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Helix software not communicating with Mac


DrFishhead
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Has anyone had success with their Helix communicating with their mac (for anything)? I am using 10.9.5. I have tried both Helix app 1.0.3 and the new line 6 updater and neither are showing a unit connected (via USB). I think this is a line 6 issue because under 'about this mac/more info/system report/USB/' it clearly shows a Helix unit connected to the 'USB hi-speed bus'---so it's not a bad cord or an Apple issue. Consequently I haven't upgraded to the newest firmware (still on 1.0.4) or checked out you alls tones.

 

 

 

 

 

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Has anyone had success with their Helix communicating with their mac (for anything)? I am using 10.9.5. I have tried both Helix app 1.0.3 and the new line 6 updater and neither are showing a unit connected (via USB). I think this is a line 6 issue because under 'about this mac/more info/system report/USB/' it clearly shows a Helix unit connected to the 'USB hi-speed bus'---so it's not a bad cord or an Apple issue. Consequently I haven't upgraded to the newest firmware (still on 1.0.4) or checked out you alls tones.

 

If you have not tried it already make sure you uninstall the old Line6 Updater and then reinstall the newest version (1.07). Many people have also had success using the 1.04 version of the Line6 Updater to update to the 1.06 firmware. Either way, make sure to uninstall your current version of the Updater  first.

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Thanks for the feedback. None of that works. I've tried both 1.0.[6,7] updaters as well as various combinations of turning on the helix, rebooting, etc. My MacMini can see the connection, but the line6 apps aren't talking with their own product. I'll open a ticket. As common as macs are in music these days this should have been tested more thoroughly.

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  • 1 month later...

Has anyone found a solution to this problem? I am having the exact same issue as the OP. I connect the Helix directly to a Mac Mini and it appears to begin working and then I get the yellow band and the "device not connected" warning.

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have you all tried a different USB port on your computer.

Also, can't say it enough. If you have an audio app launched that is accessing the Helix, or both the updater and the Helix Librarian program at the same time, it will cause problems.

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have you all tried a different USB port on your computer.

Yes

 

Also I have ensured no other application is accessing the Helix. The updater worked perfectly using the same USB set up. I know this seems to be a common problem, I was just trying to see if any work around had been established.

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Yes

 

Also I have ensured no other application is accessing the Helix. The updater worked perfectly using the same USB set up. I know this seems to be a common problem, I was just trying to see if any work around had been established.

 

If you are still running into this issue, please open up a ticket so we can get this resolved for you.

 

http://line6.com/support/tickets/

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I have found that it simply does not work with 10.9.x. Fortunately I had another computer w/ 10.10 and it worked. You may need the developer's driver if that still doesn't work along with the most current versions of the software. Hopefully that will work for you

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Thanks for the feedback. None of that works. I've tried both 1.0.[6,7] updaters as well as various combinations of turning on the helix, rebooting, etc. My MacMini can see the connection, but the line6 apps aren't talking with their own product. I'll open a ticket. As common as macs are in music these days this should have been tested more thoroughly.

 

I just wanted to say that Macs were the go to for music rigs even up to a few years ago.  However, its actually PC that are becoming more and more common these days for music production.  

 

That being said I think Line 6 said something about Mac releasing El Capitan, (or updating it) while Line 6 was getting ready to ship out their first units.  So there wasn't a good overlap of support there. I am not exactly sure what the problem between that OS, and Line 6 Helix is, but hopefully it will get fixed for you guys that are using Macs. 

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I upgraded to 10.11.4 and I opened the Helix software immediately afterwards. There appeared to be a change because for approximately 10 seconds I actually saw my presets. Then the same exact problem occurred and I have been unable to get the Helix to contact to the software. I'm not blaming Line 6 or Apple for the issue and it's not a deal breaker for keeping the Helix, I just wish I could find type of work around. I have uninstalled and re-installed the Helix software. I have tried unplugging everything but the USB from the Helix. It's just odd that the Updater worked perfectly when I updated the Helix firmware.

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I don't know if anyone has had a problem with the Mac communicating withe the Line 6 updater. I have been able to update the Helix without any issues; however, the Helix application itself has been useless so far to me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m on Macbook Pro Retina 15" late 2012, Mac El Capitan 10.11.4, updated the firmware to 1.10, installed the Helix App 1.11 and it’s losing connection after less than a minute. Not good.

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I’m on Mac El Capitan 10.11.4, updated the firmware to 1.10, installed the Helix App 1.11 and it’s losing connection after less than a minute. Not good.

Kaske,

 

I'm on the same El Cap 10.11.4, Helix FW1.10 and AFAIK the Helix app is on v1.10 also - although that may be just a typo in your post. You don't state what particular model of Mac you are using, because I have had a comment from a guy (amsdenj - in post above), on another thread, says that it seems to be a screw up only on certain models.

 

He (amsdenj) states: "I believe this issue is with late 2012 and beyond MacBook Pros late beyond with Retina displays and USB 3 ports."

 

It's really odd because my Helix is connected via USB to my 6 month old, 3.3GHz iMac Retina 5K (with 32GB of RAM installed) and it all worked perfectly, as advertised, until early March when the MIDI simply ceased to work anymore. No reason, just stopped working!

 

Anyhow I took to annoying everyone on these forums by asking for a fix to this weird Mac audio MIDI problem, and it seems that I have had my "member reputation" downgraded for complaining a little to loudly.

 

But, now I bring great news - after annoying the hell out of some folk on one of these threads - on 6th Apr I made a "fix it" request, on the Ideascale board, for a dedicated driver to be written for OSX.

 

Yay! within 24 hours I had been notified that:

 

The stage of this idea has changed from "In Review" to "In Progress" 

 

Maybe I should note that there is a moderator on the Ideascale Board, and he's also a member of Line 6 staff Product Management, who left a comment on one of the Helix driver Mac OS threads stating:

 

"We're testing a custom OS X driver as I type this."

 

So, it may well be in progress and not just because of my rant - even though my, and all other suffering Mac users, complaints are valid.

 

For your amusement, more ranting is available here:

 

Helix Driver Mac OS? - Helix - Line 6 Community

 

Bizarre audio MIDI fault - it's driving me nuts! - Helix - Line 6 Community

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It's really odd because my Helix is connected via USB to my 6 month old, 3.3GHz iMac Retina 5K (with 32GB of RAM installed) and it all worked perfectly, as advertised, until early March when the MIDI simply ceased to work anymore. No reason, just stopped working!

 

I have a Retina MBP and it doesn't work, my iMac works perfectly. Both with USB 3

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Thanks, datacommando.

 

I don’t think Line 6 could get away easily with this even if you didn’t suggested the idea — although I do respect your initiative 100%.

 

It’s more serious because these USB ports in Macbooks, regardless of all the fancy hubs you can get, proved still to be the most reliable when connecting directly to external equipment.

 

On the other hand, all of this hassle might be related to the way Apple designs their hardware, making it harder for vendors outside their ecosystem use their gear (one of the most notorious examples is hand-shaking done on magsafe adapter). There could be a lot of things making things harder for Line 6 to implement this, but nevertheless, people who bought a $3000 laptop most definitely want their $1500 piece of guitar gear to work flawlessly. I’m not a professional guitar player, but I am IT professional and am pretty certain it can be done, BUT I’m aware of potential difficulties as well.

 

Let’s hope they’ll deliver it more sooner than later.

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May, or may not have anything to do with it.  BUT...

 

I have an Eleven Rack, and it doesn't play well with USB 3.0.

Matter of fact Avid advises it requires a USB 2.0, and only a USB 2.0.

 

This may be an issue of pluging the Helix in to a usb 3.0 slot. Just throwing it out there.

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I have a Retina MBP and it doesn't work, my iMac works perfectly. Both with USB 3

Hi faber,

Oh, now it's become even more strange - when you switched back it worked - because when the MIDI died on my 27" Retina, I swapped back to the old iMac and that ceased to respond to any inbound MIDI messages (DIN to USB) if the Helix was in the chain. Weird scenes in the gold mine - as someone once said.

 

 

There could be a lot of things making things harder for Line 6 to implement this, but nevertheless, people who bought a $3000 laptop most definitely want their $1500 piece of guitar gear to work flawlessly.

 

Hi Kaske,

True, very true, but also let's hope your new Retina MBP doesn't get frizzed while testing. Oh, yeah, you're correct - the Helix App is in Beta version 1.11 as of April 5th. Good luck bro.

 

May, or may not have anything to do with it.  BUT...

 

I have an Eleven Rack, and it doesn't play well with USB 3.0.

Matter of fact Avid advises it requires a USB 2.0, and only a USB 2.0.

 

This may be an issue of pluging the Helix in to a usb 3.0 slot. Just throwing it out there.

Hi Lachdanan,

Thanks for that info - most interesting to know that some of the Eleven Rack users also have issues with USB 3. I shall have to look on the Avid site to see if I can find what they know.

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I have a mid 2014 Retina MacBook Pro i7, OS X 10.11.4, which has two USB 3.0 ports, and I've not had any problems whatsoever with it seeing or updating Helix. So,  apparently it is not specifically a USB 3.0 problem. Seems more like some very specific USB port hardware that was used on a few Mac models - obviously there a LOT of Mac owners with Helix units out there now, and only a handful of people seeing these problems, so it is definitely not all MacBooks, or all with USB 3 ports. I have not really tried anything with using the 5-pin MIDI on Helix, but the audio driver seems to work for me, other than an occasional click or pop in recording or playback when using Reaper.

 

I recall hearing that Line 6 is supposedly doing their own Mac Helix driver though, so hopefully that will help overcome the problems some people are seeing.

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I just installed the latest device firmware and the latest Helix Editor and the problem persists. The most frustrating part for me is that the device communicates with the Line 6 updater flawlessly to update device firmware but it just does not seem like it is going to work with the editor until a major fix is released.

 

I just to want to use the editor and be able to load from CustomTone. I love the Helix but this really is a pain in the a**

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But, now I bring great news - after annoying the hell out of some folk on one of these threads - on 6th Apr I made a "fix it" request, on the Ideascale board, for a dedicated driver to be written for OSX.

 

Yay! within 24 hours I had been notified that:

 

The stage of this idea has changed from "In Review" to "In Progress" 

 

Maybe I should note that there is a moderator on the Ideascale Board, and he's also a member of Line 6 staff Product Management, who left a comment on one of the Helix driver Mac OS threads stating:

 

"We're testing a custom OS X driver as I type this."

 

So, it may well be in progress and not just because of my rant - even though my, and all other suffering Mac users, complaints are valid.

 

For your amusement, more ranting is available here:

 

Helix Driver Mac OS? - Helix - Line 6 Community

 

Bizarre audio MIDI fault - it's driving me nuts! - Helix - Line 6 Community

Great news for sure- Thanks for the info!

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Great news for sure- Thanks for the info!

 

Only too happy to help, Spikey, but it's probably more down to the input of "Digital Igloo" (product manger), who had previously stated that Line 6 were already on the case. Remember though - he didn't say that a fix was imminent, simply "in Progress" - so, as I also may have said before " don't hold your breath".

AAAARRRRGGG!

Trouble is, in leaving this reply I may have accidentally clicked on a one of those buttons which voted your post down. Why did they decide to put the "up" and "down" buttons right next to the quote buttons. Sorry dude. Damn, track pads! I've got to figure out how to fix this problem now! I promise I will make it right.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 years later...

I know this is old thread,, but I just had my LT replaced cause the expression pedal broke. It came with 2.30 so I first used the supplied USB cable and tried on my surface windows 10. Would not see the LT no matter what I did.  Went to my MAC EL capitan and same thing.  would not communicate.  I finally got fed up and ran downstairs and pulled out an old USB cable and WHAMMO!!!  damn thing worked like a charm and 2,8,1,1 installed. I STRONGLY encourage a shorter USB cable

 

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