Updated from Sequoia 15.5 to 15.6 and now my UR 824 won't work

Steinberg Hardware UR Series
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1

As soon as the update completed, the UR 824 has disappeared. And everytime I try to re-install a fresh driver downloaded from the Steinberg site, I get a dialogue box that says “Yamaha Steinberg USB Driver V3.1.7.pkg” is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the trash".

I, of course, know this isn’t true: I just successfully installed the drivers not two weeks before now, but that of course was before I decided I would allow Sequoia 15.6 to update. Silly move on my part.

So, do you Steinberg need to update your driver for the new system, or does Apple need to do the patching on their end?

Please help-I’m now dead in the water.

2

Can you try installing this version of the driver? It solved all the issues for me when switching from Intel to an M4 Pro and Sequoia:

Thank you in any case for the warning: I’ll wait your findings before updating.

Paolo

3

Thanks for the help Paolo, but unfortunately this did not work. I got the same dialogue telling me that the driver is damaged and needs to be moved to the trash.

So, I’m not sure of what to do now: it looks as though Apple has gone through with this promise by simply not recognizing any of these drivers as even valid. It sees them as “damaged”. Same for the Uninstallers.

So, Steinberg (or anyone from them): what is your word on this? Are we UR824 owners now officially the owners of grey and black paperweights? Or is it possible for you to write up proper drivers for Silicon?

If it’s possible then can you get on it please?

1 Like
4

While waiting for Steinberg’s official response, may you try to remove the installer or driver from the quarantine (depending on which one is being refused by the OS)?

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Type "xattr -c " (with a space at the end).
  3. Drag after this string the installer or the driver from the Finder (this will copy the path and name in Terminal).
  4. Type Return to execute the command.

This should remove the installer or the driver from the Gatekeeper list, and let you run it.

Paolo

5

Something else to try: disable Gatekeeper. Please note that this temporarily removes your Mac’s protection. So try it at your own risk!

  1. Open Apple menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security. Keep it open.
  2. Open Terminal. Run the command “sudo spctl --master-disable” and press Enter. Enter your administrator password.
  3. The message “Globally disabling the assessment system needs to be confirmed” should appear in System Settings.
  4. Return to System Settings, but first click another option in the sidebar (for example, “Lock Screen”) and then return to “Privacy & Security”.
  5. Scroll down to the “Security” section. You should now see the “Anywhere” option under “Allow applications downloaded from:”. Select it. If prompted, re-enter your administrator password to confirm the change.

Now, you should be able to install the Yamaha/Steinberg driver. When done, enable Gatekeeper again (to protect the Mac):

  1. Open Terminal. Run the command “sudo spctl --master-enable” and press Enter. Enter your administrator password.
  2. Open Apple menu > System Settings > Privacy & Security.
  3. Scroll down to the “Security” section. Select the “App Store or identified developers” option under “Allow applications downloaded from:”. If prompted, re-enter your administrator password to confirm the change.
6

Thanks again, Paolo-that time did the trick! The beta driver is now installed.

And yet: it still begs a very important question: what now?

Clearly Apple is ready to move on from whatever protocols were present at one time that many of the older UR interfaces have relied on.

I started my journey into the world of computers back in the mid '80s with a Mac Plus, then went on to an SE, then to a Ci, and then to a Mac clone (remember those?) and finally with a G5. Over 10 years I was faithful to Cupertino.

But then I just got tired of the prices and lower performance relative to the PC world, so in '06 I got my first PC laptop, then later built two PC towers, which brought me to last year, wherein the tower was obsolete, and I decided to return to the world of Macs. So I spent almost 20 years with PCs.

I’m saying all this to say that buying into another ecosystem is no small decision. When I buy into a platform, I expect to be lingering with it for a while. Such a purchase carries with it it’s own momentum.

This is why I’m not crying bloody murder towards Apple for moving on: I have accepted the closed system that is the world of Apple-for better or worse-and tangentially I can even understand why Apple would not be interested in leaving doors open for certain protocols to remain in their code, when these protocols would be in support of systems that have aged so much-the UR824, for instance, is a USB 2.0 device! I mean: that’s quite old, and I actually wonder if the USB 2.0 spec is one of the reasons why drivers haven’t yet been-or can’t be (?) written for Silicon. I mean: the MacBook Pro I just bought exhibits Thunderbolt 5 (!!!) 5!!!

So that makes me wonder/worry: are we UR owners now consigned to the ranks of deploying these arcane sub-methods just to keep our rigs working? (And still: thank you generously for your help; I do not in any way want to negate how happy a development is is that you’ve been able to help me get in up and running.)

But, you know what I mean? I wonder if we’re now just re-arranging deckchairs on the deck of the Titanic? You were able to help me get this rig up and running. Great! This time.

What about next time? Or the time after that?

There will come a time-if Steinberg, for whatever reason, does not release fully Silicon-native drivers-where things just won’t work. And that concerns me.

So, again: I’d like some answers, or direction on this from Steinberg. I’m sure there’s plenty of others out their who would agree with me on that.

P.S. Given that I installed the beta version that you sent me, I guess I’ll be watching it for stability, and if you like then I can periodically inform the forum about any possible bugs.

1 Like
7

Steinberg has always been very slow in updating the drivers for their audio interfaces. Apparently, there is no reason for them not to work under Apple Silicon, and actually they do (on MacOS 15.5 they are working perfectly fine with my M4 Pro).

USB 2.0 is fast enough even for the full 24 channels the UR824 can support. So, no need for a faster connection. In my view, there is a reason why it is Steinberg’s interest to keep the driver alive: the UR824 is still a fantastic audio interface – one of the best around – and I guess they have their studios full of them.

I’m confident they will, sooner or later (probably the latter) come out with an update that is working on the newest Mac OS.

Paolo

8

God, I hope you are right, Paolo. And I fully agree with you on the UR824: it is an absolutely wonderful interface, that I lusted over for almost a decade before I picked one up second hand. I have always loved it’s specs, and I have been very happy with it otherwise.

So, Steinberg: let’s make it happen, soon? Please?

9

and, just to put this into context: the interface I HAVE been working with, all the while lusting for the UR824 is: a UAD Apollo Quad. So, that’s saying something.

I actually bought this UR824 in hopes of replacing the Apollo entirely.

My feelings on the Apollo: another story. But that I say that I love the UR824 over the Apollo should speak volumes.

10

First, thanks Paolo, for chiming in here.

Regarding the general driver support, this is nothing Steinberg has a say in.
The Yamaha Steinberg USB driver is developed and released by our mother company, Yamaha and the driver is a generic one for many Yamaha and Steinberg interfaces, both old and new.
While the release driver is still based on kernel extensions, the public beta driver is already based on the newer system extension model. I am confident that whenever Apple decides to make the cut official and prohibits the use of kexts, the system extension driver will be ready and made official as well.

1 Like
11

Thank you Ed for chiming in. Good to hear from Steinberg

This a a good distinction. I myself was wondering whether or not whenever I was mentioning Steinberg whether I should instead be more accurate by mentioning Yamaha instead.

Could you elaborate a little on what you mean by “make the cut official”? Are you saying that you’re surmising they are testing the driver more and after that will declare it “official”? Is that how it works: it is the system author, NOT the driver author that actually facilities the actual “release”?

Does this mean that the stability of this driver should be expected to be quite good and robust, given that it already has an established track record with many different devices, “both old and new”?

Thanks for your time!

12

Apple mentioned in the past that they will shut down support for kexts with one of their upcoming macOS releases. So far, that hasn’t happened and our current release driver still works with the latest macOS version. The public beta driver that is based on system extensions will be the only one that remains operational after Apple decides to flip the switch.
But Yamaha and Steinberg hardware users will have access to an official driver at the latest at that time.
And of course, that driver should be reliable and covers many devices, old and new.

13

After installing Sequoia 15.6 on my Mac mini M4 Pro, I can confirm that driver v4.0.3b is working fine.

I didn’t have to reinstall it, since it was already installed from the previous OS version.

Paolo

EDIT: It is also working fine with the 15.6.1 update.