Motu m4 no sound after wake

[Mertafor]

Hi,

I’m using motu m4 with my mac mini. OS is Catalina latest, 10.15.6. Also latest m4 drivers installed.

Everything works fine but there is a problem with sleep mode. Whenever I put mac to sleep and it wakes after a few hours, no sound output coming from m4. I’ve had connectivity issues with my apogee one before such as it was completely disconnected and I had to set it as my active audio interface from Ableton Live preferences and system. However it’s all different with m4. After wake, it’s still active audio interface which is good but there is no sound output from headphones, line out and no movement on the meter screen. It works only if I turn it off/on or plug out/in usb cable. Same issue happens with included usbc to usb cable and also type c cable.

I tried to reset mac’s pram (cmd+Alt+p+r on boot) but didn’t help. It’s pretty inconvenient and unreliable for a beautiful device and I’d like to find out the solution. It seems to me more like one of Mac’s security or external device protocol rather than hardware issue. I hope someone could give me an idea about what’s going on.

[mikehalloran]

It's not the M4.

This is not uncommon, unfortunately. I'm trying to find a USB-C hub or other solution that doesn't have me unplugging and replugging that cable into the back of my iMac Pro. My monitors have no issues at all but any other USB-C cable I plug in has that problem.

USB-C is a port only and supports a large number of protocols. Since the M4 is actually USB 2, try the other cable into one of the USB 3 ports and see if that doesn't fix you right up. This is working for me.

Lik many here I never let my Mac (iMac Pro) go to sleep. The display? Yes but not the CPU. With SSDs, the desktop Macs use very little energy when the display is sleeping. You are not conserving a laptop battery here.

This is not straight forward in Mojave and later: Open Energy Saver in System Preferences and Check the following only:

Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when display is off
Wake for network access
Enable Power Nap

Uncheck Put hard disks to sleep whenever possible

Set the Display Off slider where you like.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Here's a thought...

NEVER PUT YOUR MAC TO SLEEP. EVER!

Use the screen saver. On a desktop, turn off you video monitor(s). Sleeping a Mac, any Mac, is just inviting problems on waking. I mean, it's not like it wakes up and only needs to take a pee. No. It has to go thru the whole (yesterdays) enchilada.

All snark and kidding aside. I haven't put my Macs to sleep in a 100 years, or more. OK. I exaggerated a little, but not by much.

Damn. Now I gotta pee again...

[Mertafor]

I appreciate your replies. As you said sleep/wake action comes with many unreliable results. I’ve been thinking in case leaving mac mini always turned on may cause hardware issues in time (fan malfunction example). But knowing that these are common issues for most external devices, I guess ditching sleep mode entirely might be the best idea in this case.

Thanks a lot again!

[monkey man]

MOTU M4 no sound after wake?

I say marry it now before it changes its mind.

Seriously 'though, I too have experienced all manner of glitches and freezes post-sleep. I therefore also would urge you to use the put-the-monitor-to-sleep function in Sys Prefs (set it to 15 or 20 minutes), drives too if you like, but not the 'puter itself.

[Mertafor]

Hahaha I couldn’t agree more about the topic, I was just trying to keep it brief as possible

But I realized that this terrible under-developed so-called “sleep” technology doesn’t help nothing more than making fun of

By the way, ditching sleep is all good for mac mini and desktop macs. Do you think it is same for macbook as well? I’ve got an MBP and haven’t tried motu on it yet. But as you know, closing the lid means sleep for a laptop. If it’s the same deal for MBP maybe I should look for alternatives to keep it “awake”

[monkey man]

I've had glitches on my 2011 MBP almost every time I put it to sleep, which is rare.

If, for instance, I have VLC open with a playlist of music-video clips in-progress, chances are that after 1 or 2 sleeps it'll get really messed-up. The only way to get the playback window back is to force-quit it and set up another playlist.

I haven't run any audio software on that machine, but I'd predict things wouldn't be glitch-free 'cause that's just how it's always been historically, from what I've read over many years, for audio software and sleeping.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

My wife’s MBP has zero peripherals and basic software on it. No DAWs or other highly complex apps. It will drop the WiFi if it goes to sleep. Sometimes it comes back after a minute and so
Stones needs to restart. It gets old fast.

[bayswater]

Enable Power Nap

Enable? I would have thought not enabling it would be better. How does enabling it help?

I agree with your point about trying different USB connections. I got a hub that specifically says it works with versions before USB 3. This setup works properly with sleep, even after a few days.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Enable Power Nap

Enable? I would have thought not enabling it would be better. How does enabling it help?

I agree with your point about trying different USB connections. I got a hub that specifically says it works with versions before USB 3. This setup works properly with sleep, even after a few days.

Power nap? I also thought that needed to be disabled. Is that old news? Was it just a Mavericks problem?

[mikehalloran]

Mojave and Catalina don’t let you completely disable sleep. Enabling Power Nap is as close as you can get. You’ll notice that Mail, Time Machine, downloads and other background services continue to run and you are less likely to lose connected USB devices—at least those connected to the USB 3 ports. Likewise, my TB2 dock connected via the TB2–TB3 adapter is never affected.

My external monitors always wake up but it’s not instantaneous as it was before Mojave. USB-C is the only choice on an iMP unless I want to resurrect my DisplayLink box.

It does not prevent USB devices connected via the USB-C ports from going to sleep, however. I’ve been buying and returning hubs trying to find one that gets around this issue without success (thanks, Amazon!).

Neither my M4 or my Mackie interfaces wake up consistently if connected via USB-C—gotta unplug and re-plug as per the OP and DeOxIt doesn’t help—I’ve tried. This is never an issue if connected to a USB 3 port with a USB-C to USB 2 cable. An iMP has four of each port.
.

[bayswater]

I guess I'm confusing App Nap and Power Nap.

[b.g.]

Hi,

I’m using motu m4 with my mac mini. OS is Catalina latest, 10.15.6. Also latest m4 drivers installed.

I had a similar problem with my M4. I called MOTU tech support, and one of his first questions was what OS version was I using. I told him Catalina 10.15.6. He emailed me a Terminal command to copy and paste, which fixed it for me. Give MOTU a call.

[b.g.]

Hi,

I’m using motu m4 with my mac mini. OS is Catalina latest, 10.15.6. Also latest m4 drivers installed.

I had a similar problem with my M4. I called MOTU tech support, and one of his first questions was what OS version was I using. I told him Catalina 10.15.6. He emailed me a Terminal command to copy and paste, which fixed it for me. Give MOTU a call.

Oops, I forgot. Also the loopback inputs were not publishing, which the Terminal command fixed.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Maybe you still have the Terminal command you can post here?