I recently set Cubase to use WinRT MIDI ports (to fix problems, including my Osmose not being recognised as an MPE device). Prior to doing this, if Cubase reported missing MIDI ports at Project load time it would do so by referring to their ‘friendly’ names, e.g. ‘Typhon’.
Now, when I load a Project, and get reports of missing MIDI ports, the port names are a jumble of meaningless characters. I have no idea which ports it is referring to.
The port names are all like this:
‘\?\SWD#MMDEVAPIMIDII_9F… (+ lots more characters)’.
Is there any way to fix this? Might it be resolved by the upcoming new Windows MIDI API?
Maybe you could ask @Psychlist1972 MSFT, who posts here occasionally.
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Those are not the port names. Those are the ids. IIRC, both are displayed to you in Cubase in different columns.
WinRT MIDI 1.0 has issues with naming. When that was implemented, the folks who did it tried to get the name from the same place on every device. Unfortunately, that ended up with many devices being named “MIDI” because they didn’t have names in the USB pin.
In cases where that name is actually provided, it will result in a different name from what is in WinMM (“Windows MIDI”) so Cubase will report missing ports and need you to manually associate / find them.
We have this all sorted in the new stack that will be out soon (matching names for WinRT MIDI 1.0), but that doesn’t help you here unless you want to run a Windows Insider Canary release (not recommended for a PC you rely on).
Pete
Microsoft
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Can you post a screenshot of what you are seeing in Cubase?
Pete
Microsoft
Thanks for responding. I’m very grateful. TBH I wouldn’t have troubled you for this relatively minor issue.
I’m not at base camp right now, but here I made a screen shot from Cubase 13 on my laptop - same basic problem…
Yes, when I made the switch to WinRT (to fix the Osmose problem) I had a nightmare time of trying, by trial and error, to figure out what each of the generically named ‘MIDI’ ports was. It took me a long time. To then be presented with these nonsense names in the missing ports dialogue was a second kick in the teeth.
Hopefully what you are doing is going to sort this all out, because it seems to be a dog’s dinner at the moment.
No worries. It’s Windows and MIDI, so happy to try to help 
That’s a lot of unmapped ports. Are they all actually used, or do you have a huge template?
Do you get any more information in that Window? I forget if you can click the arrow on the left to expand it, or if there’s information off to the right.
If there’s no additional info there, maybe I can whip out a small console app that will tell you what device each of those represents.
Pete
Microsoft
Yes, I have a lot of MIDI gear in my studio, so the list goes on. This is me deliberately trying to load my hardware-only full template with none of it connected
As mentioned, I am not able to get to my studio right now, but I will take a look at what you say when I am back in a couple of days.
(Back in the studio)
Ah yes. I see that the triangle over on the left of the ‘missing ports’ window is a dropdown control. I never realised this until now. Opening the dropdown shows a friendly name (though I don’t know where it gets this from - Windows, or Cubase). There’s nothing helpful over in the right-most columns.
Now I can, at least, ascertain what gear the current Project is reporting as missing.
Thank you for this. I have what I need to move on.
With hopeful heart I am looking forward to seeing the new MIDI API (‘stack’?) arrive, though I’m not of the persuasion for previews or betas! 
Many thanks.
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