Troubleshooting

Package won’t install, update, or start

If you get an error installing, updating, or starting AirConnect-Synology, uninstall the existing version first (Package Center → AirConnect → Uninstall), then install the new one fresh.

Uninstalling removes the old scripts, references, and configuration. Unless you checked “Delete the contents…“ during uninstall, airconnect.conf and the log are backed up into the airconnect shared folder first - see Editing files from your PC. This alone sometimes clears up the problem.

If a normal uninstall doesn’t work either, clean up manually via SSH as root:

# Remove the package directory
rm -rf /var/packages/AirConnect

# Deregister the shared folder (only works on the legacy DSM 5/6 line - DSM 7
# doesn't allow packages, or their scripts, to do this; see the README's shared-folder
# section for why)
synoshare --del TRUE airconnect

# Remove the package's dedicated users/group
synouser --del airconnect
synouser --del airconnect__PKG_
synogroup --del airconnect

Then install the new package again - see Which package do I need?.

“FATAL: kernel too old” / crashes immediately on old hardware

This is a real, developer-confirmed failure mode on some older Synology devices, documented in detail in issue #63 (with input from AirConnect’s own author) and #104.

Important: whether this affects your device is not predictable from its model or platform alone. A device’s exposure to this depends on its current DSM patch level, not just its kernel version or Synology platform name - the same platform/kernel combination that failed for one user in 2024 was directly re-tested on this project’s own hardware in 2026 and ran without issue, on the current DSM patch level for that device. There’s no static compatibility table that can answer this correctly for every device and patch level, so none is provided here - and there is currently no automated install-time check either (preinst is presently a no-op).

If you hit this:

1. Check your device’s glibc version via SSH: /lib64/libc.so.6 --version (or /lib/libc.so.6 on 32-bit devices).
2. Compare against issue #63 for what’s already known to fail/work at specific versions.
3. If the current package doesn’t run, the legacy DSM 5/6 line (pinned to an older AirConnect build with a lower minimum kernel/glibc requirement) may still work on your device - it’s a separate, frozen package, install side-by-side or instead.
4. Still stuck? Open an issue with your device model, DSM version, and the glibc version from step 1.

Playback issues after a Sonos firmware update

If AirPlay playback to Sonos broke after updating Sonos firmware to 15.2, update Sonos again to 15.3 or later - this was a Sonos-side regression, fixed in a later Sonos release. See upstream issue #458 if it’s still happening on a current Sonos firmware.

The shared-folder links are gone after an update

Symptom: the airconnect shared folder is still there, but airconnect.conf and the logfile no longer appear in it, and DSM showed a message during the update saying the folder was kept because it still contains something while “this package’s own config/log links were removed”.

This means the setting is off. Check it, over SSH:

grep AIRCONNECT_SHARED_FOLDER_LINKS_ENABLED /var/packages/AirConnect/target/airconnect.conf

To switch it back on, tick “Enable shared-folder links” in the update wizard the next time the package updates, or set the value to 1 and restart the package in Package Center. Your own config.xml/config-cast.xml are never removed by the package, so a custom config placed in the shared folder is still there.

Packages up to and including 1.11.3-20260919 could get this wrong on their own: an installation whose config predates the setting was read as “off”, which is why an update could switch it off without anyone choosing that.

General issues

Open an issue if you’re stuck. Please include: your Synology device model, which package you downloaded, and both logfiles (see Logs in the main README) or the relevant excerpts.

If airupnp/aircast are running with nothing unusual in the log, but playback itself still doesn’t behave as expected, that’s more likely an AirConnect-the-program issue than a packaging issue - consider opening an issue at the official AirConnect repository instead.

Multicast and IGMP snooping/proxy

Most AirConnect problems trace back to local network configuration - both Chromecast and Sonos/UPnP discovery require multicast to work. Make sure multicast is allowed along the entire path:

Chromecast/Sonos speaker ↔ (WLAN) router ↔ (switch/firewall ↔) the phone/computer you’re using

Configure IGMP snooping and IGMP proxy correctly on your router, switches, and firewall. For testing, try disabling IGMP snooping everywhere temporarily.

• Players disappearing regularly often means your router is filtering multicast packets. On an Asus AC-RT68U, for example: echo 0 > /sys/class/net/br0/bridge/multicast_snooping via SSH (doesn’t persist across reboots).
• UniFi networks are a common source of multicast/discovery problems - see this community guide for one documented fix.

More background in the official AirConnect repository:

• Best practices for getting AirUPnP working in networks?
• Troubleshooting steps for airupnp AirPlay devices not appearing
• Devices disappear after ~1-2 minutes
• Devices found, but not being added
• Unable to connect to “device”

Debugging

DSM 7

Change AIRCAST_LOGLEVEL/AIRUPNP_LOGLEVEL from all=info to all=debug in airconnect.conf, then restart the package.

DSM 5 and 6

Change the -d all=info parameter in scripts/start-stop-status to -d all=debug, rebuild the package (see Building from source), and reinstall it.