I'm trying to use a 2nd identical Octa Capture as a back up in case the 1st one fails. I figured I would just have to unplug the 1st one & then plug in the 2nd one (backup), and away I would go. I've set up Under devices & chosen to use "Use friendly/names to represent MIDI devices. That way I can make sure the same names are used.

The problem seems to be that Sonar recognizes everything except the midi device on the 2nd Oct Capture. When I use the original 1st device that I originally saved all my projects & Set List files on, everything is OK.

When I use the 2nd device I get a pop up error "Missing MIDI Ports" for every project I open & asks me to choose the available devices even though I've checkd & saved the new preferences. In the pop up menu it list the exact same name to choose as the missing MIDI device?

Example (under error msg)
Missing Devices:
MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)
Available Devices: (Shows None)
MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE) < shows this under pop up menu

As you can see the "Friendly Names" are exact.

P.S.
The original MIDI names differ on both devices:
1st DEVICE NAME: MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)
2nd DEVICE NAME: 2-MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)
Also every time I change my devices I have to recheck the MIDI IN/OUT prefs & save it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Micdim

Are you using the same USB port? 
Are both units firmware up to date and the same? 

Are you closing and restarting Sonar after switching the OCs? 

Yes everything is up to date.
I unplug the 1st USB device, & then connect the second one in the same port. I've also tried different ports? Same thing happens? I've also tried restarting before I change units same thing.

Why would one unit show its device name "MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)" & the other one "2-MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)". The friendly names I've made the same on both unit prefs, "MIDI (OCTA-CAPTURE)"?

jackson white
Are you closing and restarting Sonar after switching the OCs? 

Sorry what is OCs?

I think he means the Octa captures with OCs

micdim
Sorry what is OCs?

Sorry, sent that from the little screen. I did mean OctaCaptures. 

Thanks guys for your time. Not working so far though.
Ok here's what i figured out so far...

It seems that Sonar & or Roland's driver correctly sees the Audio interfaces with only the device that was used to intall the driver. The other device even though it's the exact same has a 2- put in front of the MIDI names. This makes using this other unit useles as a back up because you'd have that error msg popping up all the time on every project. Naming the MIDI to another name in preferences doesn't work either because Sonar is still looking for the original name.

The only way I found so far is to delete the driver & then intall it again & plug the 2nd interface in to finish the intall. Only then does Sonar & or Rolands driver use the correct midi names on that device, but now the device that was currently working has the same problem with the 2- in front of the MIDI name. What a cluster f...

Roland does have this in their trouble shooting section, but only using one interface. They say to reinstall the driver if A DAW shows a 2- in the MIDI name, because the USB port has failed to see it or something like that.

Anyone have any other ideas that can help me out?

Thanks everyone so far!

Only thing comes to mind is that there is a machine address involved here. In other word each device has a USB handshake code that is different from box to box. Your computer remembers that code for that USB port.  This would be desirable for those using 2 at the same time.  Your situation is something they would never have thought necessary. 
 
 

Thanks for your info!
I was afraid that this would be an issue. I'm wondering if there's any way around it?