I encountered a strange bug on my iPhone that has an even more bizarre solution. Here are the details in case the same thing happens to you. I have an Apple TV connected to my television and I wanted to mirror what was on my iPhone to the TV. Normally, this is very simple to do. As explained in this Apple support article, on an iPhone 4S or later, you can double-click the Home button (which displays your recently used apps) and then swipe twice from left to right to display the AirPlay icon on the bottom right of your screen. You then tap that icon, select an Apple TV that is on the same network, and turn on Mirroring. The procedure is fast and simple, and it makes everything on your iPhone screen also show up on the TV.
At least, it is supposed to be that simple. When I tried to do so the other night, I didn’t see an AirPlay icon:
After confirming that my Apple TV was working and that my Apple TV and iPhone were on the same local WiFi network, I wasn’t sure to do next. After a lot of searching the Internet, I finally found this thread on the Support Communities area of Apple’s website that offered a bizarre solution that actually worked for me.
It turns out that you can fix this problem by going to your Settings app and selecting General -> International -> Language. Then change your language from whatever you are using now (such as English) to another language (I chose French). Then switch it back to your original language.
That’s it. Now when you double-click and the Home button and then swipe twice from left to right, you should see the AirPlay icon. As you can see, it worked for me:
I am running what is now the latest version of the iOS for iPhone, version 6.1.4. I suspect that Apple will fix this in the future — indeed, iOS 7 handles the buttons for things like AirPlay in a whole new way — but for now, there seems to be some connection between changing your language and mirroring to an Apple TV.
This worked! Thank you!
This didn’t work for me. If I reboot my phone, I randomly get one/both of my Airplay devices to show. Sometimes on reboot, I don’t even get the Airplay icon. I’ve done the router reboot thing. One of the devices is hardwired to my router. The other is hardwired to a bridge (which is wirelessly connected to my router).
If restarts simply bounce between one device available/both devices available/no Airplay icon at all, to me, that says it’s an issue with the phone’s OS.
Works thank you!
Worked for me! Thank you!
Not for me…AArgh!
Did not work for me.
Did not work for me.
Thank you so much! This has been stumping me for days, and I would never have tried this otherwise!
Didn’t work for me either!
Magic! Thanks!
This worked for me! Thanks!
This worked for me big time… thanks! for those who said it didn’t work for them, be sure to press “done” when changing to french… then switch it back to english and press done again. It will then switch back to english and the airplay icon will appear. It didn’t work for me at first because I didn’t follow through with the switching from english to french.
This didn’t work for me.
BUT this is what I’ve done: Go to Settings|Wi-Fi (Select your current wi-fi connection) and click the ‘Renew Lease’ button at the bottom
Hi Rouan,
Like you the changing language didn’t work for me, however the renew hi-fi like you suggested worked a treat, thanks
None of the methods sugested above could solve my problem. i have tried the language method and the renew lease button. I even have rebooted my iPad numerous times and the darn logo still would not appear. 🙁
none of these methods worked for me, either. 🙁
None of these worked for me. I downloaded the QuickPlay app and played a video. This shows the icon and alloys me to choose an Airplay device. PLaying music now uses that device also. To change the device I go back into QuickPlay. Still to Airplay icon when playing music, but this very painful workaround works for me.
After following all the advice about updating IOS, ensuring same network, restarting router, etc., I discovered that if I turn Bluetooth off on my iPhone 4S, the AirPlay icon suddenly appears!!
Forget my comment about Bluetooth. The icon disappeared shortly after and I’m back to square one.
hi i have an iphone 5 but i can’t find an airplay icon. CAn someone help me with my iphone 5. It is not the iphone 5s or 5c,,it is a first iphone 5
Dammit, does anyone have a surefire fix? None of the above works for me.
I’ve tried this and everything else I can think of and I’m exhausted, but not defeated.
I think it has something to do with my Apple airport. I’m checking to see if there is a firmware update. When I reboot it, I have airplay but I don’t want to be continually rebooting it all the time. None of the above was a lasting solution for me. Is Apple looking at this? It worked fine until I upgraded to Yosemite and iOS8…
Thanx a lot this works for me 🙂
It doest’n work for me !!!! Pls help!!!!! Both my iphone and ipad mini’airplay is gone!!!!!
Thank you so much!
Well it’s nice to know I am not alone! I thought at first it was something I had done unknowingly. It worked so well, but now it’s gone. No Airplay! None of the above solutions worked for me.
Thank you it totally worked. How weird.