Arduino in OS X 10.9 Mavericks - Serial Port Issues

I was having problems writing to my Arduino Mega (1280) with Arduino 1.0.5 on a clean install of OSX 10.9 Mavericks.

Symptom
When programming, I get the error:
avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

Diagnoses
According to ENTTEC - Lighting control experts : ENTTEC Apple has developed their own FTDI drivers for OSX 10.9. These drivers are problematic.

Solution (as partially provided by the website above)
Type the following commands into the terminal:
cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns
sudo mv AppleUSBFTDI.kext AppleUSBFTDI.disabled
sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

Restart your computer

Install the original FTDI Virtual Com Port drivers found here: http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Start Arduino and program as you always have.

Disclaimer
This solution solved my problem. If you are having problems since upgrading to OSX 10.9 Mavericks, there is a chance this will be your problem too. If this does not work, I can't help you out. If someone knows a simpler way to do this, please let me know. If this is documented somewhere and I missed it, please let me know.

I had the same problem with my new SparkFun RedBoard and Mavericks. This solution worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

This did not help me unfortunately :frowning:

I can see that the FTDI driver from FTDI is loaded and activated and the board (Nano in this case) blinks a few times, just as it did with Apples own driver. But then it still fails. I have tried installing/uninstalling/rebooting several times but it doesn't help.

Any other suggestions on how to fix this issue?

Having the same problem. This solution did not work on 2 different Macs. At this point we must consider that Mac Mavericks will be unusable on Arduino. The Arduino home page should list there products as no long compatible with Macintosh until this is fixed. Such a shame. I was really getting into using Arduino products but will have to quit until this is resolved.

I have the same issue with Arduino UNO and Maveriks.

My problem was a bad USD cable. thanks :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Had the same issue with SparkFun RedBoard and Mavericks. This worked perfectly. Thanks heaps!

On OSX Mavericks and this fix worked like a dream - tested on both Arduino Nano and Duemilianova boards

Thanks for the fix.

This appears to work for my MEGA2560, a couple of Uno Rev3 but still does not recognize any of my Nano Version 3 Arduinos.

I am very new at this. I was given a Uno, and in the process of testing the LEDs I saw the message "avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding". I read the 'Arduino in OS X 10.9 Mavericks - Serial Port Issues' topic in the forums about the problems with Mavericks, and began to follow the instructions. I used Terminal to sudo mv AppleUSBFTDI.kext AppleUSBFTDI.disabled.

I downloaded the Mac_OS_X Installtion Guide.pdf and FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_3.mpkg and FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6_10_7.mpkg from FTDI, but could not open or install them because "it is from an unidentified developer".

I would very much appreciate advice on what to do now. I don't know Unix well enough to undo what I did without some help.

I also saw the later posts about counterfeit chips.

Frondelicious:
I downloaded the Mac_OS_X Installtion Guide.pdf and FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_3.mpkg and FTDIUSBSerialDriver_10_4_10_5_10_6_10_7.mpkg from FTDI, but could not open or install them because "it is from an unidentified developer".

I would very much appreciate advice on what to do now. I don't know Unix well enough to undo what I did without some help.

I also saw the later posts about counterfeit chips.

Hold down the CTRL key (or right click on the mpkg) and select OPEN from the popup, then select OPEN that will bypass the gate keeper...:slight_smile:

Mel

Thanks for the reply, Mel. Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem. I have not been able to upload anything, so far, not even any of the simple examples.

There are also some issues with the LEDs on the Cube. For example, using the Serial Monitor, the 'all red;' command turns all the LEDs off, but the 'all green;' and 'all blue;' work. And sometimes level 1 works and sometimes it has the wrong colour. I had another look at it, and I believe the red is not working at all on level 1. I expect I should look elsewhere in the Forums for these answers.

HI and please help
I performed everything according to the instructions and unfortunately still not working. Does anyone might have some idea what to do. I have only OSX at home and I would like to start learning the Arduino. :frowning:
thanks you in advance for your help

worked for me!
you saved my day :slight_smile:

I had the same problem with a Sparkfun Redboard
I applied the solution described in this post and it works fine now
Thanks !

Adam, thanks for the clear explanation, but sadly it didn't work for me :confused:
Maybe I've been tinkering too much with all kinds of settings and drivers.

This procedure fixed my problem on Mac OS X 10.9.1 with Arduino 1.0.5 and an OSEPP Uno R3 Plus

I was brand new to Arduino and was of course very disappointed when I could not get the simple Blink sketch to load.

I searched for quite a while before coming across this post and even then it was with the aid of a colleague

Since this is going to be a problem for anyone with a recent Mac OS it would have been nicer if there was a more prominent way of alerting Mac users.

Are Apple aware of the driver issue? Is it an actual problem with the Apple driver or a problem with the way Arduino 1.0.5 is trying to access the driver? I don't really like regressing the driver so it would be nice to know that someone, somewhere is working on a permanent fix for this... Do we need to post somewhere else to get Arduino development to take a closer look?

This is the sort of problem that one associates with Windows rather than the Mac!

Hi Adam,

Thank you! This worked for me too. However, I still struggled at first for a few hours due to a bad USB cable. I saw a similar post as well. So for anyone that this doesn't work, please make sure to try it with another USB cable before giving up.

This fix appears to have solved the problem for me, thanks a lot! Are mac going to generate a built in solution with an os update? A lot of people using arduino also use macs...
A solution is required asap - please. See https://discussions.apple.com/message/23717843#23717843

msaglam:
However, I still struggled at first for a few hours due to a bad USB cable. I saw a similar post as well. So for anyone that this doesn't work, please make sure to try it with another USB cable before giving up.

Hi all,

I just want to back this post! A different cable made my day! Even though the first cable was new (it came with the Nano clone), a much longer old cable made the device available.

Cheers, Thorsten