AirPlay can't connect to device for sound mirroring when Fusion is running

[s0lution123]

Hello,

on my Macbook Pro I can't connect to any AirPlay devices for sound mirroring output when Fusion is running. Is this a known issue? AirPlay is trying to connect for a while and ends up with a message saying that it can't connect to the target device. If I start Fusion after the AirPlay connection is successfully established, AirPlay will continue to work. If I switch the sound output back to internal speakers and try to connect the AirPlay device it will fail again.

macOs Monterey 2.2.1
Fusion 12.2.3

[PH-NL]

Thanks for the update Technogeezer. Yes, it is going crazy slow for such an obvious issue. I received a communication early jan that they where still (not) working on it but nothing since so I appreciate your update on the issue. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

At least it's been diagnosed....

[Piipperi]

Oh my god so that's the issue why my HomePods will not sometimes connect, even just having VMware Fusion open in the background doing nothing causes my Mac to be unable to connect to AirPlay devices. Running macOS 13.2.1 (22D68) with VMware Fusion Player Version 13.0.1 (21139760).

It also seems like when I have HomePods connected VMware Fusion will not open if I try to open it.

[Technogeezer]

It's a month later and the update that I got last week says they are performing more "quality" tests on the proposed fix - which is what I've been told for the last 3 weeks or so.

I'm really getting tired of VMware engineering's (lack of) responsiveness to bugs (are you listening @Mikero ?). I'm afraid that VMware is finding that their fix isn't really working and that usually means "we'll have to go back to the drawing board". If that happens we'll be waiting a lot longer for a fix.

I certainly hope their paying customers don't get this kind of responsiveness to bugs that are impacting them.

[agathezol2097]

13.0.2 just dropped... sadly, no fix 😞

[Technogeezer]

Still the same non response from VMware in my open support ticket in this. 
its amazing that they can quickly push fixes for security issues that most of us will not likely encounter but bugs that impact our day to day use of the product will linger for months. 

[Chrisknightmn]

Yea I agree.  I actually thought originally it was an apple bug.  But then I released it worked every time I didn't have VMware open.  My company is actually switching from VMware to a different provider.  My work around for now is just stream my music from another Mac I have or my iPad.  

I wish they would at least respond,  but end of the day I've changed my work stream to accommodate the issue.  I do appreciate other commenting that they have the issue.  I don't feel like it's just me now. 

So thanks.. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

I suspect we'll see it when we see the next release.  Now as to that, I have an 'over' - with a tech preview post WWDC (June/July), but no clue on an under.

[MnkyShakespeare]

I spent the last 2 hours trying to figure out why airplay to my stereo stopped working from my iMac. On a whim I stopped VMWare and shezaammmm! airplay started working.

Then I found this thread.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Welcome to the mystery club 🙂

It was one of the most baffling things I've run across.  Completely intermittent, and never considered that simply having one app running would break another apps networking stack.

[stefan_i]

That's totally ridiculous isn't it?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Ok, strange thing.  Just rebooted the machine.  Launched Fusion and ran a VM.  Launched Music and hit play - it's playing via airplay.  Maybe a coincidence from the reboot and caching airplay devices, but maybe there was a fix in 13.0.2 that we missed?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Edit function isn't working:

Correction on order:

Reboot.  Launch Music.  Play music.  Stop Music.  Launch Fusion.  I can now toggle play/stop in music and it works via airplay.

[PH-NL]

I get from VMWARE every week an email that support has not yet received any feed back from VMWARE development on this issue.

This issue was reported by me on 29-Okt-2022. After the most ridiculous tests I had to do for VMWARE support, the issue was acknowledged to exist. I am currently still using VMWARE Fusion v12.1.2 which does not have the issue (I have not tried the latest version of Fusion because of the weekly email that "nothing has been done"). 

Today I have send an email to VMWARE support about the risks of this issue : if the word gets out that VMWARE Fusion is not 100% compatible with macOS by breaking Airplay than prospect customers might choose the alternative product available on the market. This would look really bad if it shows up on a comparison between Fusion and Parallels. 

This is the last I do because working with these tech-giants is virtually impossible.
Guess what software I will not be updating this year....  

[ColoradoMarmot]

And nope, it was some kind of artifact.  Doesn't work now.

[PH-NL]

I have approved a fix for this with VMWARE support (last week) so I expect that this is fixed in the next VMWARE Fusion point release. 

[Technogeezer]

Same here. It also appears to be fixed in the 2023 Tech Preview. 

[HostaHost]

Wow, great thread, just wish I'd found it long ago and again today before spending money for support.

Two months later, they're still delivering 13.0.2 as the latest version, and there's still no fix.  I have had broken AirPlay for quite some time now, always assumed it was something specific to my weird Mac network setup, which is vlan tagging on the ethernet interface, and a few virtual interfaces to place me on different networks without firewall rules / routing being needed.

Today the AirPlay thing was annoying me so I finally got back to tinkering with it again.  While watching the arp table of my target AirPlay ip address I wanted to send music to, I noticed it briefly showed as unknown and attached to the bridge interface I ultimately connected to Fusion.  This of course sent me down a path of suspecting this is somehow Fusion-related.  I couldn't open a ticket since I don't have a support plan, so I wasted the $100 on an upgrade plus $150 for a three year support plan.  Before I had upgraded though, a few more searches revealed this thread and I finally know the cause of my issue.

[ColoradoMarmot]

Upgrade to the tech preview - it's fixed there.

[HostaHost]

Hmm, should there be any additional process to get AirPlay going?  I just downloaded the tech preview, did a complete trash/uninstall of the prior fusion, reboot, noticed a bunch of stuff under ~/Library/ and /Library/ had not been removed, so I removed what I was allowed to and then sudo kextcache --clear-staging to get rid of the staged kernel extensions I wasn't allowed to remove.  As best I could tell this system was wiped clean of fusion.  Reboot again, no AirPlay.  Did the tech preview install, still no airplay.

Could there still be some remnant of whatever it breaks preventing airplay?