After opening and closing both garageband and Finale several times, in orders that I cannot remember, hyperscribe is working again.

There is some interaction between GB and Finale that I don't understand. I can imagine that GB takes control of the midi input, but if that is the case, why does midi work with simple entry but not hyperscribe.  Anyway, at this point I give up. I've already spent several hours going thru help files and I will just settle for this unexplained "fix" at least for the time being.

Hi David,

You don't say what keyboard. Brand isn't important but this is: does it use CoreMIDI or a 3rd party driver? If a driver, make certain that it and your keyboard's firmware are up to date as that will save time.

In any case, you want to talk to Apple about this. In most countries, you can arrange a support call—OS issues are always free. They don't support Finale, of course but GarageBand and MIDI most definitely. Apple will be able to do a screen share and view the Activity Monitor in real time. It's very possible that an old .kxt file is gumming up the works by getting in the way. 

You can have the Activity Monitor window open while you work. If anything turns red when this happens, that is where the trouble is. Take an immediate screen shot so that you can tell Apple where to look. Here's the Support doc if you're not familiar with this.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102646#:~:text=How%20to%20take%20a%20screenshot,to%20save%20to%20your%20desktop. 

Thanks, your comment is helpful.

The keyboard is an ALesis mini, though I don't think that could be the issue because simple entry and speedy entry both recognize the keyboard input. I'm using CoreMIDI.

I will keep monitoring this, with Activity Monitor open, and if it happens again I will contact Apple as you suggest.

For now I consider this closed, but I don't see how to close the thread.

… For now I consider this closed, but I don't see how to close the thread …

You could edit your first post, and add SOLVED to the thread title.

If it happens again, it’s most likely to be a conflict. I have a number of apps that don’t play well with others and when one acts up, the first thing I do is hit cmd option escape to see what else is running. If that doesn’t do it, call Apple per my earlier suggestion.

Alesis has a troubleshooting doc that applies to anything using CoreMIDI. All it does is show how to do a general reset but sometimes that is what is needed. I did this last year with my new Mac and found an old driver from 1994.

https://support.alesis.com/en/support/solutions/articles/69000798827-troubleshooting-usb-midi-devices-on-mac

thanks for the alesis doc. It hasn't happened again, yet. Until I can repeat it and also repeat whatever fixed it, I won't be able to troubleshoot further, but it's great to have all the resources ready. many thanks.