV from automatically updating to the new, problematic tvOS version. If you have multiple Apple TVs, be sure to repeat this process on each one. That will ensure you can continue streaming from your Mac to your Apple TV(s) with Airfoil.
To prevent your HomePod’s software from being updated automatically, use the “Home” app on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad.
Open the Home app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Click or tap the More button (the (…) three dots icon) in the Home tab.
Select Home Settings from the menu.
Click or tap on Software Update.
Under the Automatic Updates section, turn off the switch next to HomePod.
This change will prevent any and all HomePods you have from automatically updating to the new, problematic HomePod OS version. That will ensure you can continue streaming from your Mac to your HomePod(s) with Airfoil.
While we hope Apple will issue updates to tvOS 27 and HomePod OS 27 that correct this bug, there's no guarantee on if or when they will do so. With that in mind, you may wish to consider SoundSource as an alternate solution for streaming via AirPlay from your Mac to your Apple hardware.
SoundSource’s AirPlay streaming uses a very different system from Airfoil. It’s built on top of technology provided by MacOS itself, and as a result, SoundSource is not affected by the aforementioned bug. On MacOS 15 and higher, SoundSource is now our recommended solution for streaming to modern AirPlay devices.
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