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How to fix Core MIDI problems with OSX after using migration assistant or upgrading system

By Jaems • Feb 25th, 2008 • Category: Tutorials

Caution: Rewire users have been reporting that after entering the Terminal command below, Rewire stops working. I don’t use Rewire, and have no experience with it, but I’d bet that reinstalling Rewire afterwards would fix the problem. It probably installs some kind of virtual driver to your Midi drivers which the Terminal command would delete. The two options are therefore to reinstall Rewire after cleaning your Midi drivers below, or to copy and save whatever component that Rewire installs before using the Terminal command, then drag it back into the folder indicated below when you are done. I need some feedback from a Rewire user, though, before I can be sure. Please comment of email me if you have experience with this.

- Now on to the post -

Is your MIDI dead? You might have just used Migration Assistant to move from one computer to another. Or perhaps you upgraded to Leopard. Symptoms include:

  • Can’t launch programs that use midi
  • Can’t open Audio Midi setup utility or the Midi portion won’t launch or jams
  • Getting messages telling you to update or reinstall your drivers
  • Getting messages telling you that Midi Server won’t launch
  • Core Midi doesn’t run

Opening Terminal.app and entering this command should remedy the problem:

sudo rm -rf /Library/Audio/MIDI\ Drivers/*

You’ll have to enter your administrator password. This problem had vexed me for a few months, effectively disabling Core Midi – first after having run migration assistant, and again after upgrading to Leopard. I finally fixed it yesterday and can now run midi again. I hope this info will help others who are searching for a solution. I have added some distinct keywords to this message to make searching easier.

Note: If the above does not work, you need to make sure the directory below is empty, before you reinstall your interfaces.  The location must be correct with no alternate spellings. It should also be ok to remove the drivers manually (by sending them to the trash), but the Terminal command helps in that regard. Note: you will likely need to reinstall any real Midi drivers that you need, including Rewire. If you still get no results, you can try updating your Pace Interlok extensions here.

Location of Midi drivers

Location of Midi drivers

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57 Responses »

Show pingbacks
Heebie Said,
April 1st, 2008 @9:45 am  

Thank you so much for this! A real help!

-Heebie

[Reply]

d Replied,
November 21st, 2009 @9:16 am  

thanks!!

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
April 7th, 2008 @1:19 pm  

No problem!

[Reply]

Carsten Said,
April 29th, 2008 @3:25 pm  

thank you Jaems, that solved my problem with apogees duet on MacBook pro

Carsten

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
April 29th, 2008 @3:46 pm  

Great! It sure is a crazy bug…

[Reply]

emcee esher Said,
May 1st, 2008 @7:05 am  

thank you so so so much, i’ve had this problem since upgrading leopard. that terminal thing is quite useful, perhaps i should learn to use it…you’re a genius, thanks again.

ee

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
May 1st, 2008 @5:42 pm  

Genius! Why thank you, that made my day! :)

Yes, the Terminal is the bomb.

Now let’s all forget this nightmare ever happened and make some crazy MIDI noise

[Reply]

raz Said,
May 10th, 2008 @9:28 pm  

I don’t understand what to do in terminal
it’s all because this Avid
my sountrack pro dosen’t work

please help me!

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
May 25th, 2008 @9:29 pm  

There’s a good introduction to the Terminal here. You need to open the Terminal application and paste the line in the post above and then press Return. Then follow the instructions onscreen. Are you sure you are having Midi driver problems? What error message do you get?

[Reply]

Luis Alvarez Said,
August 2nd, 2008 @5:19 pm  

many thanks… tricky problem was making me mad,

all the best…

F

[Reply]

rod Said,
August 20th, 2008 @10:49 pm  

I’ve tried updating my intelock drivers and putting your command line in terminal and I’m still having a problem getting audio/midi setup to load my midi server. I spent 2 hours with mac techs today on this problem, and now that suggest that I re-install my OS which I REALLY don’t want to do and have to re-install all my 3rd party apps. Do you have any other suggestions for curing the midi problem?

Thanks!
Rod

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
August 21st, 2008 @8:47 am  

HI Rob,

It sounds to me like you have the problem that’s been described here. Ultimately, Apple support is correct: reinstalling your system would fix the problem, but only because the problem drivers would be removed. You need to get rid of the corrupt Midi drivers in order to jumpstart Midi again on your system. The terminal command will clean out the drivers and then you need to reinstall whatever interface you are using. If you aren’t using an external Midi interface, then there is no need to reinstall, but there is a chance that you’ll only get it working again after a reinstall of the Midi device and software. The Midi device you are using needs to be compatible to the OS version you are using. You need to be logged in as Root user, and you may need to either relaunch the finder, or quit and restart your system. You may also need to have the Midi device connected the first time you try to get it working. You need to make sure the Terminal command above is spelled properly, and that there is no bogus whitespace or errant characters. You can paste it into Text edit then convert the command to plain text. I have attached a picture to the Post to show where the drivers are located on your system. All the folders need to be spelled correctly, and located in the proper place.
Let me know how it goes…

[Reply]

cin Replied,
December 29th, 2009 @5:17 am  

it works for me only for one session. when i close the DAW or the Audio setup and try to open it second time, the problem is here again, and i have to repeat the procedure everytime i want to use midi…

Is there a way to fix it permanently?

[Reply]

James Howard Young Replied,
December 29th, 2009 @12:12 pm  

You can check the directory I described above in the post to see if there are any drivers installed back into that directory when you launch the Audio Setup and experience the problem again. If so, it’s possible that something is installing itself from another application or utility and you could try to find out what that is.

[Reply]

Gulzt Said,
September 16th, 2008 @8:18 pm  

Thanks so much!!!

[Reply]

Anonymous Said,
October 2nd, 2008 @7:33 pm  

Thank you!!!!!!!

[Reply]

Glove Said,
October 15th, 2008 @1:18 am  

Thank You!!!!!
You saved me!!!!!!!

[Reply]

jason Said,
November 19th, 2008 @6:04 am  

I don’t know if this thread applies to my problem, however, I recently tried to install Pro Tools LE 7.4. The installation was fine, however, it created a “coremidi” error in Finale 2008 that does not go away until I uninstall Pro Tools. Would this work?

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
November 19th, 2008 @4:41 pm  

Jason, yes this will probably fix it – anyway it’s worth a shot.

[Reply]

jake Said,
December 11th, 2008 @10:32 pm  

anybody notice that after entering that fix that Rewire doesn’t work anymore?

[Reply]

Jaems Replied,
November 3rd, 2009 @12:07 pm  

This is a known problem, I’ve listed a potential fix in the original post

[Reply]

colin Said,
December 22nd, 2008 @8:54 am  

brilliant many thanks it was driving me nuts!!!! and just before doing a trip
Many Many thanks for posting that info
Cheers
C

[Reply]

Steve M Said,
January 2nd, 2009 @12:34 am  

Genius,
At last I got my midi working again thanks to your posting.
Thanks so much
S

[Reply]

Sha'ul Said,
February 4th, 2009 @3:43 pm  

thank you so so sooooooo much Jaems. man i was about to break my computer.
thanks lol.

[Reply]

Jaems Said,
February 4th, 2009 @3:50 pm  

No problem Sha’ul. A definitely frustrating and undocumented problem.

[Reply]

B Said,
February 13th, 2009 @1:11 pm  

I know this sounds insane but I tried everything- clean installs, deleting .midi. everything, re-installing ilock stuff (I own waves) …. finally I realized I had a radio shack dazzle card reader plugged in (I use it on a pc) that refused to let core midi server run while it was plugged in.. 12 HOURS OF THE MOST ANNOYING TROUBLESHOOTING BEFORE A RECORDING SESSION the next day!

finally success- YAY

the moral of my story:

USB devices can cause core midi crashes

I hope this helps someone.

[Reply]

Jaems Replied,
February 13th, 2009 @1:38 pm  

Thanks, B. Every bit of info we can collect will help. I guess some devices are no longer compatible.

[Reply]

Sierra Said,
February 24th, 2009 @6:14 pm  

Jaems,
you save my life!
Now I can work with Finale and DP again,
thanks sooooooooo much!
Cheers,
Sierra

[Reply]

Rasmus Schack Said,
June 13th, 2009 @4:54 pm  

Jeesus. Thanks. I have no idea what a sudo is, but it’s magic.

[Reply]

James Said,
August 7th, 2009 @7:55 am  

Let me add myself to the list of people whose lives were veritably saved by this post!! !! !!!! ! ! !

[Reply]

Sebastian Tomczak Said,
August 22nd, 2009 @1:39 pm  

Thanks so much for posting this. Your solution helped me within about one minute or so – very useful! Greetings from Adelaide, Australia :)

[Reply]

Russell Said,
September 2nd, 2009 @1:32 pm  

A real life saver. Thank you for posting this invaluable fix.

[Reply]

Lottie Said,
September 3rd, 2009 @11:12 am  

I have a similar problem, don’t know whether this will fix it or not! I use logic, and it works fine but then the core midi server thing seems to cause my computer to crash and need a restart, will this fix it?

[Reply]

Kiwi Said,
October 27th, 2009 @10:59 am  

Thanx so much, you just made my day (or night, as it’s 2 am here in France)

[Reply]

Jaems Replied,
October 27th, 2009 @1:21 pm  

Thanks, and I’m in the same time zone!

[Reply]

Jono Said,
November 3rd, 2009 @11:28 am  

hi there
i use pro tools and reason 3.1.4. im not sure if the problem im having relates to this post but someone mentioned something about rewire not working after entering this code into the terminal. i cant get reason to appear in the my pro tools plugins, any suggestions on a solution to this?

[Reply]

Jaems Replied,
November 3rd, 2009 @12:09 pm  

Yeah it seems like the Terminal clean commend will wipe out your Rewire components. Best bet is to reinstall it after you run the hack. I’ve also updated the original post

I’d like to get feedback if you can get it working.

[Reply]

David Said,
November 6th, 2009 @10:08 am  

Thank you so much from France!

[Reply]

ash le rouge Said,
December 17th, 2009 @8:48 am  

SICK THANKS DUDE X

[Reply]

Derx Brax Said,
December 21st, 2009 @9:17 am  

Thank YOU so much!!! this problem has pissed me off for so long!

[Reply]

Fra Said,
December 29th, 2009 @7:33 pm  

Seems to work! Many Thanks from Italy

[Reply]

Felipe Said,
January 2nd, 2010 @3:32 am  

You rock…. God Bless you!

[Reply]

Thomas Said,
January 6th, 2010 @12:41 pm  

Hi, I’ve got a problem with my Alesis IO26 MIDI, as I see AlesisFirewire.plugin in your picture, maybe you could help me, if you own the same or similar device. I’ve had a lot of trouble with MIDI – Logic had MIDI timeouts, Audio MIDI setup had MIDI server problems when IO26 is connected. I’ve deleted the drivers with your terminal command and the audio interface works just fine, but I can’t use MIDI anymore. After reinstalling the device, I’ve got the same troubles like before.
Do you know a solution to this?
Thank You
Thomas

[Reply]

Maxim Said,
January 17th, 2010 @7:06 pm  

tnx! this REALLY helped me out! this was pissing me off for a long time.

[Reply]

TritonKeyboarder Said,
February 2nd, 2010 @2:32 pm  

Man THAT WORKED…. I simply deleted the emagic driver and the system started the midi server
Thank you

[Reply]

Bobby Said,
March 23rd, 2010 @7:00 pm  

Thanks Man……been having a lot of problems this. that trick worked

[Reply]

Pedro Said,
March 25th, 2010 @6:51 am  

Thanks a Lot, i was almost crying everytime I had to open Reason… Greetings from Chile

[Reply]

Dave Said,
May 12th, 2010 @10:32 pm  

So this is the second time I have had this issue – the first time my only solution was to do a clean install. This time I do not want to do that as a full clean install takes at least 20 hours…

What I have tried
• sudo rm -rf /Library/Audio/MIDI\ Drivers/*
• Manually removed drivers
• deleted all preferences pertaining to audio & midi
• reinstalled all drivers for audio, midi, & ilok
• Used Pacifist to selectively reinstall the audio midi setup application and midi support files

The problem is the midi window of the “audio midi setup” application times out giving this error: “The MIDI Server can’t be opened.”
If I manually remove midi drivers the midi window and midi based apps will open. HOWEVER if I install any midi driver
(tried 4 so far) the midi server times out.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

[Reply]

Pat Said,
June 1st, 2010 @6:44 pm  

thank you sooooo much! Just one more road block fixed with snow leopard.

[Reply]

N. Said,
June 12th, 2010 @10:17 pm  

WOW ! Thank you so much !

[Reply]

lucio Said,
June 21st, 2010 @7:51 pm  

I had the same problem. I solved it just moving to trash some Digidesign drivers. The terminal operation sounds good but I felt unsafe to perform it, then I found something online talking about Digidesign drivers which cause problems to Core MIDI, I erased them since I don’t need them and now everything seems to work properly…

[Reply]

liam Said,
July 22nd, 2010 @4:30 pm  

Thanks a lot – great to have people out there to help with this annoying problem!!!!

[Reply]

Jovan Broaden Said,
July 29th, 2010 @10:32 pm  

thanks alot worked perfect

[Reply]

Thirsty Said,
August 30th, 2010 @2:21 am  

Haven’t tried it yet (will when I get home), but this sounds like the problem I’ve been having. Thanks for taking the time to post a solution.

[Reply]

AL.BRONSON Said,
August 31st, 2010 @3:46 am  

I just had to come back and say thanks for the great information on the fix. Works great now!

[Reply]

chadwick needs help Said,
August 31st, 2010 @4:56 am  

i have just upgraded to Snow Leopard from 10.4, and upon upgrading also upgraded to Logic 9.

i have tried putting in the command mentioned above and get some sort of error message in the terminal. i went to my Library/Audio and found no folder for MIDI whatsoever.

i’m really confused as to what is happening. any ideas?

[Reply]

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