I am asking for help. I have an apollo twin device.
I bought a new computer.
I can't use it because I can't establish a connection with Universal Audio.
It's been several days.
I wrote an email! I didn't get an answer. Only advertisements.

 

I recently tried from my PC to my laptop and it was as easy as installing the UAD software, logging in and connecting the units. All plugins were there.

 

Last edited: May 26, 2026 at 9:25 AM

Disconnect your interface completely from the computer. Focus on getting UAConnect app to work on your computer. Worry about the device after you get UAConnect working. First thing would be to make sure you can access the UA website at all. Then open only UA Connect with your firewall disabled completely. Look at your hosts file if you ever block software data leakage that way and make sure you never added UA's domain there.

If you need help after that, add information that would be useful for someone trying to help you fix it. You included zero of that here. All you are showing in your screenshot is that UAConnect is not connecting.

 

turn off computer and apollo. power up the apollo then start the computer.I have to do it that way and it connects.

 

Surely he has tried rebooting the computer and the interface already, or one would at least hope... Your interface is already installed right and working. What little is in the original post suggests it hasn't worked right yet. Once you screw up the first installation, you usually have to remove everything related to it and start over. They have a cleanup script for it somewhere on their website even.

 

I have two iMac Pro devices.
I use one at home. “apollo-twin” works on it.
I bought another iMac Pro device, where I solve the vocal recording and other recordings.
Now “apollo-twin” does not work on this other iMac Pro device.
Using the migration assistant, I copied everything to this device.
Everything works! Just like on my “host machine”!
Except!! - apollo-twin - this does not work.
My machine data:
intel - mac OS: Sequoia 15.7.7
Logic Pro 12.2
I did everything that was recommended.
More than once!! Several times!
I wrote an email to Universal Audio!
I get advertisements!
No solution!
So maybe my problem is understandable!
Thank you for the recommended help, but I have already overcome all of these.

I do not speak English.
I use the Google translator program.

 

There's nothing to it. Just re-run the installer on the new machine and connect them up!

 

Last edited: May 26, 2026 at 9:25 AM

Double check about your Thunderbolt firmware is the same on both imac pro. See on System Report > Thunderbolt Bus > Firmware Version.

Maybe an update break something. I assume that you use the original Apple TB 3 to TB2 adapter

 

I'm on the Windows/PC version of Apollo and I always had to do it the other way around, boot the computer first, then Apollo... Interesting.

 

Sometimes if you turn your interface off and back on later with the computer still on the whole time, for whatever reason, if it doesn't handshake correctly between the audio interface and the computer, you end up where the simple interface reboot he mentions does actually work. But since this guy has never gotten it to work, that situation doesn't apply as it otherwise normally does.

This guy's problem is most likely the use of Migration Assistant going from one Mac to another. It could be a versioning issue, but more likely it is the fact that UAConnect and plugins also care about iLok connectivity and licenses. Otherwise you could just clone a machine all of your UA and iLok stuff already installed, and just dump it onto another computer without re-unlocking all the plugins.

I made a nice UA Cleanup script for Mac UA users of either Native or Apollo users, but I haven't ttested it on either ARM or with the hardware versions. It requires running it as Root, so that's a whole "trust thing" with random other people, but I could send you it and you could probably easily repurpose it for Windows if you want to check it out. Some example of the output report I had it create:

Spoiler

Backup confirmed by user.
Usage mode: native
Creating backup of UAD related files to /Desktop/UAD_Backup_2025-10-29...
Backup saved: ~/Desktop/UAD_Backup_2025-10-29.zip
Native-only mode: minimal cleanup, keep UADx.
[Dry-Run] Would strip opposite slice from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/

and then it scans the entire internal ssd and reports outcomes per line before you commit the changes. That run was stripping ARM slices from all the plugins, but it has a nuke everything option too.

I would get rid of everything UA related on the new Mac and reinstall from scratch. Most importantly, the lower level files like .plist property list files, etc. Easiest fix.

 

Last edited: May 25, 2026 at 10:24 PM

You just reminded me that when I got my Apollo it didn't work out of the box. The USB3 cable was broken. It sent partial data somehow, enough to do something but not to work. I can't remember it now, but getting a new cable was my fix.... It might be worth checking another thunderbolt cable.

I'm not sure how the iLok stuff works in what you mentioned. Its a smart hack... But before UADx I used offline installers, no iLok at all and those were locked to the Apollo - UAD versions only. The unlock is tied to the unit and what licenses are loaded through those small unlock files. From there, once you install all the UAD software it just adds the license to the owned software, so swapping it stops them from working... Those should all be working without needing UAConnect, with an offline installer. They're either demo or full license, only two options... But Spark is another option for the UADx, which changes how those are licensed. I think there's even versions licensed to the computer, not iLok...

So there might be a bit of troubleshooting that can be done from that angle. Is the AU non UADx/iLok software installing and working?

 

Ok. I get that the apollo twin is a audio interface. An audio interface to me is a piece of hardware that will convert analog audio from mics, line level analog/digital audio sources to digital data that can be recorded to a computer running some sort of DAW or Recording software.

one thing I do not understand is - why the hell the audio interface needs to be connected to the OEM via the internet? Is that just a one-time thing or does it have to be connected fulltime if yes to the fulltime connection question, that's completely nuts.

 

Last edited: May 25, 2026 at 11:06 PM

Did you add the 2nd iMac Pro as a device to your iLok account. iLok & possibly the UAD software will see each computer as a unique device, serial# & mac address.

 

UAD devices & software need to be registered to an iLok account & to UAD. Once done, all devices & software can be used offline. Don't sign out of UAD connect before going offline. All required info is stored locally when working correctly.

 

Exactly, but the conunndrum is just copying everything to the new machine. You may have the licenses to do 2 computers or whatever, but iLok Cloud, Machine-Based, and Dongle are all separate activations. If you could just do what he was trying, you'd be able to, or more importantly a cracker might have a vector to allow "someone" to circumvent iLok's location based licensing scheme.

Using Migration Assistant to switch to a new Mac is in general not a good idea for audio software like we use here, meaning lots of stuff. It's great for regular Mac users, but clean and from scratch is the way to not end up with a fragile environment later on.

Removing all this UA software is simple enough anyway, yet UA have a script an actual installer style application to do it on their own website. The annoying part is because you will still end up with remnants.

This is easier. Run once in Terminal, reboot, and reinstall on the new Mac. I just installed 60 plugins and UA Connect on the M4 I just got and it took under an hour. Similar time frame to do the Apollo install clean and from scratch, with all the plugins the OP is going to have. Just make sure you have any of your own custom presets backed up in another location.

Paste it all at once and run it.

Spoiler

# 1. Stop UA processes
sudo pkill -f "UAD"
sudo pkill -f "UA"
sudo pkill -f "Universal Audio"
sudo pkill -f "UAD Meter"
sudo pkill -f "Apollo"
sudo pkill -f "Console"

# 2. Remove Applications
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Universal Audio"
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/UAD Meter & Control Panel.app"
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/UA Connect.app"
sudo rm -rf "/Applications/Console.app"

# 3. Remove system libraries / drivers / extensions
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Universal Audio"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/UAD*"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/UAD*"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/UAD*"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/Extensions/UAD*"

# 4. Remove LaunchAgents / LaunchDaemons
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/*ua*
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchAgents/*UAD*
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/*ua*
sudo rm -f /Library/LaunchDaemons/*UAD*

# 5. Forget installer receipts (important for clean reinstall)
pkgutil --pkgs | grep -i "ua" | xargs -I {} sudo pkgutil --forget {}

# 6. Remove user-level UA configs (if present)
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Universal\ Audio
rm -rf ~/Library/Preferences/*ua*
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/*ua*

Or do it the "officially recommended way" they will send you something like this:

Spoiler

The official procedure from Universal Audio Support says to run:


/Applications/Universal Audio/Uninstall Universal Audio Software

That app is specifically intended to clean up broken UAD/Apollo installs before reinstalling.

UA also has an official support video for it here:

And for newer UA Connect/UADx-era installs, they also document removing helper services like:

• com.uaudio.bsd.helper
• com.uaudio.bsd.helper.plist

plus deleting leftover Universal Audio support folders manually.

This is the main official page your friend probably needs:

UAD Uninstall / Reinstall Procedure (macOS)

And if the installer state itself is corrupted or the uninstaller app is missing, UA’s archive downloads are here:

UAD Software Archives

Everything is working perfectly on my end with all the perpetual licenses. I started digging into all their pain points when they were updating UAConnect and aggressively pushing out updates of UA Connect that broke it's functionality on MacOS Catalina. When I showed them a portion of my script they put a version of UAConnect for Catalina that no longer tries to update itself on the site. There is a lot of stuff to screw with if you really want it completely frozen.

 

Last edited: May 26, 2026 at 1:15 AM

Hmmm. When I was running the UAD-1 it was possible to download the plugins (from a connected machine) and then simply apply them to the hardware. The applying of the software could all be done offline with respect to the audio host machine and it did not have to be internet connected. Oh well not the case anymore it seems. Hence the need to have the all natives cracked.

 

There are those of us they have been asking UAD to make there drivers & other software in the form of offline packages instead of having to go through UA Connect to download. Antelope is another example of a company not completely respecting their customers choice & investment.

 

I am currently in Windows 11 with UAD> There was a forced update that corrupted Windows requiring a fresh install. Same compter ID & hardware but, UA Connect could not figure things out & was trying to force a new account with the same info excpt for the email attached to iLok. It was using a secondary email account that was used when I first visited the UAD web site & allowed for email notifications. This before installing anything UAD related.

 

Here is a tip. I've owned an Apollo Twin (Thunderbolt) and used it with my Mac studio for many years. Its sounds excellent and is very versatile, but it's a pain in the ass. Anytime UAD updates their software (frequently!) I spend an hour cleaning out all of the "demo" files and Gigabytes of unneeded plugins (there are third-party apps for this because UAD won't provide a remedy and wants to sell more software). Every now and then the Console does something unexplainable and I have to troubleshoot it. UAD is constantly trying to get you to buy expensive plugins. I keep using it because it sounds good, but I would never buy another UAD interface. So .... it will serve you well but plan on spending time to learn how to use it and maintain it, warts and all.

 

UAD-2 worked like that until very recently. I'd use Linux to download the installer, then carry that over to my offline machine on a clean format. Everything just worked... But once you install UAConnect/UADx its game over, you're trapped with these new installers online.

I had a similar issue using Windows 10, two accounts, one locked to UA in a similar way and couldn't install. I think the fix was to delete the second account and it was a nightmare. Might have had to go through UA.

 

Last edited: May 26, 2026 at 6:01 AM