cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Trouble Connecting EOS R8 to EOS Utility on a Mac

tjdowling
Contributor

I am having issues connecting my R8 to my Mac via the EOS Utility. I have the latest software and have gone through the user manual. The message I keep getting is:

"Communication with the camera via USB cannot be established.
Start EOS Utility after closing all the apps that communicate with the camera, and then turn on the camera again."

I am unaware of any apps that I have that would be trying to communicate with my camera in the background. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks in advance.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

jrhoffman75
Legend
Legend

@tjdowling wrote:

I am having issues connecting my R8 to my Mac via the EOS Utility. I have the latest software and have gone through the user manual. The message I keep getting is:

"Communication with the camera via USB cannot be established.
Start EOS Utility after closing all the apps that communicate with the camera, and then turn on the camera again."

I am unaware of any apps that I have that would be trying to communicate with my camera in the background. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks in advance.


It is a problem that seems to have developed with the 13.4.1 update to Ventura.

I was able to sync my 1D X MkIII prior to that update and now I get that error.

If you are only looking to download images you could get a card reader. If you are wanting the tethering features then we have to wait for Apple to fix the problem.

John Hoffman
Conway, NH

1D X Mark III, M200, Many lenses, Pixma PRO-100, Pixma TR8620a, Lr Classic

View solution in original post

65 REPLIES 65

Turn off the computer. Turn on the camera. Turn on the computer. Boot in safe mode... 🤦🏻‍ All this gymnastics looks way weird. I've just checked on my Mac Mini M1. That bash command works just fine for tethered shooting even with EOS Utility 3 v3.18.0. No fuss, no muss.

Awesome command. You saved me a lot of time investigating this issue.

I improved it a bit for my needs script.sh:

 

 

#!/bin/bash

# Create the ~/R7 directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/R7

# Start the endless loop in the background
{
  while :; do
    kill -9 $(ps aux | grep "[p]tpcamera" | awk '{print $2}')
    sleep 1 # Adding a sleep to avoid high CPU usage
  done
} &

# Store the PID of the background loop
LOOP_PID=$!

# Open the EOS Utility 3 app and wait for it to close
open -W "/Applications/Canon Utilities/EOS Utility/EU3/EOS Utility 3.app"

# Kill the endless loop
kill -9 $LOOP_PID

# Function to move files recursively
move_files() {
  src="$1"
  dst="$2"

  for item in "$src"/*; do
    if [ -d "$item" ]; then
      # If item is a directory, create the destination directory if it doesn't exist
      mkdir -p "$dst/$(basename "$item")"
      # Recursively move files from the source directory to the destination directory
      move_files "$item" "$dst/$(basename "$item")"
      # Remove the empty source directory
      rmdir "$item"
    else
      # If item is a file, move it to the destination
      mv -f "$item" "$dst"
    fi
  done
}

# Move all folders and files from ~/R7 to ~/Google Drive/My Drive/LightRoom/
move_files ~/R7 ~/Google\ Drive/My\ Drive/LightRoom/

# Remove any empty directories left behind in ~/R7
find ~/R7 -type d -empty -delete

 

 

To allow running this script:

 

 

chmod +x script.sh

 

 

 
This script creates a background task that kills processes that block camera access. Then run EOS 3 utitlity.

I configured the EOS3 utility to download photos into the ~/R7 folder automatically.
When it's done and EOS is closed, the script kills the loop that allows connection to the camera.

Then, it copies all folders from ~/R7 into the Google Drive folder because the EOS3 utility doesn't want to use it even with Full disk access.
Since I was preparing everything for my wife, I created an app using Macos Automator.

To create an app on macOS using Automator that runs a `script.sh` script, you can follow these steps:

1. **Open Automator:**
   - Go to your Applications folder.
   - Open Automator.

2. **Create a New Document:**
   - When Automator starts, you will be prompted to choose a type for your document.
   - Select "Application" and click "Choose".

3. **Add a "Run Shell Script" Action:**
   - In the Library on the left side, find "Run Shell Script" by typing it into the search bar.
   - Drag the "Run Shell Script" action into the workflow area on the right.

4. **Configure the Shell Script:**
   - In the "Run Shell Script" action, you will see a text box where you can enter your script.
   - Enter the following code to run `script.sh`:
     ```sh
     #!/bin/bash
     /path/to/your/script.sh
     ```
     - Make sure to replace `/path/to/your/script.sh` with the actual path to your script file.

5. **Save the Automator Application:**
   - Go to `File` > `Save`.
   - Choose a name for your application and save it to your desired location.

6. **Run the Application:**
   - Navigate to the location where you saved the Automator application.
   - Double-click the application to run your `script.sh` script.
 
P.S.
I hope it can help, but Canon is very irresponsible. I want to use an EOS utility to copy my photos to Google Drive without killing processes or using a third-party "image Canon" service.

Thank you for further improvement. It really might be helpful in this form!

divella
Contributor

I did sort of fix this issue by starting my Mac in safe mode and disabling image capture. The only problem is when shooting tethered I always have to use safe mode.

Have you tried the bash command I mentioned on the previous page? No safe mode is required. Why extra inconveniences?

Krugerela
Apprentice

Hello.

I came across the same problem. When connecting the camera to the Mac, the program began to show the same message, until that moment everything worked. I have a P5 camera and an M3 Mac. I tried 3 different wires to connect my Mac and Camera and the last one worked.
Just try to change the wire 

Announcements