Live II / 3.7 - Hardware not found - cannot connect DAW

After upgrading firmware on my Live II to 3.7 and updating the MPC app as well using inMusic Software Center, I can no longer use my MPC with the desktop software.

I connect the cable, choose 'Controller Mode' on the MPC, then it shows up as a drive on my laptop. Then I open the MPC 3 app, but when I try to choose an audio device it says hardware not found.

I tried to Reset Preferences, since that is suggested a lot in this forum, painfully set up settings again, but it did not help.

I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the MPC 3 app. Oh, and the old MPC 2 app also does not see my MPC.

Right now I am waiting for the first bugfix update and will try to remember not to upgrade so quickly another time. (If any Akai developers are reading this, it would really help with a proper bug system and faster turnaround.)

The main reason I miss this is because I use VST plugins for spectrum/frequency analysis and visual EQ, since there are no good plugins for the MPC (I did trial AIR Visual EQ 4, but it is no match for free alternatives like TDR Prism or TDR Nova).

So I don't know of a public and active bug forum for the MPC, which is why I am posting here.
In the meantime, while I wait for updates, I have pretty much given up on using the MPC software. I compose on the standalone anyway and use software for VST plugins when mixing finished tracks. So now I am looking into using Audacity, Reaper and LMMS for that instead.

Thanks for the suggestion. Both the software and the firmware versions were 3.7.0, so they matched.

I fixed it after reinstalling the hardware driver after the installation of the 3.7.0 software - in the inMusic Software Center:
My Hardware > MPC Live II > Hardware Support > MPC Live II Driver
and then:
Download again,
reinstall again (remove),
install again,
restart computer

Phew!

I might give the software another try for mixing. But it does seem to lag more than LMMS. For example, just adding TDR Prism to the master bus. Might be due to the live sync with the hardware. In LMMS, I am just working with wav files.
It might work fine on newer computers. I have 8 GB memory :shrug:

Yes, it is in beta. It has probably been that for about a year, which I think is a long time. There is not much visibility in their roadmap (that I know of). We can contact support and they offer a limited series of knowledge base articles. But no public bug tracker or release timeline. I also miss an open API for standalone plugin development. To me they seem like a hardware company that have had to take on software, but do not really focus on it.

When exactly is the software going to available as a VST? This is really unacceptable at this point. Mixing in the MPC One is cool, but I still want to finish projects in my DAW and the easiest way of doing that is as a VST. Akai needs to refocus on finishing the software instead of adding more broken stuff.