Hi, I’m trying to connect my Stream Deck to Cubase via MIDI, but the MIDI plugin won’t list any MIDI ports. In the Generic Midi action, the MIDI Out / MIDI In dropdowns only show “No MIDI Output” / “No MIDI Input” — not a single port appears (not even Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth or my audio interface).
The core problem
I set up virtual MIDI ports for both apps. Cubase recognizes them immediately and with no issue — it sees them in its MIDI Port Setup right away.
Only the Stream Deck MIDI plugin can’t see anything. Its dropdowns are completely empty. So the ports themselves clearly work; only the plugin fails to enumerate them.
My setup
Windows 11, version 25H2 (OS Build 26200.8655) — new Windows MIDI Services (MIDI 2.0) stack is active
Stream Deck app: 7.4.1.22720
MIDI plugin: 4.3.0.1 — freshly downloaded, latest version from the Store
Devices: Stream Deck (Classic) + Stream Deck +
DAW: Cubase
Audio interface: RME Babyface
What I’ve already tried (none worked)
First I tried loopMIDI — created a port. Cubase saw it immediately, but the plugin didn’t.
Since loopMIDI didn’t work with the plugin, I switched to the new MIDI Settings app and created native MIDI 2.0 loopback endpoints (loopbackMidiA / loopbackMidiB), “retain across reboots” ON. Cubase sees those too — but the plugin still shows nothing. So both loopMIDI and the new native loopback ports fail the exact same way.
Restarted the Windows MIDI Service (services.msc) several times.
Stopped the Windows MIDI Service and set startup type to Disabled, then rebooted.
Rebooted the PC several times.
Uninstalled and reinstalled the MIDI plugin (downloaded the latest version fresh).
Fully quit and relaunched the Stream Deck app many times.
Confirmed Windows is fully up to date.
Checked pluginlog.txt — the plugin loads cleanly with NO errors (Plugin Loaded, Connected to Stream Deck, 14 actions found, v4.3.0.1). It starts fine but never lists any MIDI port.
My questions
Is 4.3.0.1 the latest version, or is there a newer build that fixes MIDI port enumeration under the new Windows MIDI Services stack?
Why would the plugin list zero ports while Cubase sees them all — is this a known issue with the new MIDI stack on 25H2 (build 26200.8655)?
Even if loopback ports aren’t visible, shouldn’t the plugin at least show built-in ports like Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth? It shows literally nothing.
What logs do you need? I can enable extended logging and attach pluginlog.txt.
4.3.0.1 was published yesterday, so it is the latest version.
Please enable extended logging. Quit and restart the Stream Deck software (notification area - Quit). Upload the log file (don’t attach it to the post), and post the log ID.
Done! I enabled extended logging, fully quit Stream Deck from the notification area, restarted it, and opened the MIDI port dropdown to reproduce the issue — it’s still completely empty, no ports listed.
Solved! The dropdown was empty because “show only global ports / used ports” was enabled in Global Settings → Global ports, while no global ports were defined. Turning that off made all the ports appear. Thanks for the help!
@Gunnar A solution could be to deselect “Show only global ports“ if there are no global ports configured, and automatically selecting “Show at the top of the dropdowns“
I was not talking about default values for new users.
Just saying that if an any user enables the “Show only global ports“ without any global port enabled, it is a design problem.
The “Show only global ports“ option should be only accessible when there are one or more global ports configured.
And in the case a user has the “Show only global ports“ option enabled with one global port configured, and then the user removes that global port, the “Show only global ports“ option should be automatically deselected and unaccessible, and the selection should be switched to “Show at the top of the dropdowns“ or to “Show at the bottom of the dropdowns“
From my point of view, if a user enables “Show only global ports” without any global ports enabled, it’s a user error.
In this case, I presume the user did not configure this, and the default settings did not apply, which is a mystery. Unless the user explicitly selects “Show only global ports”, it shouldn’t be selected.
But I like your suggestion; it’s already implemented for the next version. Instead of showing or hiding the radio button, I simply ignore it when preparing the dropdowns if no global ports are defined.
