Mbox 3 pro on Mac mini 2018 not working

[Dale-c]

I have an mbox 3 Pro which works perfectly on my retina MacBook pro with a Thunderbolt 2 to Firewire adaptor.
However I can’t get it to work on my mac mini 2018 using a thunderbolt 3 to tb2 to firewire adaptor. My Motu firewire interface works fine with the same setup.

It shows up in the system profiler no issue. And I use an external drive loaded with Mojave because that is the latest OS supported. I can boot the laptop from the same drive and it works.

[Darryl Ramm]

Are you using the same MBox 3 Pro external power supply in all cases?

[Dale-c]

Yes. I have been trying to figure out what the difference is. The system recognizes it on the mac mini but the drivers aren’t connnecting for some reason.
The additional adaptor is different but the fact that system profiler indicated a connection to the system, and the fact that my Motu unit works fine, I don’t think that is it. Seems to be some sort of software issue

[Darryl Ramm]

I'd try reinstalling the MBox 3 Pro driver when the Mac Mini is booted from the external hard drive and make sure you grant the needed privacy and security approvals for the driver.

I have no idea where Apple stashes the driver approval data on different systems, it might be in the computer's security enclave so you would lose that when moving the boot drive between systems. Even if that's not the issue a careful drive install might help anyhow.

[Dale-c]

I found another thread where someone had it working on a 2017 iMac which also required both adaptors. And then this person said he upgraded his ram from 8 to 32 and it stopped working. Well. I also upgraded my RAM from 8 to 32. So I put the 8 back in but no luck. Amazingly booted into ventura and it sees it in sound prefs and audio/midi setup but no sound. Butbin Mojave, a supported Os, nothing.

Not a huge deal. It works with the laptop I intend to use it with.

[Darryl Ramm]

Did you actually try what I suggested?

[Dale-c]

Yes. I had already tried that multiple times.

[Dale-c]

I am going to install Mojave on the internal to see if it will run that way

[Darryl Ramm]

Do you see a security/permissions warning when you install the driver and do you approve that in the preferences? (has to be within 30 minutes of doing the install).

[Dale-c]

No I didn’t. But I bet you are on the right track. I found this old thread here:

https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=396087