WATCH OUT! Do not update to iOS or iPadOS 16.5 if you use the USB 3 Camera Adapter

[erik_nie]

If you rely on the USB3 Camera adapter for midi, audio -> do not update the 16.5!

 

It does not work anymore according to several sources like the following: 

https://newsbeezer.com/apples-lightning-to-usb-3-camera-adapter-doesnt-work-with-ios-16-5/

I did not try it (because I need the adapter for my sheet tool), but this could cause big problems if updated just before a gig.
I have an external audio interface that is powered via USB.

Hope nobody gets into problems!

[D. Gauss]

dumb-ass Apple as usual.

[stoken6]

This is a major Apple fail - as noted in a lot of the tech media/commentary over the past day or so. I consider myself to have dodged a bullet - I have two high-profile gigs depping (subbing) with new bands coming up, and I blindly update my iPad OS when updates arrive. I'll be more careful in future.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[octa]

Yep, thanks for heads up. Just bought one of these dongles last week. 

[Sam Mullins]

Yes.  Thanks for the heads up.  I have my first gig with iPad rig Friday and this would’ve been a big problem. (although presumably my backup iPad mini would’ve been unaffected). 
 

It might be useful to have an ongoing thread where people warn of ios or music app upgrade problems. 

[Stokely]

This kind of thing is one reason I'm phasing my ipad back out of my rig.   I deal with it on my mac but that stays at home and there's no urgency to fix it if an update causes issues with plugins (as has happened).

[stoken6]

I've just turned off automatic updates on my ipad to avoid this problem. When an update is issued, I will install manually.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[MPN21]

Rotten Apple!  So much for their own proprietary stuff.   At least my M1 12.9 updated to iPadOS 16.5  works fine with my non-Apple USB hub; midi and audio. 

 

 

[Anderton]

I wonder if they're preparing us to get to accept the inevitability of USB-C, like what will most likely be in the iPhone 15. Whether USB-C is technically better is controversial (Lightning is potentially more durable, but USB-C can withstand 10,000 connection cycles). However, it would really help for compatibility with the rest of the world.

 

Hey, anyone want to buy my USB 3 Camera Adapter for cheap 😆?

[brenner13]

Yes; thanks for the notice…my old 6sPlus phone is on its last available update with 15.7.6. The battery is a bit weak, but I really use the headphone/mic socket a bunch. It’s mostly a phone and a hot spot for my iPad at rehearsal when streaming songs we’re learning and downloading lyrics and chord sheets. But also a total blast to show up for rehearsal with just my phone playing VB3 from the house-back-line-board via a CME wireless MIDI Master.

 

My iPad is also old…5th Gen…again, gotta have that headphone socket for casual listening of music and video. With this notice here, I’ve shut off updates and will be hanging on with 16.4.1 long as possible so the CCK will still work. 
 

Thanks again!!!!

 

 

[JohnnyFoster]

So...what in the heck are we / users supposed to do with pre-USB-C iPads if they're not going to be usable with the CCK? Are these now, in effect, musical doorstops? WTF?

[stoken6]

1 hour ago, JohnnyFoster said:

So...what in the heck are we / users supposed to do with pre-USB-C iPads if they're not going to be usable with the CCK? Are these now, in effect, musical doorstops? WTF?

It looks like signed iOS 16.4.1 is still available, and can be restored using iTunes. 

 

It should never have come to this, by the way. Expect an incoming iOS 16.5.1 which fixes the bug.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Reezekeys]

1 hour ago, JohnnyFoster said:

So...what in the heck are we / users supposed to do with pre-USB-C iPads if they're not going to be usable with the CCK? Are these now, in effect, musical doorstops? WTF?

It’s only a doorstop if you updated to 16.5. And it will probably be fixed with a point update, hopefully soon. The sky has not fallen. 

[Baldwin Funster]

The Alex Jones side of me says Apple did this on purpose so everybody will have to buy new iPads with the usbC connector. I bet they find a way to make you buy AppleC connectors and Android compatible cables and chargers won't work.

[analogika]

Expect to see either a point-update or a firmware update to the dongle within a week or so. 

[Docbop]

Since Apple thinks people only use their products for making videos and this affects the camera adapter they will jump all over fixing this issues.   Musicians get the fix too is just a side effect they have to live with. 

[Reezekeys]

5 hours ago, Jr. Deluxe said:

I bet they find a way to make you buy AppleC connectors and Android compatible cables and chargers won't work.

 

That's kind of been the case with lightning stuff. As I understand, the Apple cables themselves are chipped and contain firmware. That's why you hear warnings of 3rd-party cables and adapters not working after an iOS update.

[D. Gauss]

8 hours ago, Anderton said:

I wonder if they're preparing us to get to accept the inevitability of USB-C, like what will most likely be in the iPhone 15. Whether USB-C is technically better is controversial (Lightning is potentially more durable, but USB-C can withstand 10,000 connection cycles). However, it would really help for compatibility with the rest of the world.

 

 

my ipad already is USB-C, so that's not an issue for me. What is an issue, and i'm no expert,  is that apparently,  to have the "it doesn't matter which way you plug it in" functionality of USB-C, it  takes a lot of behind the scenes software/detection/correction to make work.  As a result, and i can confirm this through much actual experience, is that sometimes ipads with hubs/docks don't connect/work unless/until you flip the USB-C cable.  Shouldn't happen, but it does.  

[scoopicman]

This blows.  I love my old Ipad, even though I mostly play Free Cell on it.  I also hope it gets resolved and is not a ploy to get us to move to something new.  I'm still mad about no headphone jacks on the newer stuff.  Sometimes, I just like to sample something off of the internet.

[analogika]

10 hours ago, Docbop said:

Since Apple thinks people only use their products for making videos and this affects the camera adapter they will jump all over fixing this issues.   Musicians get the fix too is just a side effect they have to live with. 

This is a bizarre assessment, given that Logic has got more updates in the past five years than Final Cut, and the number of features and major plugins they’ve rolled into Logic for free in the past years is rather insane. 
 

I get that people constant complain that “Apple doesn’t care about pro users”, even though it’s a patently ridiculous statement. 
 

But stating that the USB adapter not working is proof that it’s the audio users that are always getting the shaft on the eve of Logic Pro being released for iPad is just…weird. 

[Meta]

Here's another data point:

My experience has been notably different. No problems here with iOS 16.5, Apple's CCK, and powering my controller keyboard.  If that was the problem reported by others, it didn't happen here.

 

I updated my iPad9 to 16.5. It still works with my camera connection kit USB interface, which still powers my Arturia Keylab 61M2 via USB while connected to shore power using the iPad's included USB power cube, and while connected to and charging the iPad. USB MIDI from the Keylab continues to work as well. (Very much enjoying PianoTeq on the iPad!)

 

I bought the CCK adapter and iPad earlier this year. 

 

YMMV.

 

 

 

[Anderton]

8 hours ago, scoopicman said:

I also hope it gets resolved and is not a ploy to get us to move to something new.  I'm still mad about no headphone jacks on the newer stuff.  Sometimes, I just like to sample something off of the internet.

 

I don't think it's a ploy to get you to move to something new, I think it's just a f*ck up. Also remember that Apple didn't wake up one day and decide to use USB-C, there are market and even governmental pressures from the EU to adopt it. There are both advantage and disadvantages to Lightning and USB-C. One advantage for Apple is they make a LOT of money from adapters and dongles, but this is just something that fell into their laps. I'm sure when they were designing Lightning they didn't know what the situation for connectors would be in 2023.

 

Actually, I think USB-C makes a lot of sense in the Apple ecosystem because Apple is so Thunderbolt oriented, and it's easy to have Thunderbolt be compatible with USB-C. It's just the other direction (USB-C-only connector also working for Thunderbolt) that's not possible.  

 

FWIW I was told the Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter would not work with the PreSonus Quantum interface, and that I had to get a StarTech (which costs over twice as much) . But the Apple one works perfectly. 

[Docbop]

6 hours ago, analogika said:

This is a bizarre assessment, given that Logic has got more updates in the past five years than Final Cut, and the number of features and major plugins they’ve rolled into Logic for free in the past years is rather insane. 
 

I get that people constant complain that “Apple doesn’t care about pro users”, even though it’s a patently ridiculous statement. 
 

But stating that the USB adapter not working is proof that it’s the audio users that are always getting the shaft on the eve of Logic Pro being released for iPad is just…weird. 

Logic's team is different from the OS team and it's the OS team that turns a blind eye on audio users.     Logic has had a really rocky road inside of Apple,  when I was working in media is when there were strong rumour Apple was going to kill off Logic and just keep Final Cut.  Story back then was Apple was getting tired of dealing with the original Logic developers do did what they want on their own timeline.   Since retiring I don't follow inner working at Apple as much but just look at Apple lack of concern with compatibility issues with the major audio software companies is evidence enough.  

[ImproKeys]

No problem with CCK on my ipad (8th) and latest ipadOS!

Btw also XR Mixer app is working…

[erik_nie]

Do you mean the Old XR mixing app, that crashed since end of last year when you do something else than adjusting the volume faders?
I know that Behringer is developing a new app, but it is far from finished.

[ImproKeys]

I‘ll check it today!

[Stokely]

Speaking of the app, I've been meaning to try Mixing station, heard good things about it.  It would be kind of nice to have one app for the various recurring gigs we do (there are two different Behringers involved and two different QSCs, requiring four apps.)

I'm just going to hold off on ever updating my gen 4 ipad.  

[Tripp323]

Hi all - thanks for your comments about using iPad for music/midi and the heads up about upgrades.

Question:

  I use an old iPad Air (3rd gen) because it has the headphone/audio output that I run to a PA.

  A USB keyboard is input to the iPad using the camera adapter.  I use the NeoSoul keys a lot.

  I have a powered USB hub, but I’ve been using a dedicated power supply to keyboard.

 

1) With this setup I hear no delay (latency) in hearing sound as I play keyboard.

In other setups using Bluetooth to a speaker, I did experience sound delay to the speakers.

Q: Do you use WiFi or Bluetooth in your rig, or do you have an audio output from your iPad direct to speakers/PA?

 

2) During sets, I unplug the USB from the Powered USB hub to the iPad camera adapter because I get clicking noise unless unplugged.

This does not seem to depend on using USB to power a keyboard, or when I use the keyboard’s power.  The noise comes from the USB power.  (Since the iPad battery lasts pretty well - I don’t charge it when I’m playing/connected to speakers.)  Let us know if you have any tricks to isolate your audio signals from power source noise?  Thanks!

[Reezekeys]

On 5/21/2023 at 4:46 PM, stoken6 said:

It looks like signed iOS 16.4.1 is still available, and can be restored using iTunes. 

 

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-stops-signing-ios-16-4-1-to-prevent-downgrading.2390577/

[stoken6]

Just now, Reezekeys said:

 

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-stops-signing-ios-16-4-1-to-prevent-downgrading.2390577/

Just happened today. I dunno - @Meta's experience suggests nothing to worry about. I'm going to wait a while before I take the leap.

 

Cheers, Mike.