Ever since I upgraded to El Capitan on my 13 inch, late 2011 MacBook Pro, my Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini will not show in Logic or in the System Preferences as an available input or output device. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Mbox driver. Still doesn't work and I'm not sure where to go from here.
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), OS X El Capitan (10.11)
Hi
I wish I had found this thread before I upgraded to El Capitan last night... My Mbox 3 is no longer recognized by the system, of course. It´s not a disaster but I feel a bit stupid for not having doublechecked that things would work after the upgrade. Figured that El Capitan has been out long enough to have Avid fixed the drivers... but no.
/J
It's not really Apple at fault. There are plenty of audio interfaces that work just fine with El Capitan because the manufacturers use the native OS functions to connect their devices. Avid (and some others) wrote their own bespoke audio interface drivers, and it is this software that is incompatible with El Capitan.
Like you I am frustrated with myself for blindly updating to El Capitan, and my MBox 2 is non-functional as a result. I am not holding my breath for an update from Avid because the hardware is pretty old now, and it's really not Apple's problem to fix.
However, I also have Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10, and I am pleased to say that the MBox and Pro Tools 8 LE work perfectly on that so for now I have switched from Apple to Microsoft!
Ric F wrote:
It's not really Apple at fault. There are plenty of audio interfaces that work just fine with El Capitan because the manufacturers use the native OS functions to connect their devices. Avid (and some others) wrote their own bespoke audio interface drivers, and it is this software that is incompatible with El Capitan.
This statement is (mostly) incorrect, it is companies who write their own drivers, (MOTU and RME), that have the most efficient, best performing audio interfaces. Apple's system drivers either change or are modified with every Operating System upgrade, including incremental upgrades so you never know what you're getting. Many of the USB devices that have failed do use Apple's system drivers. (personal opinion) Because USB uses the computers CPU to manage data transfer it is never the most stable audio interface. System drivers are constantly being changed to follow new standards, every upgrade is a crapshoot.
Generally speaking, professionals who rely on performance and stability seldom upgrade a perfectly running system, many here still use Logic 9.8.1 on hardware running Snow Leopard. What's more important, stability and performance or running the supposed latest and greatest (inefficient) OS?
I have been keeping up with this problem for awhile now and I think I found a workaround.
I am on OS 10.11.2 currently. If you uninstall all of your Mbox drivers, the speakers will work. Just go to Applications > Utilities > Audio MIDI Setup and the Mbox should show up in there.
Plug and play
Can't believe it works (but not at all)! Thank you so much for the solution. Yes it's really make my mbox2 starting well under El Capitan 10.11.4, all leds now lights correctly as they should, mbox2 is now showing in Audio Midi setup as a midi device, but... It still not displayed as an audio device : (
So we're almost close and maybe next solution will bring this great interface back to live.
How does it feel to be part of the Beta Test team for OSX El Capitan.
These days Apple uses it's customers for testing newly released operating systems.
How do I revert to my former OS? I need to use my Mbox2 for a job tomorrow!
OK - I reverted to Yosemite, Mbox2 still not working. How do i manually delete the 10.3.9 driver? A copy/paste command for Terminal would be helpful!
I was actually thinking of doing this same thing. What kind of hard drive is it running off of? Are there specs I should look for so it can run smoothly?
Thanks for the update!
I can confirm that.
My Mbox 2 is neither recognized by 10.11.1.
I am really surprised by Apple, this is not the kind of customer care they've always delivered.
Luca
Hi g-d-d-m, I did what you suggested but the device wont appear in the audio midi setup.
Do you have pro tools installed?
Anything you installed for the plug and play functionality?
Thank you,
Hey Francisco
I made sure I uninstalled all of the Avid mBox drivers, etc.
I do not have Pro Tools installed. I didn't install anything else that might connect it.
Hope that helps.
Are you able to connect an instrument / microphone to the mbox and use it for recording?
Still not working in 10.11.3.
I´m very disappointed from Apple!
Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini and El Capitan
