Folders folders everywhere

[supersam83]

Good morning

I have just updated from a 2012 iMac running PT9 to a Mac Studio M2 and PT studio. I have downloaded PT and the list of plugins from my avid account and now appear to have PT related folders in places I am not used to seeing them. In my ‘documents’ I have my current audio folders copied over from my second diary drive along with two folders titled ‘Pro tools’ inside them are a variety of sub folders including plug ins. In my ‘applications’ I have an ‘Air’ folder which has an empty subfolder. One titled ‘Avid’ again with other sub folders 1 of which includes two ‘Plug in’ folders which seems to have different contents and then the PT app with the wave icon (same as on the dock).
Is this normal? As I mentioned above I’m coming from PT 9 and I don’t remember things being spread out far and wide like this.
On top of this I think I’ve lost some plugins including the 3 new ‘cell’ plugs, addictive keys and my focusrite red2 & 3 are nowhere to be found.

Is this normal? If not how do I put things where they should be? Do I need to bin the lot and start again?

Is there a good/trusted ‘idiot proof’ resource to get me up and running? I’ve done the usual google and YT search but I couldn’t find anything obvious.

Any help is greatly appreciated!


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[tope d]

Originally Posted by supersam83

Good morning

I have just updated from a 2012 iMac running PT9 to a Mac Studio M2 and PT studio. I have downloaded PT and the list of plugins from my avid account and now appear to have PT related folders in places I am not used to seeing them. In my ‘documents’ I have my current audio folders copied over from my second diary drive along with two folders titled ‘Pro tools’ inside them are a variety of sub folders including plug ins. In my ‘applications’ I have an ‘Air’ folder which has an empty subfolder. One titled ‘Avid’ again with other sub folders 1 of which includes two ‘Plug in’ folders which seems to have different contents and then the PT app with the wave icon (same as on the dock).
Is this normal? As I mentioned above I’m coming from PT 9 and I don’t remember things being spread out far and wide like this.
On top of this I think I’ve lost some plugins including the 3 new ‘cell’ plugs, addictive keys and my focusrite red2 & 3 are nowhere to be found.

Is this normal? If not how do I put things where they should be? Do I need to bin the lot and start again?

Is there a good/trusted ‘idiot proof’ resource to get me up and running? I’ve done the usual google and YT search but I couldn’t find anything obvious.

Any help is greatly appreciated!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A lot has changed from PT 9 to the current version. Your system should be good. If you can post a screenshot of the folders you're referring to, that might help us check on it further. Thanks

[supersam83]

So I have had a good dig around and can see all of the plugins (120 odd) sitting in a file hidden in audio<avid<application support. However they are not showing in the PT menu ..




I have uninstalled and re-installed PT this time via Avid link. Again it’s put some files into the documents tab



I’ve tried dragging and dropping the complete list into the PT plugin list in the ‘document’s folder but no luck.

I have downloaded the PT trashing pref app and when I re-open after trashing it cycles through the plugins and sees the missing ones but won’t show them in the list to use in the session.

Interestingly, when I open a singer songwriter template, the ‘cells’ and addictive keys are useable but the focusrite reds are not visible. When I open a session that I’ve been working on this week, no cells, addictive keys or focusrite reds.

My very limited knowledge about these things made me think it’s looking and then saving things in the wrong place. I’ve got no idea how to check that.


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[Darryl Ramm]

You don't need to fart around with stuff and if you are really unsure stop just trying random stuff.

You normally* just install the plugins and they work. If not you are likely doing something wrong. Likely not installing stuff you need to or installing the wrong stuff.

Plugin .aaxplugin bundles live in /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins. and nowhere else and will be put there by their installers. You are looking at plugin config files stored in your home directory, they have no relation to solving any problem here.

Reinstalling Pro Tools rarely fixed any issues, I have no idea why so many folks want to try that.

So what exactly have you done? Did you ignore all the advice on DUC and use system migration assistant (assasin) to move your old system's apps, plugins and drivers to this new mac? If so stop now and do a full clean recovery on the new mac and start over. This time manually installing the latest Pro Tools and plugin versions. Do all this by hand, downloading installers from your Avid.com My Products section and third party plugin websites. Do not use Avid Link.

If you ignored all the advice here and did a risky migration assistant migration you likely have a bunch of old plugins installed that are not Apple Silicon native. You can check this by running a plugin report in PT Prefs 2, and looking for any x64 (Intel only, as opposed to Universal) plugins. Do not try to repair stuff, just start over and do this properly.

You can use Migration Assistant to move the user account, but not apps, drivers or plugins. But more technical folks are better off just creating he accounts manually and moving over what is really needed (making sure account uid and good match). Lots of the garbage is ~/Library is best not migrated unless really needed. On new accounts make sure not to enable iCloud desktop/documents sharing mess.

You should have gone through every plugin and confirmed you have new up to date installers and they are Intel silicon native ports before moving to this new mac. That may require you to update/purchase some third party plugins.

And to get all the Avid Complete Plugin Bundle plugins you need to install all those separate installers, they are not bundled in the plugin installer. So again just what *exactly* have you done? And no Avid Link won't necessarily get that right for you so do it by hand. The Pro Tools standard and ACPB plugins installers and licenses can be confusing but are broken out in my spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

If you did not do this then exactly what did you do and exactly what does the PT Prefs 2 plugin report show?

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Now the * ... normally. But in 2024.3 there can be problems scanning and loading the plugins. You should look out for Pro Tools crashing, or seeing errors as the plugins load in the splash screen. And you can't rely on PT Prefs 2 to trash the plugin cache correctly, it's not been updated to the new cache file location/format.

In 2023.12 and later:

New location on Mac: /Users/Shared/Pro Tools/AAXPlugInCache/*

Delete all those files.

Remember to quote or escape the space in "Pro Tools" if doing this from the command line.

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But again because nowhere do you actually described what you have done in this migration so everything here is a guess.

[supersam83]

Good morning,

I have gone through the last post with a fine tooth comb.

I have not done migration assistant in the setup. The Mac was out of the box, PT was the first download so its as clean an install as possible. I completed from the 'my products tab' not avid link. I then downloaded all of the plugins exactly as you have described. I then copied my sessions from my second drive in to the 'documents' folder. These are PT9 sessions inc audio which I would keep on a separate drive and move between iMac and MacBook depending on my location.

When I realised I was missing plugins inc Addictive keys and Focusrite Red2+3, Groove cell etc. I uninstalled PT (thinking id got something wrong during the download process). Re-installed via avid link as previously mentioned.

I have looked in the Library/app support/audio/plugins folder in your post and I can see all of my plugins inc the ones in the paragraph above. I used the PT2 app to clear the preferences. At the same time also using it to list my Plugins, they are all present and correct. Opened PT and watched the titles of the plugins flash up as expected (is this the splash screen?). However, I go into the plug-in list on a track and they are not there. audio/midi/instrument tracks, it makes no difference. Addictive keys is available as an audio suite only.
I load up the 'singer-songwriter' template that comes with PT, into the plug-in lists and the AK and play/soft cells are their and work, no sign of the FRed2/3.

It also still generating the following folders in 'documents'
Pro tools -
Clip Effects Presets
Documentation
Fade Presets
Grooves
IO Settings
Plug-In Maps
Plug-In Settings
Pro Tools Presets
Project Cache
Session Templates
Sketches
Sound Libraries
Track Presets
Tutorials
Video Test Patterns ,

Avid (Groove Cell),
Modalics (EON-arp).

I then uninstalled PT again, re-installed from My Avid, NOT AVID LINK and the same thing. All the folders and things are in exactly the same place as before with the same things working and not working.

I have found the Plugin Cache from your last post, deleted that and a re-boot, no change.

With PT open PT>settings>pref> operations>user media the destination folders are all User/MyNAME/Documents/Pro tools. Surely it's something to do with this?

To confirm, I am trying to access the standard in the box plugins, plus the addictive keys and Focusrite red2+3 that came with my interface and these are both listed as silicone compatable.

Thank you for you help so far!

[musicman691]

Mono plugs go on a mono track and stereo plugs go on stereo tracks. Current PT and MacOS use 64 bit plugins only. And don't sweat all the new folders.

[ZerglingPhilosophy]

In the beginning Avid created folders, and then the next day, more folders...

[K Roche]

I have just updated from a 2012 iMac running PT9 to a Mac Studio M2 and PT studio

First which Mac OS and which PT studio actual version numbers you are running
Second if its a recent PT studio version it is likely opening by default in Apple Silicon "Native" mode.

So if your missing plugins are not are not updated to Silicon native they will not show in your plugin windows inside PT
Now you can change PT opening to Rosetta mode by going into Mac applications then right clicking on the PT icon and select "Get Info" that window will open an you will see the "Open in Rosetta" check box click that and then when you launch PT it will be in Rosetta mode and any plugs that require Rosetta should show in the PT inserts windows

And yes agree don't worry about all the folders the only one I use is the Session Templates folder where I created a "Kev's templates" folder for my custom user defined session templates