Questions & Answers

audio box 96 not recognized by new MAC air Catalina

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asked Dec 11, 2019 in AudioBox USB by bartgreen (120 points)
new MacBook Air and audio box 96 working initially with GarageBand. now with update not recognized at all as an input in GarageBand or in MacBook. installed universal control and no change. apple support unable to help. any idea if this compatibility will be fixed anytime soon?

3 Answers

0 votes
answered Feb 17, 2020 by karimjetha (180 points)
i have a macbook air on 10.14.6 Mojave and Garage band is not recognizing the interface. I plugged it in directly as well as through a USB hub.  Hopefully someone has an idea.
0 votes
answered Feb 17, 2020 by karimjetha (180 points)
i was just able to resolve.  I did two things having searched further on here.  Hope it can work for you:

1. Plug in via a USB hub

2. download the universal controller.

once i did that, garage band recognized my device.

Hope this works for you.

cheers.
0 votes
answered Jan 31, 2023 by davehineman (140 points)

Took me a few hours, but I finally nailed it. The USB96 MUST be plugged into a USB 2.0 hub and that hub MUST be seen by the Mac as a USB2.0 hub. The native USB ports on the Mac are USB3.0, which the USB96 won't talk to directly. The last puzzle piece I needed was how the Mac identifies the external USB hub that is connected!

Under the top left Apple icon, go to About This Mac, then select System Report. Scroll down and expend the USB section. You should see the USB96 listed in there. Make sure the item above it is shown as "USB2.0Hub" and not Generic USB Hub. I have two hubs and the Generic one will show the USB96 but the Mac won't add it to the Devices lists in Logic or anywhere else. Once I moved the USB96 over to the USB2.0Hub, suddenly I can use the USB96 without any problems and I don't need the the PreSonus Universal Control software, either. Just the right USB hub.

My Mac is a 2012 MacBook Pro running Catalina 10.15.7. It has two USB 3.0 ports, which downshift to USB 2.0 if you connect a USB 2.0 hub to them. That's the trick. I tried to attach a screen shot, but it doesn't appear to be possible here. Perhaps Support can ask me for it via email.  

I hope this identifies the missing detail for everyone that can't get this to work.

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