Connecting to your DAW

Mobile MIDI supports two MIDI transports. Pick whichever fits your setup.

Transport	Wireless	Latency	Best for
USB MIDI	No	Lowest	Studio work, tightest timing
Bluetooth MIDI (BLE)	Yes	Low	Most users — just works with no cables

Both connect from the same place in the app. Start here.

The connection screen

Everything to do with connecting lives in the Settings tab — the last of the four tabs at the bottom of the screen.

The Settings tab has two sections stacked vertically. Presets is at the top. Scroll past it to MIDI Devices — that's the one you want.

The MIDI Devices section has three parts, top to bottom:

1. The header row. The words "MIDI Devices" on the left. On the right, two controls:

SCAN BLE — starts a Bluetooth search. Only use this for Bluetooth. It does nothing for USB.
⟳ (refresh icon) — re-checks for USB destinations. You rarely need it; the list updates on its own when something changes.

2. The status box. Directly beneath the header, always visible.

Not connected: a grey box reading Not connected.
Connected: a green box headed CONNECTED, with the device name, its transport underneath, and a Disconnect button.

3. The AVAILABLE list. Everything else the app can currently see, under a heading reading AVAILABLE. Each row shows a transport icon, the device name, a small label reading BLE or USB, and the word CONNECT on the right.

How to actually connect

Tap the row. The whole row is the button — you don't have to hit the word CONNECT precisely.

While connecting, that row shows a spinner and the other rows stop responding. This is normal, and Bluetooth can take a few seconds.

On success the device moves out of the AVAILABLE list and into the green CONNECTED box above. If you tap a device and it seems to vanish, look up — that's what success looks like. AVAILABLE only ever lists devices you are not connected to.

If the connection fails, a message slides up from the bottom of the screen naming the device.

To disconnect, tap Disconnect in the green box. The device drops back into the AVAILABLE list.

If the list is empty

You'll see No devices found, followed by a short reminder of what each transport needs — a cable for USB, SCAN BLE for Bluetooth. The instructions below go into more detail.

USB MIDI — iPhone to Mac

The lowest-latency option and the most reliable one to test with. It also charges the phone while you play.

Do these in order. Step 3 is the one that trips people up: macOS finds the iPhone but leaves its MIDI ports switched off until you explicitly turn them on.

1. Connect the cable

Plug the iPhone into the Mac with a USB-C cable (or Lightning-to-USB on older phones).

Use a cable you know carries data. A charge-only cable will power the phone and present no MIDI ports at all — the single most common cause of "the Mac doesn't see my phone", and it looks exactly like a software fault. If you're unsure, swap the cable before debugging anything else.

2. Unlock and trust

Unlock the iPhone. If a Trust This Computer? prompt appears, tap Trust and enter your passcode.

A locked or untrusted phone exposes no MIDI ports.

3. Enable the iPhone in Audio MIDI Setup

The step that's easy to miss.

On the Mac, open Audio MIDI Setup (/Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app, or search Spotlight for it).
Choose Window → Show MIDI Studio (⌘2).
Your iPhone appears in MIDI Studio, greyed out.
Select it, then click Enable in the toolbar above.

Until you click Enable, the iPhone's MIDI ports do not exist — not to your DAW, and not to Mobile MIDI's own device list. macOS will not do this for you.

This is remembered per device, so it's a one-time step per phone. You don't redo it every time you plug in.

4. Select the Mac in the app

On the phone, open the Settings tab and scroll to MIDI Devices.

Your Mac should already be under AVAILABLE, labelled USB — the list refreshes itself when the connection appears, so you shouldn't need to touch anything. If it isn't there, tap the ⟳ refresh icon. Don't tap SCAN BLE; that only searches Bluetooth.

Tap the row with your Mac's name. It moves up into the green CONNECTED box. That's a successful connection.

5. Arm a track in your DAW

In your DAW's MIDI input settings, select your iPhone as the input source and arm the track. Then play a pad in Mobile MIDI's Touch tab — your DAW should sound.

If the Mac doesn't appear

Work down this list in order:

Re-check step 3. Clicking Enable in MIDI Studio fixes the large majority of cases.
Tap the ⟳ refresh icon in the app. The list normally updates on its own, but this forces a re-check.
Rescan on the Mac. In Audio MIDI Setup's MIDI Studio window, click Rescan MIDI (the circular arrow).
Swap the cable. See step 1.
Unplug and replug.
Try a different USB port, especially if you're going through a hub or dock. Bus-powered hubs are a common source of flaky enumeration.

Bluetooth MIDI (BLE)

Works with macOS, Windows (via a BLE-MIDI bridge), iOS, and hardware synths that advertise a BLE-MIDI service.

On your phone:

Settings tab → scroll to MIDI Devices → tap SCAN BLE.
The button changes to Stop Scan and a spinner appears next to the AVAILABLE heading. Discovered devices appear below with a Bluetooth icon.
If iOS prompts for Bluetooth permission, grant it.
Tap the row for the device you want. It moves up into the green CONNECTED box.

Scanning stops by itself once you connect, so there's nothing to remember to switch off. If you change your mind before connecting, tap Stop Scan.

On your Mac:

Open Audio MIDI Setup (in /Applications/Utilities).
Window → Show MIDI Studio → double-click Bluetooth.
Find your iPhone in the list → Connect.

Pair BLE-MIDI devices through the app's SCAN BLE button, not through iOS's Bluetooth settings — BLE-MIDI pairing happens in-app.

Connection status

The green CONNECTED box at the top of the MIDI Devices section names your connected device. If it's a grey box reading "Not connected", you aren't connected.
The app bar shows a small green link icon whenever a MIDI destination is connected — visible from any tab, so you can confirm at a glance while playing.
The green music-note icon in the app bar flashes as MIDI is sent. If it flashes but your DAW is silent, the problem is on the DAW side, not the connection.
If a connection drops, Mobile MIDI tries to reconnect automatically.

Troubleshooting connection

See the connection section in Troubleshooting.