Motu Ultralite firewire not recognized with 2014 Retina MBP

[jackroland]

So I recently got a mid 2014 MacBook Pro 13" with Retina display and got all of the proper cables to connect my MOTU Ultralite 10x14 firewire (this one http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audi ... -interface) into the MBP... but its not working. I'm running on OSx Yosemite 10.10.1, processor 2.6 GHz intel core i5, 8 gb ram, 256gb flash drive.

There are no firewire ports so I have to transmute the signal into a thunderbolt port.

How the wiring works is - i take a Firewire 400 (from the MOTU) to Firewire 800 single cable into a Thunderbolt adapter.. the thunderbolt adapter is then going into the Macbook pro.

So once again.

MOTU ---> (firewire 400 out from MOTU) and Firewire 800 into thunderbolt adapter ---> thunderbolt out ---> Macbook pro

I downloaded the latest drivers and its not working. I understand it can not be bus powered, but I have a MOTU power cable for that specific reason.

Something I have discovered that is really strange however is that the MBP seems to be getting some sort of communication, because when I restart my computer along with having the MOTU on/plugged in, it loads up quite slow and stops at about 50%. Then once I unplug the MOTU or turn it off - OSx immediately loads up.

strange fact #2: Additionally, while I am on desktop view, and I turn the MOTU off and back on... about 10 seconds later all my key commands freeze and my entire screen also freezes, but I can still move my mouse around.... what is weird is that if I type words or move windows around and then turn the MOTU back off, the screen comes back to normal and the key typings will be entered or the window will have moved, I just could not see it in real time.

If anyone has any ideas or knows of any solutions for the drivers for this let me know.

[mikehalloran]

Did you load the drivers from the disk that came with the unit or download the latest from MOTU.com? There's no way for the disks to keep up with the latest OS revisions from Apple.

Be logged in as Administrator. Download and install the latest drivers if you haven't already. Repair Permissions and reboot. Hopefully, that will fix you up.

[jackroland]

hey mike thanks for the reply.

yes i have updated from the motu site, my driver is currently updated to version 1.664254. its still not displaying the MOTU as a device in my apple sound control, ableton, or in the MOTU Audio setup application itself

[jackroland]

still looking for possible alternative solutions to this, its an ongoing mystery! -- technically it should be working according to information / sources I have read.. and its a new macbook pro so... it should work!

[mikehalloran]

Do you have Allow apps downloaded from • Anywhere checked in System Preferences/Security & Privacy? If not, do so and install the drivers again.

If that doesn't work, I'd give MOTU a call.

[palopez]

Jack - have you figured out a fix for this issue. I am having the exact same problem. Just bought a MBP and my old ultralite will not show up. It still works fine on my old MBP but not on the new one. It actually did work for about a month but I kept hearing pops and glitches. I reconnected to my old mac for some previous work and when I reconnected, nothing. It's been a week and a half and still. Please help if you can.

[mikehalloran]

Do you have it connected directly i.e. not through a hub or daisy-chained through a drive?

[jackroland]

Sorry I haven't checked on this post. Its been working fine for a while now. It was plugged into the Firewire B port on my MOTU and that was a no go. It does however work perfectly fine on the Firewire A port. But for some reason, the entire computer was experiencing trouble recognizing the device on the Firewire Port B... I was certain that both ports on the back of the MOTU would work for connecting with a computer - but it seems like that the A is for connecting and the B port is only for daisy-chaining, but I'd have to check the manual.

Regardless, it does work on this Macbook and it works much better than my desktop PC running Windows. On my PC occasionally I get massive glitch sounds randomly (lots of buzz etc. and I have to shut the unit off and on again -- quite dangerous if your doing anything live I must say) but I haven't had anything like this since its been running on my Macbook Pro...

One minor issue is that its rather difficult to get the non-DAW sound options (macbook sound options) to work with the MOTU. Sometimes it only works when I use 5.1 sound options, others the regular main-out setup works - its a bit bizarre but it does work otherwise.