Missing/Incorrect Hardware Inputs

[ashmatthews]

Yes deleting the paths and hitting Default. And importing IO Setting that were exported with a correct setup as well.

I’m able to upload an image from my phone (desktop version of this forum wouldn’t let me). As you can see there are only 2 hardware inputs, which is incorrect and wasn’t like this before.

The outputs remain correct.

[ashmatthews]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Well your images are in Dropbox and I have to noodle around on my phone to see them so no I haven’t looked at all of them. I did see the one where only one hardware pair were presented to pro tools. That means the issue is in the MOTU driver, hence the question about whether the MOTU driver lets you enable/disable I/O paths.

I reinstalled the drivers. I compared the hardware config to another computer that isn’t having the issues. And the correct I/O paths are showing up in my Sound settings, in Audio MIDI Setup, and in Ableton. ProTools is the only thing not giving me my full multichannel inputs.

I haven’t seen anything in MOTU Audio Setup about enabling/disabling - only Editing the Channel Names - but they all show up and named correctly. I just posted screenshots if you wanna check em out.

[Top Jimmy]

Have you tried deleting prefs and I/O settings? Use Pete Gates’ utility or google instructions.

[ashmatthews]

Originally Posted by Top Jimmy

Have you tried deleting prefs and I/O settings? Use Pete Gates’ utility or google instructions.

Yes. Both

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by ashmatthews

Yes deleting the paths and hitting Default. And importing IO Setting that were exported with a correct setup as well.

I’m able to upload an image from my phone (desktop version of this forum wouldn’t let me). As you can see there are only 2 hardware inputs, which is incorrect and wasn’t like this before.

The outputs remain correct.

OK got you yes the device is only showing two I/O in the top of the setup IO Input window. I assume when you delete and default all the input paths this you only get the two I/O and all the rest come from you importing I/O.

So a test of what the driver is reporting vs. what Pro Tools is doing is in Audio MIDI Setup create an aggregate that just contains the MOTU interface and look at the subdevices section for that aggregate. You should see all the input and output ports and port names that the driver is reporting to CoreAudio. If you only see two inputs then the problem is in the driver or device -- try fully resetting the interface. If you see everything there you expect then it' a Pro Tools problem... and I'm stumped what that is. But one test I would do then is create a new admin user and try opening Pro Tools from that account. Don't open a session, just look at that interface in setup input I/O and see what it shows. (And yes even if you see the ports in the MOTU device in Audio Midi Setup I want you to create an aggregate and make sure they show up there).

I expect MOTU drivers to be very well behaved but you can try to remove any potential source of problems. Don't have the interface configured as default sound output or system sound device and don't have it open in any other app.

[Top Jimmy]

Grasping at straws here. Any chance there’s an alternate 828 entry in the playback engine menu? Does the MOTU driver have its own prefs that can be trashed?

Do a hard boot? Shutdown, pull power cable, wait ten minutes, plug in power and boot up.

This one has me stumped. If other software sees all the hardware paths, why doesn’t Pro Tools?

[Top Jimmy]

+1 for Darryl’s last post.

[ashmatthews]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

OK got you yes the device is only showing two I/O in the top of the setup IO Input window. I assume when you delete and default all the input paths this you only get the two I/O and all the rest come from you importing I/O.

So a test of what the driver is reporting vs. what Pro Tools is doing is in Audio MIDI Setup create an aggregate that just contains the MOTU interface and look at the subdevices section for that aggregate. You should see all the input and output ports and port names that the driver is reporting to CoreAudio. If you only see two inputs then the problem is in the driver or device -- try fully resetting the interface. If you see everything there you expect then it' a Pro Tools problem... and I'm stumped what that is. But one test I would do then is create a new admin user and try opening Pro Tools from that account. Don't open a session, just look at that interface in setup input I/O and see what it shows. (And yes even if you see the ports in the MOTU device in Audio Midi Setup I want you to create an aggregate and make sure they show up there).

I expect MOTU drivers to be very well behaved but you can try to remove any potential source of problems. Don't have the interface configured as default sound output or system sound device and don't have it open in any other app.

I did actually try that! When I do, it still only shows those same 2 inputs in the aggregate on PT (the aggregate . So you suggest flashing the firmware on the interface? It’s just weird that it shows up correctly everywhere but PT unfortunately.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by ashmatthews

I did actually try that! When I do, it still only shows those same 2 inputs in the aggregate on PT (the aggregate . So you suggest flashing the firmware on the interface? It’s just weird that it shows up correctly everywhere but PT unfortunately.

Yes focus on the interface and driver.

Lots of software, including parts of Audio MIDI setup itself effectively caches what it knows about an interface. By creating a new aggregate you see exactly what the driver is reporting.

You should try all things you can to reset the driver and interface... power cycle everything, do a factory reset on the interface (don't know what Motu gives the as options, etc.). Uninstall and reinstall the driver on the Mac--this could be a driver bug but is *very* unlikely.. the driver is responsible for reporting all this but it's hard to suddenly get that wrong, I would guess it's more likely to be the config/setup of the interface that is wrong or confused (which I thought James suggested earlier but now cant' find that). What exact driver version do you have installed on what exact macOS version and hardware?

[ashmatthews]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Yes focus on the interface and driver.

Lots of software, including parts of Audio MIDI setup itself effectively caches what it knows about an interface. By creating a new aggregate you see exactly what the driver is reporting.

You should try all things you can to reset the driver and interface... power cycle everything, do a factory reset on the interface (don't know what Motu gives the as options, etc.). Uninstall and reinstall the driver on the Mac--this could be a driver bug but is *very* unlikely.. the driver is responsible for reporting all this but it's hard to suddenly get that wrong, I would guess it's more likely to be the config/setup of the interface that is wrong or confused (which I thought James suggested earlier but now cant' find that). What exact driver version do you have installed on what exact macOS version and hardware?

MacOS 14.5. (Updated during this process to see if it would change anything)
MOTU driver is whatever the latest one is


It may be difficult to do anything with the interface since it belongs to the studio I rent. It works just fine with the computer at the studio (which I’ve been using instead of my own machine lately). I like the idea mentioned earlier about creating a new user and opening a session to see if it’s tied to my user settings on my Mac or if it’s system wide.