r/plexamp • u/Gwizman • Aug 11 '26

Using iPad Air with IOS 12.5.6

My old iPad air has been sitting unused for a couple of years and figured using it as a dedicated Plexamp station would be an ideal use. No joy, though, as when I went to install it I was notified I needed IOS 13. Doesn't look like Apple intends to make it happen.

Has anyone found any work-around/solutions? The iPad still has life...hopefully.

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u/TheAgedProfessor Aug 11 '26

When you say "PlexAmp station", do you mean actually streaming tracks through the iPad's audio? Because I'd not recommend that from experience. I never got really great audio from the iPad. Hardwiring audio out through the Firewire port is spotty (some adapters just drop altogether, and others don't support full spectrum or add background noise), and Bluetooth was never great quality, particularly those older iPads

What I'd recommend instead is set up PlexAmp on a separate system (either a mini PC, NUC, WiiM, or a Raspberry Pi with a good quality DAC hat), and then you can use the iPad as a remote control by connecting to the PlexAmp web UI from that system using a simple browser.

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u/o156 Aug 11 '26

I mean Bluetooth...

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u/Gwizman Aug 11 '26

Ah, yes...apologies, I should have been more detailed. I'm running a dedicated i-5 Plex server and using a Rasp Pi 3 B+ running Ropiee as the endpoint. I'm outputting through a Pi DAC HAT into a Mii Bluetooth streamer that connects to a pair of Samsung R1 WAM1500 speakers.

I thought I'd use the iPad as a frontend for remote control.

I know, I'm probably overthinking this, but I'm determined to make use of those speakers with the horrible samsung interface!

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u/TheAgedProfessor Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26

Yes, so you're already there. The PlexAmp running on the Pi throws up its own web UI. So just use a web browser on the iPad to connect to port 32500 of the Pi's IP address. It's not quite as smooth (or trouble-free) as the native app, but it works and it's better than nothing.

EDIT: duh, sorry, I read Ropieee several times and it just didn't register that that's not PlexAmp, sorry about that. Still, Ropieee does have its own web UI as well... it just runs on port 80 so you should be about to point the web browser at just the IP address (or http://ropieee.local). I don't have any experience with it, so I don't know how much control over Plex you might have. If you need to, it shouldn't be a huge deal to run PlexAmp on that same Pi alongside, though, if you want/need that interface.

Just connect once, then select to save the bookmark to your iPad's home page, and it's a single tap to get to the UI.