
There’s what we want: the older version of AirPort Utility that’s in Applications > Utilities. The unpkg program reverses the neat packing of the installer and creates a set of folders, as you can see here:
Airport utility for mac os x yosemite mac#
Turns out that Mac applications have a lot of data files, graphics, and even different versions of code, all organized in a standard set of subfolders. Now find the installer package for AirPort Utility 5.6 and drag it onto that window, as I’m doing below:Ī moment or two passes and the installer package is disassembled and saved in a cascading set of folders in your Desktop, as shown by the progress activity listing: (in the below pic, it’s on the lower right) The program will pop up a drag target window, which you’ll want to have visible.

Now launch unpkg by clicking on its icon:
Airport utility for mac os x yosemite download#
Once you’ve downloaded it, grab a copy of the 5.6.x version of Airport Utility by using this Google search: download “airport express” 5.6. Go to the unpkg home page and look on the right to find the download button: The first step to the solution is to download a slick little app called unpkg. In case it’s too small, it says: “This version of AirPort Utility doesn’t support this base station.” Then there’s a link to a page that doesn’t actually seem to have much additional information when you check it out. Turns out you can download just about any older version of that Airport Utility, so back up to version 5.6.1 or so, and save it to your system.īefore you do, though, here’s the error I saw when I duplicated this situation: But when it does drop off the map, it can be way more than just frustrating.įortunately, in this case at least, there is a solution that doesn’t require you digging up an old Mac system that’s running an earlier version of Mac OS X. So should it be supported forever? I don’t think so.

Indeed, the modern Airport Express that’s for sale today looks almost nothing like what you have from all those years ago. Lame or just business reality, Apple is pretty aggressive at phasing out hardware, particularly in a space where there’s a lot of change and evolution. No, really, it’s an interesting problem because the solution involves kind of getting your hands dirty in the internals of the Mac system because you’re right, the latest version of Airport Utility doesn’t support earlier Apple Airport Express devices. Oh, you gave me a tough one to figure out, for which I think I’m appreciative.
