Troubleshooting

Common problems and what to do about each. The faults in the desk itself were measured on real hardware, and none of them loses your settings, pads or recordings.

My desk has stopped responding

Every control stops working and the app says it cannot find the desk, or that it is half connected. The desk has dropped off the USB connection. This is a fault in the desk, and it can sometimes happen just after a factory reset or a restore. Audio can carry on regardless, so silence is not the sign to wait for.

Unplug the USB cable in the socket nearest the power inlet, wait a few seconds, and plug it back in. That is the socket this app uses; the other one carries audio only. Do not skip the wait, because putting it straight back in is what fails most often. If the desk does not come back, try again: it can take more than one go.

If it still will not appear, use RODE's own procedure. Disconnect the power, press and hold the red button on the back for sixty seconds, then reconnect the power supply on its own, with no other cables, and press the red button firmly to switch the desk on. Add the rest of your cables once it has started up.

About one factory reset in five ends this way, even with nothing else running, so it is not this app holding the connection open. Restoring a backup the desk's own way does the same, five times in thirty-one tries, which is why Restore uses this computer's copy instead: that did not fail once in nine. A reset or restore that ends like this has almost certainly gone through, and the Backups page shows it once the desk is back.

My screen reader has gone silent

If your screen reader speaks through the RODECaster, anything that stops the desk's audio silences it too. The desk dropping off USB is one cause; see My desk has stopped responding. Installing firmware stops the audio until the desk has restarted, about five minutes. Changing the USB audio settings on Routing, Master Mix drops it for a few seconds.

I can't hear a channel

Look at Device, Current state first: it says what is muted or soloed, and where every fader is.

• A solo on any other channel puts only that channel in your headphones. Clear every solo on Channels puts things back.
• If muting a channel no longer silences it in your headphones, a headphone output has been left on Custom. Reset all output mixes on Routing fixes it.
• A condenser mic needs 48V phantom power to work at all.
• If a mic went silent after the desk was restored or reset by something other than this app, change its gain by one step and back. This app does that for you after its own resets and restores.

The announcements have gone quiet

A channel is soloed. Announcements pause while a solo is on, and the desk gives no other clue that one is. Clear every solo on Channels brings them back.

The desk refused to restore a backup

Now and then the desk refuses a restore without saying why, and from then on it refuses every restore, of any backup, until it is restarted. Switch the desk off and on again with a firm press of the red button on the back, then try again. It only happens when a backup is restored the desk's own way, which is the case for a backup made on the desk or in RODE's app.

My voice effect pads do nothing

When the desk is reset by its own touchscreen, RODE's app or another tool, the six factory voice effect pads come back with the right names but no effects behind them: a press is accepted and the pad shows as on, but your voice is unchanged. The SMART pads page tells you when it finds them.

Choose Restore the factory voice effects, Censor and Ducking on SMART pads, Pad maintenance. It rebuilds those eight pads in positions 9 to 16, so move anything of your own off those positions first. It takes two or three minutes. Factory settings on the Backups page rebuilds them as part of the reset, so a reset from this app does not leave them like this.

A caller can't get through

A call cannot connect while the desk is offline or CallMe 1 is on no fader, and neither you nor the caller is told why. The CallMe page shows what is wrong, with the fix beside it. If a code you have saved stops working, its owner has switched incoming calls off and on, which gives the desk a new code.

A Virtual Devices input is missing from Windows

Each of Game, Music, A and B only appears in Windows while it is on a fader. Assign it on Routing, Fader assignment.

The encoder no longer changes the virtual faders

A channel button has taken the encoder over. Press that button again to give it back.

Using RODE's app at the same time

We advise using only one app at a time to make changes to your desk. Neither app is told about changes the other makes, so either one can end up showing settings that are out of date.

AccessCaster notices when RODE's app is open. While it is, AccessCaster reads all of the desk's settings each time you bring it to the front, and once more when RODE's app closes, so it catches anything you changed there. With announcements on, it then tells you what changed in one sentence, such as "Mic 1 compressor off. Headphone 4 set to Custom."