1 (edited by VitaminD 2020-09-10 12:02:11)

Topic: Fireface UFX+ has lost Thunderbolt host connection with MacBook Pro

Hello, apologies if I've missed this fault being discussed already on the forum;

My Fireface UFX+ has lost its Thunderbolt host connection with my MacBook Pro. I've tried several different thunderbolt cables, I've updated the drivers & software over USB, nothing works. The UFX+ is working on the USB connection, but the Thunderbolt connection seems to be totally gone.

I'm running macOS Mojave 10.14.6

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Re: Fireface UFX+ has lost Thunderbolt host connection with MacBook Pro

Not a known issue... Can you test the TB connection with other devices?


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Re: Fireface UFX+ has lost Thunderbolt host connection with MacBook Pro

RME Support wrote:

Not a known issue... Can you test the TB connection with other devices?


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Hi Daniel, thanks for responding.
This problem seems to be very intermittent. It happened several times a few months ago, and my music colleague who also owns another UFX+ has had it happen a few times too.

On this occasion the loss of Thunderbolt connection seemed to happen when I removed a USB cable that was feeding midi to an interface (Emagic amt8 interface). For several hours there was nothing I could do to get Thunderbolt to connect with the MacBook Pro again. I tried rebooting many times, rebooting the computer, swapping to another computer etc. I switched over to using USB temporarily that day for the audio connection, but this is not ideal in my setup. Later in the evening the UFX+ just randomly connected by itself over Thunderbolt again.

I had wondered if the MacBook itself was losing the channel to the Thunderbolt socket somehow, but the problem persisted on both Thunderbolt sockets and on another MacBook too, so I have to assume that the UFX+ itself is somehow disabling its own Thunderbolt connection for some reason.

I should add, when this happens, the option to select "Thunderbolt" on the UFX+ screen is actually "greyed out" as if the option for Thunderbolt isn't installed at all.

At the moment the Thunderbolt connection seems to be behaving properly again every day, but as I've seen this happen a few times in the past I expect it to happen in again at some point, so I thought it would be best to notify you here, and also for the benefit of other users who might search this forum for the same problem.

Kind regards

4

Re: Fireface UFX+ has lost Thunderbolt host connection with MacBook Pro

On the unit: Setup, Hardware/ Diag., Interface Mode. Change it from Auto to TB. You can not select TB unless USB is unplugged.

Also make sure you have at least firmware 155_44_51 flashed (or 52).

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

5

Re: Fireface UFX+ has lost Thunderbolt host connection with MacBook Pro

Of course, and usually it works. Maybe your UFX+ is out of spec. Contact your local distributor and discuss this issue with them.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME