TROUBLESHOOTING: Blackmagic-Design Drivers installed but video card not seen (Drivers 12.2 or later)

What is the issue?

In some case, a video device is not seen even though it seems to be working fine and drivers are installed. The issue is most probably related to a security in macOS that require you to allow system extensions (kernel extensions or DriverKit) to load. And in some cases something goes wrong with this verification.

The issue and resolution will be different if you are using a driver using DriverKit or a Kernel Extension (kext).

• This article below is for recent version of the Blackmagic-Design drivers (12.2 or later), which are using DriverKit, and should have less issues.
• If you are using older Blackmagic-Design drivers (12.1 and earlier), these are still using a legacy Kernel Extension, make sure to upgrade to a more recent version of the drivers.
• For issues with Deltacast drivers see the following article.

Is the card seen by Blackmagic-Design "Desktop Video Setup"?

There could be different cases.

1. If your card is not seen by your Softron application (MovieRecorder, OnTheAir Video, ...), but is seen by the "Desktop Video Setup" app, the issue could be that you are using a driver that is not compatible with your version of your Softron application. Check the "Activity & Logs" window, if you see a message about a driver upgrade. The following info will not help...
2. If your card is not seen by neither your Softron application, nor the "Desktop Video Setup" app, continue reading this article.

Is the card seen in "System Profiler"?

To check that it's not a hardware issue, and that the card is properly connected, first check if there are any lights on the device and looks OK. If it does not, check cabling, both power and Thunderbolt, and change them if needed.

If all look good, open "System Information". For that, go in "System Settings > General > About". Scroll down at the bottom, and click on the"System Report..." button:

In the window that opens, you will see a detail of your system hardware and software info.

For Thunderbolt devices

In the "Hardware" section, click on "Thunderbolt", and verify that your device is present:

If not, then stop reading here, it means that the device is faulty, or another hardware issue that prevents it to connect to your Mac.

For PCIe cards (even if plugged in a Thunderbolt port)

In the "Hardware" section, click on "PCI", and verify a few things:

• Driver installed: Yes (if it says No, it means that the drivers are not properly installed)
• Make sure it is the appropriate device you are lookin at:
  • Slot: if your card is in a Thunderbolt Box, it should say "Thunderbolt"
  • Vendor IO: PCIe Blackmagic-Design  cards have the vendor ID 0xbdbd

If the card is not seen, and you are using it inside a Thunderbolt expansion chassis, click on "Thunderbolt" and make sure that the Thunderbolt device is seen.

You can stop reading this article, and check for hardware issues if:

• If the Thunderbolt device is seen but not the PCI card (it means the issue is with the PCI card)
• If the neither the Thunderbolt device is seen, nor the PCI card are seen, the issue is either with the Thunderbolt device, or the PCI card.

If you can see the device, then it's probably a driver not loading, see below.

How to fix the driver issue?

If your card is not seen by neither your Softron application, nor the the "Desktop Video Setup" app, and that it is seen in "System Profiler".

Check that you have allowed the driver to load

Go to "System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions", and verify that you have allowed both "Blackmagic Design Desktop Video" and "Blackmagic Design Inc" to run in the background. If they are already enabled, try to toggle them off and on, and restart your computer:

Then scroll down, and click on the "I" next to "Driver Extensions".

And make sure that you have enabled it. If it is already enabled, try to toggle it off and on, and restart your computer::

Uninstall and Reinstall the drivers

If the solution above did not help, try reinstalling the drivers. Note that a simple reinstall will not work, you will have to run the uninstaller first.

• Check which version of the drivers you have installed: 
  • Open Desktop Video Setup
  • Go to the menu "Desktop Video Setup > About Desktop Video Setup"
  • Check what is said in the About window.
• Make sure to have downloaded the installer for that same version. Download them again from Blackmagic-Design's website if needed.
• Open the DMG image, and you should see the uninstaller:
• Run the uninstaller.
• Even if it does not ask you to, restart your computer.
• Then install again the drivers.
• Make sure that you allow the system extension to load in "Privacy & Security". This is the important step, if you don't allow them to load, you won't be able to use your Blackmagic-Design device.
• 
• Restart your computer.
• That should be it... at least it worked in some user cases.

If it still does not work, you may want to try to do the same procedure, but install a different version of the driver, so macOS updates its database.

Other solutions

We have seen other solutions, explained by a user in a Blackmagic-Design forum. Here's a copy of what he explains in the forum, note that we did not test that specific case:

• Connect the UltraStudio devices to your Mac with a Thunderbolt 3 cable or higher
• Open Desktop Video Setup
• Navigate to this location in the Finder: Macintosh HD (or the name of your hard drive) → Library → Application Support → Blackmagic Design → Blackmagic DeckLink
•  In the list, locate the Terminal script called DesktopVideoHelper and double-click it. The script takes under a second to run. Once it is complete, the connected UltraStudio devices are shown in Desktop Video Setup.
• Close the Terminal window (it's OK to terminate the processes that are running)

Please note that this is not a permanent, one-time fix. If your M1 / M2 Mac doesn't find your connected UltraStudio devices on its own when you open the Desktop Video Setup app, you will need to run the script every time you use this app. 

(Source: Fredrik Matheson -  on Blackmagic-Design forum)