can't find usable optical drives on os x

[stigcrafter]

I recently got an Asus BW-16D1HT and a powered adapter for it for my macbook pro, and while the laptop itself can use the drive, Make MKV keeps giving scanning it, then throwing up the error "program can't find any usable optical drives", even when I flashed it with both 3.02 and 3.01 firmware, and used dvds, Blurays and uhd blu rays (which is obv kind of irrevlevant as the issue is between the drive and program).

Can anyone think of a solve? Most threads related to this are about Linux or Windows directories, so I can't think why it would get this error on os x?

[Woodstock]

The problem is the same for all the operating systems - MakeMKV asks if there are optical drives, and the operating system says "Nope, you can't see any".

The usual issue is permissions; Windows will not show an optical drive to anyone but an Administrator, for example, or any remote user, without modifying system permissions. I suspect that's the same issue with MacOS.

[stigcrafter]

The problem is the same for all the operating systems - MakeMKV asks if there are optical drives, and the operating system says "Nope, you can't see any".

The usual issue is permissions; Windows will not show an optical drive to anyone but an Administrator, for example, or any remote user, without modifying system permissions. I suspect that's the same issue with MacOS.

How would I go about addressing the issue on OS X tho? What would the mac equivalent of running as administrator be? All I can think of is trying to repair disk permissions, but apparently that's done automatically on mojave.

[PaulM2019]

I don't know if this is relevant for you, but I had a very similar problem, and solved it tonight. There was some piece of copy protection software, ProTec6, which had gotten installed by something I used, into /mybootdrive/Library/StartupItems folder. I found it by chasing down some different web discussions, since the drive was visible to OSX, and could mount BD disks with no issue, but was TOTALLY UNAVAILABLE to MakeMKV.

Nuked software -- reboot -- JOY UNBOUNDED!!

[stigcrafter]

I don't know if this is relevant for you, but I had a very similar problem, and solved it tonight. There was some piece of copy protection software, ProTec6, which had gotten installed by something I used, into /mybootdrive/Library/StartupItems folder. I found it by chasing down some different web discussions, since the drive was visible to OSX, and could mount BD disks with no issue, but was TOTALLY UNAVAILABLE to MakeMKV.

Nuked software -- reboot -- JOY UNBOUNDED!!

Could you be able to link to those web discussions, as I don't have anything called ProTec6 or Nalpeiron on my computers, but a program blocking the drive being read does seem like a plausible cause, so the names of any other programs that could be doing this would be appreciated

Also, another update on the situation, I bought a second bc-12d2ht drive that had been flashed with bw-16d1ht software, and confirmed by the seller to work with makemkv, and it still did not work with any macs, so it seems to be either a mac/makemkv issue, or an issue with using a sata to usb adapter. Either way it's still buggered for now.

Alternatively, is it possible to add aacs keys into makemkv manually? That could mean I could bypass the drive issue and drag the raw movie files (which are still visible) into makemkv

[harmosciconillator]

@stigcrafter is this still an issue for you? I'm a long-time Mac user and maybe I can help you troubleshoot this. At least I'll try!

Looking at the specs for those drives, I see both use SATA interface. So my first question is which adapter are you using between the drive and the MBP?

At one point I tried the Vantec CB-ST00U3 NexStar USB 3.0 to SATA 6Gbps Optical/Storage Adapter. The drive appeared in System Information but no applications recognized it. Turns out the adapter did not pass necessary control data so I returned it.

I purchased a Unitek SATA to USB 3.0 adapter and it worked fine.

[stigcrafter]

@stigcrafter is this still an issue for you? I'm a long-time Mac user and maybe I can help you troubleshoot this. At least I'll try!

Looking at the specs for those drives, I see both use SATA interface. So my first question is which adapter are you using between the drive and the MBP?

At one point I tried the Vantec CB-ST00U3 NexStar USB 3.0 to SATA 6Gbps Optical/Storage Adapter. The drive appeared in System Information but no applications recognized it. Turns out the adapter did not pass necessary control data so I returned it.

I purchased a Unitek SATA to USB 3.0 adapter and it worked fine.

Actually it isn't a problem for me anymore for this exact reason: I bought a new adapter of ebay and both drives worked absolutely fine, which makes me wish I figured this out months ago, lol.

Here's the old one:


And the new one that works for future reference:

[harmosciconillator]

Good -- glad all it took was a better adapter!