Hi everyone,
I am experiencing a persistent and frustrating issue with MediaBay, which occurs identically in both Cubase and Nuendo.
Description of the problem: When I open a project, everything works perfectly at first. Pressing F5 allows me to browse and search the database of presets and sounds without any lag. However, after a variable amount of time (sometimes after just 30 minutes, other times after a whole afternoon of work, depending on the project complexity), the MediaBay service suddenly stops working.
It is as if the DAW completely loses communication with its server: the MediaBay window (F5) becomes entirely blank, and the refresh/scanning icon just spins indefinitely.
Observations & Workarounds:
- Initially, I temporarily solved this by restarting the DAW and deleting the mediabay.db file, but the issue kept coming back.
- Recently, I discovered a faster workaround: I close the DAW, manually terminate the mediabayserver process via macOS Activity Monitor, and then relaunch the DAW. MediaBay then works again until the next random crash.
- Inside Activity Monitor, the mediabayserver process does not show up as “Not Responding” (it’s not red), and the mediabay.db database doesn’t seem to get corrupted. The disconnection just happens totally at random.
What I have already tried (without success):
- Trashing DAW preferences.
- Completely reinstalling MediaBay.
- Reinstalling Steinberg Download Assistant and Steinberg Activation Manager.
Has anyone else experienced this MediaBayServer disconnection on newer macOS versions? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.
System Specs:
- OS: macOS Tahoe
- DAWs: Nuendo 15 / Cubase 15 Pro
- Hardware: Mac M4 architecture / RME Fireface UFX+