Well, at least MOTU is happy. I just bought an 828es. I don’t know if Steinbergs Personel are quite clear on who they work for. Steinberg or it’s competitors!
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Just had to update to Catalina … my NLE requires it now … so the MR drivers no longer work.
I got the 64 bit versions for the CMC controllers … surely if you decided to update those, the MR816 drivers shouldn’t be much of an argument?
Please, please think again about this. Theres plenty of active MR users out there still… and all we need is a re-compile of the driver. Nothing fancy. Nothing has changed in Firewire for years! It would not be a heavy lift particularly in these days of COVID . Yamaha most likely has engineers sitting on their hands looking for work!
We’re getting rid of D. Tr**p for you all … can’t you return us this little favor??? 
Well, I located an unwanted, very old MacBook Air and it updated to High Sierra. I can confirm that installing these crappy v1.7.9 drivers will result in the 816 not being seen by the computer. And as others mention, uninstalling and reinstalling the v1.7.8 version won’t fix the issue.
I revived my interface by following the process laid out here
Uninstall drivers, manual cleanup, disable system integrity, install v. 1.7.8 , activate system integrity.
I can’t believe SB distribute this interface killer!!!
At least I can configure it to use as extra preamps now.
Wow, it is quite surprising that they don’t respond even if only to appease the situation. I too have an mr816 but i am in windows an lately use it only as a front for my rme digiface, since firewire is so difficult to come by these days. Unfortunately autosync doesn’t work as it should, so I’ve been considering to upgrade to an ARX but clearly this kind of strategy makes it impossible. My old pci rme digiface btw (bought in 2003) has still drivers. There is simply no excuse for a music technology giant.
I’m on PC so I still have some time (how long nobody knows) left on my 2 MR816s.
I feel badly for people on OS who now own $1000 paperweights.
Steinberg never had a great reputation for product support before, but with the “zero latency” daisy chaining BS, the repeated times I met with Steinberg reps at conventions who promised to reach out to me and never followed up, and the heartless way they have chosen to treat their customers - who purchased their “flagship product” - I can state unequivocally that it would be a cold day in hell (or Texas) before I buy another piece of Steinberg hardware.
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SB please compile a driver for the MR816 on Big Sur M1… I love this interface and want to keep using it.
You would make a bunch of fans happy.
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To anyone who lands here in 2021.
Do not “upgrade” to version 1.7.9 and do not ever buy Steinberg/Yamaha products.
They cannot be trusted!!!
I was an I88X user for a couple of years until they botched their last fw/driver and left me stranded. I thought it was a one time occurrence as mLan was in its infancy and firewire was a cutting-edge tech at the time. I later bought the MR-816 and here we are with the same story. Their products have “built-in” obsoleteness. I’ve since moved on to RME interfaces, they actually support their products, even long after they are discontinued.
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This is the MOST ABSURD decision your company has ever made! I own 2 MR816CSX units and now you’re telling me in effect that they are utterly worthless and to buy new units! NO SALE! How dare you people try to force us to ditch a perfectly functioning and excellent audio interface because your engineers can’t design a simple little 64 bit driver !!! If this is not addressed I can guarantee you that after 30 years of using Steinberg products (including being a beta tester for several years) you will have lost a loyal customer to AVID or Logic! DO THE RIGHT THING! create a 64 bit driver for the Mac! Unbelievable !!!
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Can’t you just run the interface under an operating system/environment that it still works with – don’t update your OS or use it with a computer that has the correct configuration?
A lot of people run older hardware in older software envronments for just that reason. FireWire is also on its last legs in terms of support from both Mac and Windows – it’s much harder to get it working on the newer versions of both operating systems. On a Mac you are going to be using a huge number of dongles and recent Windows 10 updates have had many users reporting in various audio forums that they have silently dropped support.
The reality is all hardware items that have a software component associated with them will eventually become paperweights. An interface with a lifespan of 10+ years is actually quite impressive as most TVs and white goods don’t even last this long now (5 years would be average for these items). You can always find ways to keep the old hardware running if it is paramount to your livelihood.
It’s not just about the dropping of support for what was their premium interface, but also the manner in which it was done. The relative silence and the poor excuses that followed. The eventual $200 trade in price for a supposed upgrade to the AXR was the proverbial icing on the cake. By the way, as predicted by some here, this immediately set the used price for the unit. Thanks Steinberg!
Users want time to transition, if transition is truly the only way forward. What they did was created a driver that didn’t work, then effectively walked away leaving many high and dry and proposed an upgrade to the AXR as a solution (not literally but this is how it came across to me). Some on here posted that they couldn’t afford the new unit and simply downgraded to an alt non Steinberg interface as they needed to continue working. A full blown clusterf@£k!
There are great examples out there of pro audio companies that do this right, with products getting support way beyond their production cycle and where the functionality delivers as advertised. Comparing a pro audio interface to a consumer TV is a little bit disingenuous.
From a former user, owner of several MR’s, I moved onto a company that had a long history of great product support. V1 Interfaces, 15 years plus old are still able to get updates/upgrades to work in current OS’s etc. That’s what users wanted from Steinberg for their pro series interfaces. The bottom line is, they have a history of dropping support. Wish I’d known of it before.
Looking at some of the current hardware support queries for the new AXR, it seems little has changed. I for one will not return to using their hardware products unless I see several years of evidence of a u-turn in current policy. Nice words and promises of change from the marketing team will not again suffice for me.
Yamaha and Steinberg know how to build GREAT gear, and together along with their awesome staff, have the resources to support them. To me it feels like a wasted opportunity for greatness.
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Nice article:
This is a simple 64 bit driver re compile that’s needed for this piece, nothing more, no parts at all
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Release the source code for the drive maybe?