Airflow Remote

I previously had high praise for Airflow Remote and its companion app (Airflow Server). However, the developer is unresponsive to support emails and even to public pleas for support. To make matters worse, this is the 2nd app I’ve purchased from this developer that has been seemingly abandoned eventually after a few years, the first being Air Video HD. Both were eventually left to become obsolete due to OS advances despite still being available for sale. You’ve been warned! As for myself, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Never again. I’ll happily change my stance if proven wrong. —— original review starts here This remote and server duo on macOS is an extremely good alternative to bloated things like Plex. It plays almost everything you throw at it, doesn’t require much setup nor optimization, if any, and supports the native AppleTV player’s features. I would have given it an almost perfect score if not for the lack of updates and this sinking feeling that the software is no longer maintained. This wouldn’t be an issue if macOS or AppleTV updates didn’t sometimes break it. Right now for instance I’m dealing with an issue where videos which contain FLAC audio tracks constantly buffer when they previously played fine before updating to recent Apple OSes. The only work around seems to be disabling the subtitles or selecting burn-in. Meanwhile, similar videos with similar bitrates but other types of audio tracks play fine so it’s not a connection issue. I’ve also tried other apps like Infuse and even VLC and they play those files fine. These types of incompatibilities are unfortunately routine with Apple OS updates and the user has to depend on the dev to address it. Sometimes they never do or don’t in a timely manner.

Airflow is great when it works and for the most part it does. However, occasionally Apple will change something in Airplay, macOS or tvOS that breaks or limits the server app and due to sparse updates from the dev (and the abandoned Air Video HD) I’m always worried that the software has been abandoned. As I type, either Tahoe 26.4.2 or tvOS 26.4 has made the near perfectly functioning Airflow a pain to deal with again. I’m getting constant buffering on high bitrate H.265 mkv files that previously worked fine. I’m not even sure if the dev is aware of the issue even though it’s been mentioned in other reviews. Hopefully, it will be addressed. Until then I’m dropping my rating from a 5 to a 3 since I do still use Airflow and prefer it over things like Plex.