Trouble Connecting EOS R8 to EOS Utility on a Mac

[tjdowling]

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.

[jrhoffman75]

Have you tested this? I believe that setting is for the computer camera. 

[husrona]

Yes I did test it. I'll see to record a video and can post it here. I think the moment you connect your camera to your Mac, it will be treated as an additional camera, together with the built-in one.

[jrhoffman75]

That wiould be good to see.

I tried it on my MacBook Air M2 Sonoma. Didn't make any difference with EOSU 3.17 - no connection either way.

I installed EOSU 3.16.1 - connects fine to my 1D X Mark III with or without disabling apps authorized to use the camera.

[petero]

No - this doesn't work. I switched them all off to try anyway. In any event, those settings you refer to are for the camera in your computer, not your actual Canon Camera.

[petero]

sadly it hasn't. I just installed Sonoma, still gives the same error message. I have tried everything. Disabling wifi and bluetooth, you name it!

[petero]

Didn't work for me. I followed your steps but it still doesn't work.

[mattyj2001]

I just upgraded to MacOS Sonoma on an M1 MacBook Pro. It broke EOS Utility severely. The camera connects to my network but the utility never connects to download photos.

I ended up buying a little app called Cascable Transfer from the App Store. It's been two years since it's last been updated but it somehow works when Canon's own software breaks constantly. It has a free trial so you can test it out. It has one job (like EOS Utility) except that it works.

Be sure you have killed all instances of EOS Utility before you run it, especially the little icon/menu up near the date on the right side of the menu bar. Even though EOS Utility is not working, it seems to block other attempts to connect to the camera.

[jrhoffman75]

I haven’t tried using Wi-Fi, but EOSU 13.6.1 works fine with Sonoma via cable. 

[petero]

t\The problem appears to be that it doesn't work for some people but not others, and nobody has figured out the common link between those where it doesn't work! Not sure if there is a software conflict, or a particular model Mac (mine is 27 inch 2020 8-Core Intel Core i7 AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT 8 GB running Sonoma). So EOSU 13.6.1 with Sonoma doesn't work for me via cable, whatever I do. It did, literally the first time I reinstalled it after putting Sonoma on my mac and the second time I turned it on... no. Wireless works fine but that's so slow. I have resorted to using a memory card reader but the seems so wrong. This is a top end Canon camera!

[jrhoffman75]

The problem seems to be with 3.17. Try 3.16.12.