AirPlay receiver must be set as source repeatedly

[alexthegreat100]

What version of Music Assistant has the issue?

2.7.2

How is the MA server installed?

Home Assistant OS Addon

Carefully read the Troubleshooting FAQ and confirm that

• I have examined the logs and tried to resolve this issue
• I have fixed any errors in the logs that relate to tags
• I am not running MA across a VPN, VLAN, subnet, behind a firewall, or using local SSL or have any other complex network setup
• I have disabled tool such as AdGuard, Pi-hole or pfSense and retested
• I have checked my network setup to ensure mDNS/multicast is not being blocked
• If using HA, I have confirmed the internal URL is set correctly
• I have tried a wired connection for issues related to interrupted or poor playback quality
• If the problem relates to a device then I have checked the device settings
• If it is a frontend issue, I have tried a different widely used browser
• I have reviewed the applicable player or music provider documentation
• For voice problems, I have sought help elsewhere before returning here
• For playback problems, I have recycled power to the physical device
• I have tried restarting MA and rebooting the host

Have you reviewed the Open and Closed Issues and Discussions to resolve this yourself?

• Yes

The problem

I think it's great to finally be able to select AirPlay as a source in MA.
However, MA does not “remember” this setting. For example, as soon as I select a different AirPlay device in the Apple Music app and then select MusicAssistant as the AirPlay output device again, the source setting in MA for the selected speaker is no longer "AirPlay receiver" but "Music Assistant Queue". I then have to change it manually every time.
It would be more practical to save this setting directly on the respective speaker in the speaker settings. This is especially important for speaker groups.

How to reproduce

1. Enable MA as AirPlay Receiver -> New Playback device
2. Select the output Speaker and change the Source to "AirPlay Receiver"
3. In Apple Music App select Music Assistant as AirPlay device
4. Start Playing a Song
5. Change AirPlay speaker in Apple Music App to something other than Music Assistant
6. Change it back to Music Assistant
7. Review the source of your selected output speaker in MA
8. It will be changed to "Music Assistant Queue" so you have to set it back to "AirPlay Receiver" manually.

Music Providers

AirPlay

Player Providers

AirPlay

Full log output

Additional information

What version of Home Assistant Core (if used) are your running

2025.12.4

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

On what type of hardware are you running?

Raspberry Pi

Have you included ALL of the information specified in the Troubleshooting FAQ or explained why you cannot

• Yes

[github-actions]

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[OzGav]

You don’t seem to be using this correctly. You add the AirPlay Receiver plugin via MA settings and select a device to be bridged. Then in your app which supports AirPlay you will find a new device you can stream to

[alexthegreat100]

You don’t seem to be using this correctly. You add the AirPlay Receiver plugin via MA settings and select a device to be bridged. Then in your app which supports AirPlay you will find a new device you can stream to

Okay, but that's EXACTLY what I'm doing, isn't it? What's wrong with that?
More specifically:
I have a stereo amplifier that has a very good DAC but no room acoustic calibration.
I also have a Yamaha AVR, which has room acoustic calibration.

What I'm planning to do now:
I entered the values from the Yamaha calibration into the parametric EQ of MA and assigned them to the stereo amp. Now I want to loop the AirPlay signal from the MacBook Air (Apple Music app) to the stereo amp via MusicAssistant.
I can do that with this function, right? I select MusicAssistant in the Apple Music app (as an AirPlay device). In Music Assistant, I select my stereo amp and assign the AirPlay receiver as the source. Or not? I mean, it works! Just not that well (ok, it's still in alpha).

[OzGav]

It isn’t clear what you are doing. We have thing called AIRPLAY RECEIVER that bridges any type of player and presents it as an AirPlay device.

[OzGav]

If you are using that then you shouldn’t need to change the source. Just start playing to it via your other app.

[OzGav]

This will be closed soon due to no follow up

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since there has been no activity for 14 days after it was closed. If you are still experiencing a problem, please open a new issue with updated information and reference this one.

[marcelveldt]

Thanks for the report. We've landed an architectural refactor of plugin sources (music-assistant/server#3938) that addresses this class of problem at the source-model layer rather than per-symptom. Should be in the next release — please re-test once it ships and re-open if anything still misbehaves.