USB MIDI device not recognized by my computer

If your USB MIDI device is not being recognized by your computer, consider the following:

Windows

Check the Windows Device Manager to see if your device (or any new devices) appear.  MIDI devices should appear in the Sound, video and game controllers category.  If they appear with a yellow question mark or exclamation point, right-click and choose to update the driver.

Mac

For devices that require a driver, disconnect the device, uninstall the drivers, repair disk permissions, then re-install the latest drivers. Repair disk permission is done using the Disk Utility which can be found in the Applications > Utilities folder. Open that up and select your System Drive (usually labeled Macintosh HD), click the First Aid tab and click Repair Disk Permissions.

General tips

• Try connecting to different USB ports, then check the Device Manager again
• If your device is connected to a USB hub, try connecting it directly to ports on the computer.  Alternatively, if the device isn’t being recognized on the built-in ports, try connecting to a USB hub
• Test the device on a different computer
• Test with a different USB cable

Note: If you are using a long USB cable, try a shorter cable.

Knowledge Base