New updates are being added at the bottom of this story……
Original story (published on December 8, 2020) follows:
Several users have reported that they are facing issues when trying to AirPlay content from their MacBooks to their Apple TVs and other smart devices after the macOS Big Sur update.
AirPlay is Apple’s proprietary connection stack that facilitates the sharing of videos, photos, music and more from Apple devices to Apple TV, speakers and popular smart TVs.
But due to the issues, there have been plenty of complaints on the official Apple forums as well as Reddit, as shown above.
While users facing the issue report that the device that they want to connect to does show up on the list of available devices, initiating a connection is fruitless as it throws an error.
Moreover, the complainants have observed that all their other Apple devices connect quite willingly to the same device, and don’t produce any problem as such.
The issue has also only begun after macOS Big Sur as the problem was reportedly non-existent prior to the update.
If you are one of the users facing the issue, then you are in luck as you have come to just the right place.
If you have already made sure that each of the generic aspects mentioned in this official Apple support article are proper, then you may proceed with the workarounds given below.
Workarounds for AirPlay issues after macOS Big Sur update
- Check anti-virus: Several users have traced the problem to Norton Anti-virus software which was causing an interference of sorts in the connection.
Alternatively, you can disable your anti-virus entirely for the duration of the connection if the above didn’t help.
- Perform an NVRAM refresh: NVRAM is the most recommended procedure to follow if your Mac malfunctions for an unknown reason. To do this, simply follow the no-brainer steps given below.
This has reportedly fixed the problem for at least one user.
- Adjust system preferences: You can also try the following if nothing else seems to do the job for you. This has only worked for one user though, so take it with a pinch of salt.
With that being said, let us know in the comments below if the above workarounds did the job for you. Hopefully, Apple will address the matter soon.
Be sure to also check out our dedicated macOS Big Sur bugs/issues tracker for further coverage on matters like these.
Several users have recently reported that re-authorizing their Mac has fixed the problem for them. For directions on how to do this, head over to this official Apple support article.
Update 1 (December 25)
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