Need to restart MacBook otherwise my MBox is not recognised

[ManuVale]

Since the beginning I have a very annoying problem: my MBox works perfectly until I have to disconnect the USB of the MBox from my Macbook. As soon as I connect my MBox without restarting my Macbook, the MBox is not recognised anymore. It is a quite annoying problem since every system restart takes time and interrupts my normal work flow. Does anyone have an idea what the problem could be? I updated already and installed the newest driver but appearently the problem was not solved by this. Thank you for any hints. Cheers.

[Southsidemusic]

Hi and Welcome to the Community

I have an old Mbox 3 pro here in the closet and pulled it out plugged it into a MacBoo Pro Retina and it is the same with that one.

Although never a good idea to hotswap interfaces while running any DAW I suspect that this action will stay this way since you break the chain when you pull out the interface and then reconnect it again. In order to find it again our Mac needed a restart, tried on Apollo Quad and Apollo 16 aswell but they worked although those are thunderbolt so sorry but the only solution i know will be to restart the computer.

Why do you need to remove the mbox while its running?

[ManuVale]

Dear Christopher, thank you very much for your reply and for welcoming me so kindly! I am not working constantly on my desk, so I have to disconnect the AI on the move. Since I turn off my Mac very rarely it is disturbing to restart the system only because I want to plug in my MBox. I had other AI before and I did not have this problem. Just connect the USB and that's it! Why not with AVID MBox?

[Southsidemusic]

Hi again

I can't answer that as we have a completely different setup nowadays but I will forward this to the tech guys and see what they have to say about it. I doubt they will have any good way around this unfortunately but I will definitively check for you.

If anyone else here on the forum can chime in who uses an Mbox it would be appreciated so until we get some more answers I'm sorry I can't help you figure this out. I tested our old dusty Mbox 3 and it behaves the same althougj it's firewire and FW interfaces should NEVER be hotswapped as it can fry the electronics, I did it once a lot of years ago and had to scrap it and get a new unit at full price This was back in the LE days when we started out with Digidesign product, now we have a bigger studio and thats why I can't give you an answer as to why it is this way.

Will post back here when I have an answer and in the meantime maybe someone who have the same mbox can chime in

All The Best and Hope We Can Get This Figured Out.

[JoelG]

Another thing to keep in mind is, have you disabled power saving (sleep/hibernate)? As part of the Optimization Guide, it might help.

Joel

[ManuVale]

Dear Cristopher, dear Joel,
thank you so much for your support. This problem is really annoying. The thing is that I am planning to use the MBox with my Macbook on stage as well. Restarting my Macbook every time I have to transport the equipment would be quite disturbing. I had another AI before and the hotswapping was no issue at all. I just had to connect the AI again and there it was, ready to use. Things could be so easy. If this issue can't be solved than I definitely will think about buying another AI - I am really upset with this problem.
I followed the steps in the optimization guide Joel suggested me. I let you know if something changed. Cheers.

[AlexLakis]

Have you tried plugging the Mbox into another USB port? Or maybe a USB hub if you have one laying around?

[ManuVale]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

Have you tried plugging the Mbox into another USB port? Or maybe a USB hub if you have one laying around?

Yes, I tried to plugin into another USB port and also a USB hub with power supply. Did not solve the problem.

[Top Jimmy]

Does the system profiler recognize the mbox on the usb buss after plugging it back in?

You may not like it as part of your workflow, but most audio professionals make rebooting a part of their workflow because it helps prevent issues from creeping in.

[ManuVale]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Does the system profiler recognize the mbox on the usb buss after plugging it back in?

You may not like it as part of your workflow, but most audio professionals make rebooting a part of their workflow because it helps prevent issues from creeping in.

Yes, the system profiler recognizes the MBox on the usb bus. I see it under "USB-HIgh Speed Bus" (or something like that - my system language is German, so I just translate it) => Hub => Mbox

Maybe as additional information: when plugging in the MBox the power led continues blinking. Does anybody know what that means?