Pro tools 9 activation on mac without CD player

[Frustrated40]

I have a Pro tools 9 (including an Mbox & Ilok) that i bought several years ago for PC. The program came in CD-rom. However, now i bought an iMac and would like to download the program to install on my new computer. Naturally it does not have a CD-rom player.

I cannot even register my old product as I cannot find the registration ID (although i have the serial number of the Mbox and the ILok). I tried to copy the files from the installation CDs, but do not seem to contain the files for Mac (although it says so on the CD-Roms discs themselves).

What do I do?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Frustrated40

I have a Pro tools 9 (including an Mbox & Ilok) that i bought several years ago for PC. The program came in CD-rom. However, now i bought an iMac and would like to download the program to install on my new computer. Naturally it does not have a CD-rom player.

I cannot even register my old product as I cannot find the registration ID (although i have the serial number of the Mbox and the ILok). I tried to copy the files from the installation CDs, but do not seem to contain the files for Mac (although it says so on the CD-Roms discs themselves).

What do I do?

Normally you think all this through before buying new hardware.

Pro Tools 9 likely won't run on your new Mac's OS X version.

Lost registration card may be a problem.

The old installer was actually a DVD-ROM not CD-ROM, but either way, who uses those anyhow. Had you registered your previous version for Pro Tools 9 you will have a downloadable installers for both OS X and Windows in your Avid.com account. But should you really need a DVD-ROM player it is easy to connect an external USB DVD-ROM to you Mac, either an Apple external SuperDrive or many different third party drives. But worrying about Pro Tools 9 is likely a waste of time.

Probably time for you to buy a Pro Tools LE to Pro Tools 12 upgrade... which uses the Mbox serial number (as long as that serial number has not been used for a previous upgrade you should be OK, you won't need the registration card). Just be aware of the $200/year Avid support tax that will likely lock you into. You can also try signing up for the Pro Tools First ("Free" Pro Tools) program that is slowly rolling out. But you need to be aware of how crippled that crippleware is. Most info you need about Pro Tools 12 and Pro Tools First is on Avid's web site,

And you need to checked if your third party plugins are compatible with the version of Pro Tools and OS X you are using. All old RTAS plugins need to be upgraded to AAX-64 to run in Pro Tools 12. The Pro Tools 12 license also allows you to run Pro Tools 10... which still supports RTAS, but again you need to check OS X dependencies for that.

[Frustrated40]

Thank you! do you know if files created in Pro tools 9 are readable by newer versions of pro tools?

[Darryl Ramm]

Yes they are. Newer versions of Pro Tools use a different session format, but can open old formats as well.

You also need any plugins used in that session installed in the new version of Pro Tools for everything to work.