UWP shows wrong MIDI device names

Max Meier 0

Hey there!

UWP shows wrong names for most MIDI devices! Many ports are just called "MIDI" - which makes this library almost completely usable in any App.

For example, loading output device information is done like this:

DeviceInformationCollection midiOutputDevices = await DeviceInformation.FindAllAsync(MidiOutPort.GetDeviceSelector());

The name of more than half of my IO ports is "MIDI" - however, any other application shows the right and meaningful name!

I searched for the problem and it seems to have been around for years.

Is there any way to fix this or do you hopefully plan to fix this eventually? This would be so great, because this seems just like some easy-fixable little problem - with the effect of being a real showstopper...

Thanks & best,

Max

Roy Li - MSFT 31,826 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-01-31T10:29:25.6933333+00:00

There are no other properties in the DeviceInformation class to get the name of MIDI device. I'll talk with the team to check this behavior.
Roy Li - MSFT 31,826 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2023-02-02T02:03:53.43+00:00

It will be better to share more information about the behavior you mentioned. Can you give an example for what you mean about any other application shows the right and meaningful name?
Eddie 1 Reputation point

2023-02-04T16:58:29.64+00:00

Roy, Max is referring to apps that use the Win32 MIDI stack which accurately reports MIDI device names. The WinRT MIDI stack often returns "MIDI" or "synthesizer" for multiple devices, so it's impossible to tell them apart.

This issue was reported to Microsoft (and was acknowledged as an issue) in 2017, almost 6 years ago today.