Cubase 12 Didn't Ask For Microphone Access - Monterey

Hi Folks,

I have updated to CB12 from CB 11 (with CB 10.5 also on the machine).

No input on Cubase 12 - diagnosed as the Microphone Access thing in Security/Privacy … but Cubase 12 doesn’t appear there (it never asked for it when I first ran CB12 on my studio machine) and I’m not quite sure on exactly what needs to be uninstalled/removed in order to get it to try to prompt me.

It did prompt me to do this on a clean install on my second machine (MacBook) as it didn’t already have a version of Cubase on there - I suspect, a key difference.

I’ve tried just removing and reinstalling the program but that’s not enough obviously (I really don’t like this no-prompt installing thing from the Steinberg Downloader).

I reset my Microphone access thing as advised on other threads and it has been successful … but it’s now also removed the access that all my other audio apps had as well (including CB 10.5 and 11!).

root@JNP-Control-Room ~ # tccutil reset Microphone 
Successfully reset Microphone

Is there any folder in particular that needs to be removed in order for Cubase to ask for that permission during the first run?

I’m reluctant to do too much removing of Library/Application Support stuff as I’m fairly sure that the way Steinberg apps install they kind of link to the old ones rather than making new folders for each version of the app.

Thanks heaps to anyone who may be able to help!

Hope this works for you

As per my post Cubase 12 does not appear there, and it never has.

SOLUTION

Ok, I’ve managed to solve it and will post the solution here that hopefully someone might find useful.

  • This issue is a unique to Cubase 12 users upgrading from 10.5/11 using Monterey / Big Sur and it doesn’t ask you for microphone access. It’s due to the licensing change and a few other things.

You end up with nothing in System Preferences ->Security and Privacy → Microphone to tick … like this:

  • It appears as though Cubase 12 only does the full plugin scan on first run if ALL CUBASE USER PREFERENCES OF PREVIOUS VERSIONS are also removed. So I had to remove the 10.5 and 11 prefs before Cubase 12 actually rescanned and asked me to access the Microphone (which it never did on first run when I installed it). Cubase 12 seems to rely on pervious plugin scans and a few other things unlike previous versions which would do it fresh if there was no preference file for that version.

  • It’s also special because the license files are now located in a few folders for Cubase 12 whereas you can just nuke the entire folder for 10.5 and 11 as they check the USB key for license access.

When I did the same for Cubase 10.5 and 11 (because I reset the Microphone access with the command listed in my first post), all I had to do was remove the user preferences related to that version and it asked for access on first boot after scanning all the plugins. It then just checks the USB licenser and bam

BACKUP ALL OF THESE FOLDERS AND FILES FIRST

/Library/Application\ Support/Steinberg
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Application\ Support/Steinberg
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.steinberg.cubaseXX.plist 
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/Cubase\ XX

XX being all versions you see listed.

THEN RESTRUCTURE AS FOLLOWS:


Remove All Cubase related folders in:

/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/CubaseXX

(XX being every single version listed)

Remove Files:

/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.steinberg.components.coreaudio2asio.plist 
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/com.steinberg.cubaseXX.plist 

(XX being every single version listed)

Then, in

/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Application\ Support/Steinberg

You have to remove everything EXCEPT you have to leave

/Activation\ Manager

In place.

Similarly in

/Library/Application\ Support/Steinberg

Remove everything EXCEPT you have to leave

/Activation\ Manager

In place.


Once you have removed all of these things, run Cubase 12 and it will rescan all plugins (this is how you know it’s working) and eventually ask you for Microphone access.

After that - confirm. you have it in your System Preferences → Security and Privacy → Microphone


Then quit Cubase 12 and take all of the files you backed up and put them back where they came from … and run Cubase 12 again - it will start with your normal setup/preferences.


I hope this helps - there seems to be a serious loophole here with the new licensing system where you cannot remove EVERYTHING from preferences and re-install Cubase 12 as you could with 10.5/11 etc.

I was very surprised when on first execution Cubase 12 didn’t scan all my plugins - so this was the tell that it must have been referring to my old preferences in order to OK them. This is always what seems to have prevented the program from asking for this permission.

2 Likes

AHHH, I forgot about Microphone Access. You Just saved me a LOT of time, I had already do a couple of downloads and installs. It’s been horrible.
One thing: Cubase did NOT ask for Microphone access - BUT it was in the sysprefs waiting to be ticked. So anyone else: HAVE A LOOK IN SYSTEM PREFS / MICROPHONE ACCESS FIRST.

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou, James!

Will.

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I just installed Cubase 12 on a fresh Mac Studio running Monterey from the Download Assistant and it never prompted for Microphone Access … and AGAIN it’s not even in there so I’ll have to do this process on a second machine.

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According to this, running Cubase from the unix executable file could be a temporary workaround…

To do this, read the following:

  1. Go to the applications folder.
  2. Ctrl+click “Cubase 12.app” and choose “Show Package Contents”.
  3. Navigate to: Contents/MacOS/
  4. Double+click “Cubase 12”.

It will ask for Microphone permissions, but the permissions will be given to Terminal.app, not Cubase 12.app. So every time you’ll need to record something, you’ll need to start Cubase this way.

Works on MacOS Ventura 13.5 Beta.

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Hi, thanks for this, worked for me! But, is there anything that can fix the problem permanently? Thanks again!

It might be. Start you Mac in Safe Mode (this will reset/regenerate the system cache), then open Cubase 12 (ie. while the OS is in Safe Mode).

The following solution will work 100%, but requires you to have a little patience.

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Thanks so much for this, you are my hero! In my case, with Big Sir, Cubase 12 didn’t ask for microphone permission, but I can see my sound card among the allowed devices, although I don’t remember allowing it.

What exactly do you mean?

I mean that even though Cubase is not on the list, my sound card is, so it’s very strange that my Mac doesn’t see the microphone through Cubase, if that’s the right way to put it.

If you mean that the sound card is on the list, then I don’t see it. But do you think it’s possible to have a sound card on this list?

So I take it that none of the suggested solutions worked for you?
Don’t get me wrong. I agree it’s strange because other apps like Zoom, or Audacity do ask for permissions (while Cubase sometimes doesn’t).

It actually worked after I’ve done the terminal thing, thank you so much! I’ve just realized Zoom is not the soundcard, but the app. My sound card has a similar name. Anyway, thank you again!

I found useful code to insert Microphone access directly into the OS Security settings.

For Big Sur - Monterey type into terminal:

sudo sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db “INSERT or REPLACE INTO access VALUES(‘kTCCServiceMicrophone’,‘com.steinberg.cubase12’,0,2,2,1,NULL,NULL,NULL,‘UNUSED’,NULL,0,1652639195);”

and for Mojave - Catalina type:

sudo sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db “INSERT or REPLACE INTO access VALUES(‘kTCCServiceMicrophone’,‘com.steinberg.cubase12’,0,2,1,NULL,NULL,NULL,‘UNUSED’,NULL,0,1652639195);”

It worked for me (replaced com.steinberg.cubase12 with com.steinberg.nuendo13) and it worked for my Nuendo 13.

Good luck!