Airplay - playback failed to start (split from #4954)

[returnofthem]

What version of Music Assistant has the issue?

2.7.9

How is the MA server installed?

Home Assistant OS Addon

Mandatory: Carefully read the Troubleshooting FAQ and confirm that

• I have examined the logs and tried to resolve this issue
• I have fixed any errors or warnings 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 am not using or have disabled tools such as AdGuard, Pi-hole or pfSense and retested
• I have checked my network setup to ensure mDNS/multicast is not being blocked
• I have reviewed the Open and Closed Issues and Discussions
• I have reviewed the applicable player or music provider documentation
• I have reviewed the MA Status Page
• I have tried restarting MA and rebooting the host

As Applicable: Carefully read the Troubleshooting FAQ and confirm that

• 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
• For voice problems, I have sought help elsewhere before returning here
• For playback problems, I have recycled power to the physical device

The problem

As requested I'm splitting this out from #4954 - the symptom is the same but I've been informed that the underlying problem is different.

The problem
I get a "Playback failed to start" error when operating a group consisting of a Denon AVR (x2700h) and two Aether Cone speakers. This sometimes happens when the playlist advances to the next track but is guaranteed to happen if I manually skip track or seek forward or back in the current track. This only happens if the Denon is not the group master.

This was all working as expected prior to the new Airplay implementation in MASS so seems likely that could be the cause, and maybe some config tweaks can fix it.

The setup

• HAOS on Raspberry Pi 4
• Denon AVR X2700H
• • Note: the Denon is on port 7000 so I wonder if there's a possible link to Airplay 1 instance port number should be based on mdns record not the default 5000 #4985? This is not a configurable option in the Denon so I can't try changing it
• Aether Cone wifi Airplay speaker (x2)
• Flat network topology, no vlans or similar
• The Denon I have tried both wired and on wifi, the Cones are wifi only.

Interesting log excerpts
Initial process startup - note the Denon is on port 7000, the only one of the three players to be using a port other than the default.

2026-02-26 21:40:36.502 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] Starting cliraop process for player ap6cadf803f943 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17098826748668282031', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '2000', '-volume', '46', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Cone', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '23DFCB151B9C4417', '-activeremote', '4161009987', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap6cadf803f943-4161009987-cmd', '-udn', '6CADF803F943@Kitchen-diner speaker._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.120', '-']
2026-02-26 21:40:36.518 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] Starting cliraop process for player ap761b91c33c47 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17098826748109940578', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '2000', '-volume', '20', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,1', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'ShairportSync', '-pw', 'false', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '23DFCB151B9C4417', '-activeremote', '2445491271', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap761b91c33c47-2445491271-cmd', '-udn', '761B91C33C47@House._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.5', '-']
2026-02-26 21:40:36.523 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] Starting cliraop process for player ap00067878bdb6 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17098826748105641315', '-port', '7000', '-latency', '2000', '-volume', '20', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Denon AVR-X2700H', '-pk', '3cda195c19ea2959cefe8d088fa85d0b2f7159cd7abcc6900a50fcad524f1adb', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '23DFCB151B9C4417', '-activeremote', '2021178806', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap00067878bdb6-2021178806-cmd', '-udn', '00067878BDB6@AV Receiver._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.101', '-']

Everything is normal until I seek within the track and then we enter a weird DACP request loop with the Denon, as the timer climbs ever upwards:

2026-02-26 21:42:39.755 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=1 -- 
2026-02-26 21:42:39.786 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=0 -- 
2026-02-26 21:42:39.795 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:39.795] exec_request:722 [0x55adf5c2c0]: Body data len 1076
2026-02-26 21:42:39.859 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] CLIRaop stderr reader ended
2026-02-26 21:42:39.913 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] DACP request for Kitchen-diner speaker (4161009987): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-volume=-16.5000000 -- 
2026-02-26 21:42:41.593 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:41.593] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 1118
2026-02-26 21:42:41.617 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:41.616] CmdPipeReaderThread:274 Setting volume to: 20
2026-02-26 21:42:41.950 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=1 -- 
2026-02-26 21:42:41.957 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=0 -- 
2026-02-26 21:42:42.559 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:42.558] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 2197
2026-02-26 21:42:42.595 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:42.593] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 2124

Until some part of the process finally goes "Well this clearly isn't working" and terminates the stream to every player in the group:

026-02-26 21:42:51.564 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:51.563] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 11208
2026-02-26 21:42:51.598 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:51.598] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 11127
2026-02-26 21:42:52.564 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:52.564] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 12206
2026-02-26 21:42:52.599 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] [21:42:52.598] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 12125
2026-02-26 21:42:53.259 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] CLIRaop stderr reader ended
2026-02-26 21:42:53.373 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.airplay] CLIRaop stderr reader ended
2026-02-26 21:42:54.490 ERROR (MainThread) [music_assistant.webserver] Error handling message: players/cmd/seek: Playback failed to start

How to reproduce

1. Group the Cone + Denon, or 2x Cone + Denon ensuring Denon is not group master
2. Start playback
3. Skip to next/prev track or seek within current track
4. Problem occurs

Speculation: might be reproducible with any Airplay v1 player on a non-standard port? It seems suspicious that it's only the Denon with an issue and that's the only player on a non-standard port.

Music Providers

• Local folder share
• Spotify

Problem exists on both, I have no other providers.

Player Providers

Players providers with the issue: Airplay

Player providers without the issue: FullyKiosk, local browser, alpha version of the MASS Android app

Full log output

Mass sync issue.log

Additional information

Things I've tried in addition to the main template troubleshooting steps:

• Various combinations of encryption and compression on or off across the 3 devices
• Various combinations of airplay version preference settings across the 3 devices (either auto or ROAP, v2 is not supported by these devices)

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

2026.2.2

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

[marcelveldt]

I think I fixed this particular issue last week but you'll have to run the beta to verify. Can you please check this with the latest 2.8 beta 14 ?

[returnofthem]

Hey, not fixed in latest beta I'm afraid, although it behaves a little differently. It's not as common to get "Playback failed to start" but instead the Denon seems to drop out of the group on skip or seek.

For example (full log attached - Mass sync issue v2.txt
) here you can see shairport sync as master with the Denon and one of the Cones as the other group members:

2026-03-03 19:22:19.157 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap6cadf803f943 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646537144810422', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '55', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Cone', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '4161009987', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap6cadf803f943-4161009987-cmd', '-udn', '6CADF803F943@Kitchen-diner speaker._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.120', '-']
2026-03-03 19:22:19.170 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap761b91c33c47 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646537144810422', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '14', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,1', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'ShairportSync', '-pw', 'false', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '3713680477', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap761b91c33c47-3713680477-cmd', '-udn', '761B91C33C47@House._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.5', '-']
2026-03-03 19:22:19.176 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap00067878bdb6 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646537144810422', '-port', '7000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '22', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Denon AVR-X2700H', '-pk', '3cda195c19ea2959cefe8d088fa85d0b2f7159cd7abcc6900a50fcad524f1adb', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '2021178806', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap00067878bdb6-2021178806-cmd', '-udn', '00067878BDB6@AV Receiver._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.101', '-']

Followed by me seeking within the track, and the Denon dropping out of the group with the same weird DACP messages:

2026-03-03 19:22:50.565 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.562] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 30417
2026-03-03 19:22:50.779 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.776] main:695 elapsed milliseconds: 30632
2026-03-03 19:22:50.874 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Audio streamer cancelled after 37.4s
2026-03-03 19:22:50.904 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.898] CmdPipeReaderThread:302 Stopped at : 3981554570.3857619366
2026-03-03 19:22:50.953 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap6cadf803f943 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646673679321091', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '55', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Cone', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '4161009987', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap6cadf803f943-4161009987-cmd', '-udn', '6CADF803F943@Kitchen-diner speaker._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.120', '-']
2026-03-03 19:22:50.959 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap761b91c33c47 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646673679321091', '-port', '5000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '14', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,1', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'ShairportSync', '-pw', 'false', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '3713680477', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap761b91c33c47-3713680477-cmd', '-udn', '761B91C33C47@House._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.5', '-']
2026-03-03 19:22:50.990 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Starting cliraop process for player ap00067878bdb6 with args: ['/app/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/music_assistant/providers/airplay/bin/cliraop-linux-aarch64', '-ntpstart', '17100646673679321091', '-port', '7000', '-latency', '3000', '-volume', '22', '-if', '0.0.0.0', '-alac', '-et', '0,4', '-md', '0,1,2', '-am', 'Denon AVR-X2700H', '-pk', '3cda195c19ea2959cefe8d088fa85d0b2f7159cd7abcc6900a50fcad524f1adb', '-debug', '5', '-dacp', '395ED557D9F24555', '-activeremote', '2021178806', '-cmdpipe', '/tmp/1-ap00067878bdb6-2021178806-cmd', '-udn', '00067878BDB6@AV Receiver._raop._tcp.local.', '172.24.0.101', '-']
2026-03-03 19:22:51.003 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.968] main:480 Binding to 0.0.0.0 [(null)] with mask 0x00000000
2026-03-03 19:22:51.009 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.972] main:525 Reading audio from stdin
2026-03-03 19:22:51.011 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.972] raopcl_create:716 [0x55a512c7c0]: using ALAC coding
2026-03-03 19:22:51.011 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:50.983] main:480 Binding to 0.0.0.0 [(null)] with mask 0x00000000
[...]
2026-03-03 19:22:51.143 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:51.053] main:650 Connecting to player: 00067878BDB6@AV Receiver._raop._tcp.local. (172.24.0.101:7000)
2026-03-03 19:22:51.144 VERBOSE (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] [19:22:51.099] raopcl_connect:1003 [0x55a512c7c0]: local interface 172.24.0.4
2026-03-03 19:22:51.146 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=1 -- 
2026-03-03 19:22:51.146 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Prevent playback command detected for player AV Receiver
2026-03-03 19:22:51.248 INFO (MainThread) [music_assistant.streams] Start Queue Flow stream for Queue House - crossfade: disabled 
2026-03-03 19:22:51.306 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=0 -- 
2026-03-03 19:22:51.502 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] DACP request for Kitchen-diner speaker (4161009987): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-volume=-13.5000000 -- 
2026-03-03 19:22:51.581 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] DACP request for Kitchen-diner speaker (4161009987): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-busy=0 -- 

[returnofthem]

Just confirming this still exists in 2.8.1 - current log (with a bit of extra verbosity) attached. This still appears to be the trigger of the "de-group-on-skip" failure:

2026-03-27 21:53:35.477 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] DACP request for AV Receiver (2021178806): /ctrl-int/1/setproperty?dmcp.device-prevent-playback=1 -- 
2026-03-27 21:53:35.478 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.AirPlay] Prevent playback command detected for player AV Receiver

Mass sync issue 2.8.1.log