Fix Razer device not detected on macOS Big Sur 11.1

instructions.md

@Jandalf I recently had to reset my System Integrity Protection settings (csrutil clear) and once again ran into this issue, where my Razer device was not recognized.

I have upgraded to macOS Big Sur 11.1, and I can confirm that the solutions by @avaddon and @rdabban, which had worked for me on 11.0, no longer work.

Manually loading the kernel extension (the kextload command) will display the error code 27 "Extension with identifiers com.razer.common.razerhid not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences.", but no pop-up or "Allow" option would appear anywhere on the System Preferences.

Adding the Razer TeamID with the /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add R2H967U7J8 command showed me a pop-up, but with no "Allow" option, and no option to allow the kernel extension would appear in the System Preferences, so no good.

I finally managed to make it work by temporarily disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP), as follows:

1. Boot into Recovery Mode. This can be done by restarting your computer and holding Cmd+R on boot until a loading bar shows up.
2. Once in Recovery Mode, sign in with your account and open a terminal. You can find it in the top menu under Utilities > Terminal.
3. Disable SIP by running the following command: csrutil disable.
4. Close the terminal and reboot (normal reboot, not into Recovery Mode).
5. Open a terminal and load the extension with the following command: sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext.
6. Reboot (normal reboot, not into Recovery Mode) and confirm that your Razer device is now correctly detected.
7. Now we must reenable SIP to maintain system security. This should not break your device. Boot once more into Recovery Mode, open a terminal, run csrutil enable, close the terminal and reboot.

You should now be able to load your Razer device AND have SIP enabled.

Good luck y'all!

Alright, I managed to get it to work (with SIP enabled) on MacOS Big Sur.
Basically I combined two solutions mentioned before.
Namely:

The steps in this link:
https://gist.github.com/fcoclavero/431123c7708e42de63eb75264a44de02

And the solution provided by @Avaddon in this thread:
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/649829

So first of all, thanks to @Avaddon and @fcoclavero

I tried the solutions in the order I mentioned them,
but combined, it will be:

• Boot into Recovery Mode: hold Cmd+R while starting up

• Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.

• Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) by running: csrutil disable

• Execute the following command:
  /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add R2H967U7J8

• Verify that team got added:
  /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent list

Should output something like:
Allowed Team Identifiers:
R2H967U7J8

• Close the Terminal app and restart (normal reboot, not into Recovery Mode)
• Open a terminal and load the extension with the following command (reboot (normally) when asked):
  sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext

This should give a popup which tells to press the allow button in System Preferences
The button should be located at the bottom of the General tab in Security & Privacy
Something with SIP (System Integrity Protection) might be the reason why the allow button doesn't show up
(that's why we disabled SIP in Recovery Mode)

My settings for the System Preferences/Security & Privacy/Privacy tab I checked the boxes for:

• Accessibility -> RzDeviceEngine

• Input Monitoring -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine

• Full Disk Access -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine

• See if it works:
  Start Razer Synapse, probably it won't show the device
  disconnect, connect the device and it should appear

If this works, Re-enable SIP to maintain system security:

• Boot again in Recovery mode (Command + R).
• Open the terminal and run: csrutil enable
• Close the terminal and reboot

For me it works, with SIP enabled, the only problem is that I have to reconnect the device each time I start my computer and open Razer Synapse. Razer Synapse will say "Please connect a Razer Synapse enabled device" until I reconnect it. I wrote a little Python3 script which will do this (to save my usb cables).

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import usb.core
import usb.util

#find our device
dev = usb.core.find(find_all=True)

for device in dev:
	product_name = usb.util.get_string(device, device.iProduct)
	if "device_name" in product_name:
		print(product_name)
		device.reset()
		break

This script can then be called with a shell script:

#!/bin/bash

python3 /path/to/PythonScript.py

Which is clickable if saved with the extension: .command

Hopefully this will help!

@CodeBlazer I'm glad you managed to get it working! Thank you for posting your solution here 😊

Thanks works after few tries

razer synapse can't still opened but, can read my old macros is enough for me

Finally got my Razer mouse working again, with the above solution and recovery mode from command line (command+r did not work for my Mac mini 2018). Thanks for sharing!

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import usb.core
import usb.util
import time

#find our device
dev = usb.core.find(find_all=True)
time.sleep(7)

for device in dev:
	product_name = usb.util.get_string(device, device.iProduct)
	if "device_name" in product_name:
		print(product_name)
		device.reset()
		break

Thanks a lot, this is super helpful! I did an extra step so that I don't have to click the script manually every time I log in. First, I added a delay of 7 seconds so that Razer Synapse has a chance to load before executing the script and then I created an .app file using Apple's Script Editor

do shell script "PATH_TO_YOUR_SCRIPT/X.command"

Finally, I saved the script as an application and added it to my login items under System Preferences, once your computer boots up, the app will open, run the script and then close itself.

there is an much more easy way of thoing this : with uhubctl

to install this on macos :

1. make sure you have the latest xcode command line tools , you can force this by typing in a terminal window

     sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools
     sudo xcode-select --install
   

2. install uhubctl by typing in a terminal window

     brew tap mvp/uhubctl https://github.com/mvp/uhubctl
     brew install uhubctl
   

3. use uhubctl to give a list of your ports by typing in the terminal window

     uhubctl
   

where this a part of my result i get

Current status for hub 20-6 [0bda:5411 Generic 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub, USB 2.10, 4 ports, ppps]
Port 1: 0503 power highspeed enable connect [0bda:5411 Generic 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub, USB 2.10, 4 ports, ppps]
Port 2: 0100 power
Port 3: 0103 power enable connect [1532:0046 Razer Razer Mamba Tournament Edition]
Port 4: 0100 power

4. example to use wich you then can use in a script or whatever

     uhubctl -l 20-6 -p 3 -a cycle -d 2
   

so the -l is the number of the hub you select (for me that was 20-6) and the -p is the port on that hub (port 3 for me)
-a cycle is to powercycle that port and -d 2 is to leave 2 second between the power off and on (for example you can set an delay here or for the uhubctl command in your sript also with for example "sleep 7"

so the same as your python scrypt would be

     #!/bin/bash
     sleep 7
     uhubctl -l 20-6 -p 3 -a cycle -d 2
     killall Terminal

then save it as yourscript.sh
to make it executable

      sudo chmod 755 yourscript.sh 

to set an sh script to run at login change the .sh to .command to make your script directly executable wich you then can also add directly in system preferences > youraccount > login

that works pretty fine for me :)

This isn't working for me anymore (macOS Big Sur 11.5), keeps saying Razer Extension must be updated as soon as I turn off SIP. Any help?

After upgrading to macOS Big Sur 11.5.1, it didn't work at the first place. I executed:

➜  ~ sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext 
Password:
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=28 "Loading extension(s): com.razer.common.razerhid requires a reboot" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Loading extension(s): com.razer.common.razerhid requires a reboot}

And simply rebooting afterwards fixed the issue.

Can you @denkeni confirm that this worked with csrutil enabled? It works with csrutil disabled, but after enabling com.razer.common.razerhid gets blocked again, saying the developer needs to update the app. macOS Big Sur 11.5.1

Yes, with SIP enabled.

➜  ~ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: enabled.

I may need to clarify that after upgrading macOS from 11.* to 11.5.1, in normal boot (with SIP enabled):

1. /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent list confirmed that Allowed Team Identifier was still there
2. sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext and rebooted as instructed above

I did not go back to recovery mode or disable SIP anymore.

This should give a popup which tells to press the allow button in System Preferences
The button should be located at the bottom of the General tab in Security & Privacy
Something with SIP (System Integrity Protection) might be the reason why the allow button doesn't show up
(that's why we disabled SIP in Recovery Mode)

My MacOS version is 11.5. I was able to click the allow button it seems not work for me

Have the same problem as @xhoantran here. Does someone maanged to make it works on the current last version of BigSur 11.5.2 ?

Same here for BigSur 11.5.2 it reverts back to not detecting after SIP is enabled again.

UPDATE: Make sure to also do /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add R2H967U7J8 when disabling csrutil. I did that and it stayed after reboot.

Have the same problem as @xhoantran here. Does someone maanged to make it works on the current last version of BigSur 11.5.2 ?

This script below has been working in multiple patches without any changes, right now I am running BigSur 11.6. I added an additional line of code that runs the kextload command.

Script below still works in MacOS Monterey

Having your system password like this in a file is very bad practice, so use at your own discretion. I don't really care so this is simply the route I took.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import usb.core, usb.util, time, os

dev = usb.core.find(find_all=True)

os.system('echo SYSTEM_PASSWORD_HERE | sudo -S kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext')

time.sleep(10)

for device in dev:
    product_name = usb.util.get_string(device, device.iProduct)
    if 'Razer Naga Chroma' in product_name:
        device.reset()
        break

@Accieo I've tried your solution in MacOS Monterey, however it returns the following error:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=27 "Extension with identifiers com.razer.common.razerhid not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Extension with identifiers com.razer.common.razerhid not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences.}

Do you have any idea on how to fix it?

@Accieo I've tried your solution in MacOS Monterey, however it returns the following error:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=27 "Extension with identifiers com.razer.common.razerhid not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Extension with identifiers com.razer.common.razerhid not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences.}

Do you have any idea on how to fix it?

Hmm, I am not exactly sure about what could be causing this. It's been working perfectly for me ever since the update, have you tried simply using the kextload command directly in the terminal?

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext

Hmm, I am not exactly sure about what could be causing this. It's been working perfectly for me ever since the update, have you tried simply using the kextload command directly in the terminal?

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext

In the meantime, I tried reinstalling Razer Synapse 2 and following the procedure of @CodeBlazer, it worked the second time. I don't know exactly why it didn't at first, but now everything is functioning as it should! So thank you all for this post and, for anyone new, this still works on macOS Monterey (12.0.1).

Thanks @CodeBlazer for summarizing all of this information. I had found most, but not all, of this information my self in various locations, but could not get it to work again after having to reinstall macOS due to another problem. The permissions to allow did not come up automatically--I only got one Razer item per each of the three fields (Accessibility, Input & Disk Access). I had manually added all three Razer items to each field. That stopped the "Please plug in a Razer device" message on Synapse, but instead just left the Synapse window just completely blank.
Finding the right combination of permissions solved that, and Synapse was finally able to recognize my beloved Naga Epic.

However, not all is well.

My key substitutions work well. However, my macros do nothing.
I have some buttons subbed to F8 or Del or L or something like that. No problems.
However, I have other keys mapped to macros that still might be as simple as spelling a word: "line", for example. If I trigger that, absolutely nothing happens.

The macros are still there in Synapse. I have tried copying existing macros and existing profiles. No change. I have tried creating new macros and new profiles. No change.

Any ideas?

Assuming I can get this fixed, there are two other issues I've been having with my Naga. I doubt there is a fix for these, but it's amazing sometimes what varied expertise can be found out in internetland.

Problem #1, RzDeviceEngine is very unstable. I will quite often have the entire computer crash out to the black screen of death (to borrow a phrase from the Windows world), and the error report almost always points the finger at RzDeviceEngine. Is there anything to be done about this?

Problem #2, Any time Synapse opens, closes, or otherwise tickles the mouse, or at random moments at other times, the system mouse sensitivity will drop to minimum. So this happens a couple of times on boot up. Opening synapse, closing synapse, selecting a different profile and once in a while randomly apropos of nothing. Not the end of the world, but annoying. Especially, because if you leave the System Preferences open, it won't register the change. It apparently only updates the sensitivity setting upon opening the Preferences.

Lastly, I know that Razer is abandoning Macs. I have personally had words with them myself on several occasions about this. I have incorporated my Naga into my workflow as an engineer and draftsman. The Naga really gives you a lot of tools to increase productivity: Different profiles for different programs, each profile can set up many different keymaps, and then all the macro possibilities.

I know some people are switching to Karabiner Elements from Synapse and are able to control the button mapping on their Razer mouse. Does that give the same multiple layers of functionality with bunches of profiles and their associated keymaps?

Then same question applied to alternative mice such as the Logitech G600? I'm getting the impression that it has a keymap, and then a modifier key that shifts to a second keymap. Is that it? Only two keymaps? That so limiting. I need at least 3 keymaps just associated with AutoCAD. Am I wrong in this? What other mice offer the same depth of customization as the Naga? The Corsair Scimitar seems like a viable contender.

At least the G600 is Mac-compatible. That is proving to be a more difficult question to answer than I would have expected. Some alternatives, I'm finding, expect you to have a Windows machine lying around just to set up your mouse so that you can then take it back to your macOS machine to use it. Not practical here. The only Windows machine around is almost 20 years old, still running XP, and therefore won't communicate with most places on the web (such as for downloading the mouse config programs). Some don't acknowledge the existence of Macs whatsoever. If I have to buy a replacement for my Naga, I don't want to put myself right back in the same boat with no support.

I just ran into the same issues, can't get my Razer Orbweaver to appear in Razer Synapse. I've gone through everything here to get it working prior to the latest Mac OS update, and it's just dead Jim. I'm curious though, TheOneTheyCall-Tim mentions that he found the right combination of permissions, I'm curious, what was that combination?

What @CodeBlazer posted above was the combination of permissions that worked (best) for me.

So that would be:

My settings for the System Preferences/Security & Privacy/Privacy tab I checked the boxes for:

• Accessibility -> RzDeviceEngine
• Input Monitoring -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine
• Full Disk Access -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine

That got Synapse recognizing my Naga, and all of my thumb buttons that are bound to single keys (F8, Del) work, bound to changing keymaps work. However, thumb keys that are bound to macros (might spell a word, or at least a multiple letter command, or activate some menu items via keystrokes) still do NOT work.
I tried a couple other combinations based on that to see if I can get the macros back in gear. I did not succeed.

I'm looking at Karabiner right now to see if it will do what I need. It's going to be a slightly different approach. I haven't figured out how to change a single key into multiple keystrokes yet, unless you just provide multiple "to:" items for each "from:". That's my current theory. I haven't had a chance to test it yet. Karabiner is not for the faint of heart. If you try Karabiner, I hope you have a programming background. It's not particularly difficult programming skills you need to control the mouse with it, but it's going to look awful weird to anyone who's never programmed before.

As I understand it, Karabiner does not have any control over the lighting. I don't particularly care about that, though it is useful as a visual reference to what mode/keymap the mouse is in.

Also, people have posted about the mouse showing up on Karabiner as both a mouse and a keyboard. When the mouse is enabled, there is a nasty lag that shows up from time to time. I have seen that as well. However, since the main thing I'm looking to do is control the thumb buttons, this can be done by enabling the mouse keyboard part but not the mouse mouse part, if that makes any sense.

This would be so much easier if synapse would just work. It's close. It was working last week. Aside from its usual foibles anyway.

Alright, I managed to get it to work (with SIP enabled) on MacOS Big Sur. Basically I combined two solutions mentioned before. Namely:

The steps in this link: https://gist.github.com/fcoclavero/431123c7708e42de63eb75264a44de02

And the solution provided by @Avaddon in this thread: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/649829

So first of all, thanks to @Avaddon and @fcoclavero

I tried the solutions in the order I mentioned them, but combined, it will be:

• Boot into Recovery Mode: hold Cmd+R while starting up
• Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
• Disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) by running: csrutil disable
• Execute the following command:
  /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent add R2H967U7J8
• Verify that team got added:
  /usr/sbin/spctl kext-consent list

Should output something like: Allowed Team Identifiers: R2H967U7J8

• Close the Terminal app and restart (normal reboot, not into Recovery Mode)
• Open a terminal and load the extension with the following command (reboot (normally) when asked):
  sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext

This should give a popup which tells to press the allow button in System Preferences The button should be located at the bottom of the General tab in Security & Privacy Something with SIP (System Integrity Protection) might be the reason why the allow button doesn't show up (that's why we disabled SIP in Recovery Mode)

My settings for the System Preferences/Security & Privacy/Privacy tab I checked the boxes for:

• Accessibility -> RzDeviceEngine
• Input Monitoring -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine
• Full Disk Access -> RzUpdater, RzDeviceEngine
• See if it works:
  Start Razer Synapse, probably it won't show the device
  disconnect, connect the device and it should appear

If this works, Re-enable SIP to maintain system security:

• Boot again in Recovery mode (Command + R).
• Open the terminal and run: csrutil enable
• Close the terminal and reboot

For me it works, with SIP enabled, the only problem is that I have to reconnect the device each time I start my computer and open Razer Synapse. Razer Synapse will say "Please connect a Razer Synapse enabled device" until I reconnect it. I wrote a little Python3 script which will do this (to save my usb cables).

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import usb.core
import usb.util

#find our device
dev = usb.core.find(find_all=True)

for device in dev:
	product_name = usb.util.get_string(device, device.iProduct)
	if "device_name" in product_name:
		print(product_name)
		device.reset()
		break

This script can then be called with a shell script:

#!/bin/bash

python3 /path/to/PythonScript.py

Which is clickable if saved with the extension: .command

Hopefully this will help!

Mostly working in Monterey with the exception of RzDeviceEngine not showing up under full disk access... any ideas? and like @PensoGlide I too had to reinstall to get the recovery mode shell commands to register.

Big Sur 11.7

I can activate RazerHid.kext as described above, but the python script to reconnect the device does not work on restart.

I get the following error in Terminal:

if "Razer" in product_name:
TypeError: argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable

The script does work however if I disconnect and reconnect my usb Razer mouse and try again.

I checked the following:

• RzDeviceEngine not showing up under full disk access
• The Razer mouse is visible in Hackintool / USB but is not detected by the python script after restart

EDIT:

• I managed to drop RzDeviceEngine from the finder into system prefs/Privacy/Full disk acces: no succes further
• Also tried to include the sudo kextload with password from above Into the python script, didn't work either

EDIT 2:

Checking USB ports behavior with the terminal uhubctl (install explained a few posts above):
My Razer mouse is found when attached to the Apple USB wired keyboard or a USB 2.0 HUB . In this case, the everything works including the pythonscript.

Thanks everyone above

#!/bin/bash

python3 /Users/huug/Pythonmap/RAZER_USB_FIX/RazerUsbFix.py
sleep 15
open -a /Applications/Razer\ Synapse.app

had to add open Razer_synapse.app command to wake the thing up

Still working after updating from Big Sur to Monterey 12.6.2

spctl kext-consent stores its values in NVRAM.

If you reset your NVRAM you will need to restore the kext-consent.

I preferred to create an Application in Automator, and put it to start with the login. I thought better. Just use "Utility > Run Shell Script" in Automator.
Put shell > /usr/local/bin/python3

# It is necessary install libusb on mac. "brew install libusb".
# Maybe need to install PyUSB. "python3 -m pip install pyusb".

import usb.core
import usb.util

VID = 0x1532 # VendorID of the device you want. In my case Razer Mamba.
PID = 0x0024 # ProductID of the device you want. In my case Razer Mamba.

dev = usb.core.find(idVendor=VID, idProduct=PID)
dev.reset()
exit(0)

You just need to remember to put your device's VendorID and ProductID so that it only reset.
Work in Ventura 13.3

Hi Gents,

Frustrated to not be able to use my Razer Naga Trinity properly, I've been following a few leads online but without succeeding :(

I'm on Macbook pro Apple M1, Ventura 13.5.1 (22G90). Synapse 1.88.20

I've first tried the method by u/sidneytsilva
https://www.reddit.com/r/razer/comments/y82wwx/mac_users_getting_please_connect_a_razer_synapse/

then avaddon method
https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/649829

Finally came to this thread, and tried CodeBlazer method. Unfortunally, when reaching to this step Open a terminal and load the extension with the following command (reboot (normally) when asked):
sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
This should give a popup which tells to press the allow button in System Preferences, I get "System extension blocked - System extension blocked a program tried to load new system extension(s) signed by "Razer USA Ltd." that need to be updated by the developer"

I did Disable SIP on R-mode and add R2H967U7J8. When I try to run sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext, I get the following:
Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=71 "Incompatible architecture: Binary is for x86_64, but needed arch arm64e
Unsupported Error: one or more extensions are unsupported to load Kext com.razer.common.razerhid v21.94 in executable kext bundle com.razer.common.razerhid at /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Unsupported Error: one or more extensions are unsupported to load Kext com.razer.common.razerhid v21.94 in executable kext bundle com.razer.common.razerhid at /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Incompatible architecture: Binary is for x86_64, but needed arch arm64e
Unsupported Error: one or more extensions are unsupported to load Kext com.razer.common.razerhid v21.94 in executable kext bundle com.razer.common.razerhid at /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext
Unsupported Error: one or more extensions are unsupported to load Kext com.razer.common.razerhid v21.94 in executable kext bundle com.razer.common.razerhid at /Library/Extensions/RazerHid.kext}

Am I doing somethiong wrong? I'm completely neophyte when it comes to mac, usually a pc user. For what I can read from the error message it could be a compatibility issue? If someone is able to point me toward the right direction it'd be really grateful!

I'm using Steermouse now, running flawless since a few months, with all keys programmable and multiple profiles for al your apps. website is https://plentycom.jp/en/steermouse/