Multiple Users - Pro Tools Ultimate 2020

[Howardk]

My studio computer is used by others, so I wish to have alternate User IDs. . . however since I upgraded awhile ago Pro Tools Crashes on startup under the other users, but works fine under my original user account. I have tried new User Accounts, both as Admin and Standard, and so far Pro Tools crashes on startup every time. I presume something is missing that has to be reinstalled after creating a new user.

Pro Tools Ultimate 2020.5, Mojave, Mac Pro 5,1

Hoping for advice/shortcuts.

Thanks. . .

[Darryl Ramm]

This should work without you needing to do anything. Certainly works for me on Mojave and 2020.5.

Are you holding down N and picking the correct interface as Pro Tools starts?

When does it crash? Just opening Pro Tools (what is showing on the startup splash screen just before it crashes?)

..Or does it fail when you try to open an existing session? What happens if they try to open a new session?

Try trashing Pref with PT Prefs running as those new users, (yes even though they are new accounts).

The good news is Pro Tools is back to human readable logs so you can look for the log in /Users/<username>/Library/Logs/Avid

See if the contents of the log (Pro_Tools_*.txt) files give a clue.

Not getting sorted out easily... you can try a reinstall of Pro Tools. And if that does not work that is where you may start to suspect the macOS install is hosed... especially of you have been doing in-situ upgrades to the OS.

[Darryl Ramm]

And not that it will necessarily cause a Pro Tools startup crash but make sure your new users accounts have local storage on the macOS boot drive. There have been a few folks getting into problems by having home directories shared to iCloud. A bad bad idea.

[Sardi]

Darryl is right to check what interface it’s selecting.

Not long ago, I had a new install of PT on one of my MBPs and I had been playing around with odd sample rates and different interfaces. Upon trying to run PT off the internal sound card, I was getting constant crashes. Turns out it was a ridiculously low sample rate that I had to change on the inbuilt soundcard of the Mac via Audio/MIDI utility.

Again, as Darryl has pointed out, the user account should work fine without any additional changes.

Definitely look at your Playback engine and settings.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Howardk]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the insights... sorry I didn’t get back sooner.

I haven’t had any guests recently so it is not currently a burning issue, but I do wish to resolve this, and have a shared/general User ID that works, so I can let others use the Studio Pro Tools/2 x HDX/EB7 system without access to my private info, auto-browser logins etc... have been working fine with my original User ID on that computer. . .

I was hoping it was the interface selection issue, but holding the ‘n” key did not help avert the crash.

I will keep the iCloud sharing desktop:/user directory issue in mind.

I will look into the other suggestions further, but to answer Darryl’s question, I get the Pro Tools splash screen on startup, and it proceeds to start going thru the Plugins for about 5 minutes and then the “Pro Tools has quit unexpectedly” screen comes up. The splash screen is partially visible behind, but then disappears... I can see “Loading Plugins: T-Racks CS Quad Image” as the last task below, albeit that might be a coincidence. I presume this long scan of Plugins, is because it is the first time thru on this user ID. I am curious how long I need to hold the “n” key... it is a long wait, lol. BTW, this was a fresh install on Mojave about 18 months ago, using PT 2019-6 and I just recently upgraded to 2020-5 and did a minor update to the .6 version of Mojave.

Thanks for your help... please let me know of any further thoughts, otherwise I will follow earlier suggestions when I get a chance.

[Howardk]

Problem solved, finally.

The issue was, Pro Tools crashes the first time you start it, if there are a lot of plug-ins installed. I did not notice this originally, because Pro Tools was opened and closed many times along the way when I originally installed/tested plugins. However, when I create a new User ID Pro Tools crashes on opening. I think this is happening because Pro Tools does a total rescan of Plugins the first time it opens under a new User ID. It crashes, likely due to some stack/buffer running out of room. The problem is resolved by moving most of the plugins out of the plugins folder into a temp folder, open Pro Tools and close it, move more plugins back, open Pro Tools, close it, move more Plugins back, repeat until all Plugins are moved back... I did this in about 10 steps... might have only needed 2 rounds... I don’t know what the breaking point is, and I’m done with it, this has wasted far too much time already.

I tried this on 2 different systems with the same result. Sure, I have a crazy amount of plugins installed... way more than I should... This is so I can open pretty much any one’s session and be good to go and do clients have what they prefer.

I would call this a bug and I am sure it has wasted a lot of user’s time. IMO, good programming should easily be able to avoid this pitfall. Not cool AVID! Hoping it gets resolved so others don’t pull their out hair like I did, or have to let people use a studio computer with a sacred administrators User ID, which I did... really bad practice...

Can this get on a bug list?

Systems tested:
Mac Pro 5,1 64GB RAM Mojave, HDX x2 in EB7, Pro Tools 2019.6, 2020.5 .9 and .11
Mac Pro 6,1 64GB RAM Mojave, HDX in Sonnet Echo III, ProTools 2020.12

[Emi]

Too many plugins, too many problems.

I’m glad you solved the issue. I always keep plugins to the ones I really use. Faster startup and more stable.

[Howardk]

Originally Posted by Emi

Too many plugins, too many problems.

I’m glad you solved the issue. I always keep plugins to the ones I really use. Faster startup and more stable.

Yea, true. Less is more. Also, with great tools like FabFilter, and the mess some companies have made of their products (no honourable mention), I am using less and less plugin vendors in my day-to-day.

It would be good if there was a plugin management tool, so you could let Pro Tools know which PIs to load, which not too(with Profiles/Lists), so one could pick the appropriate mode on startup. Having to move plugins in/out of the Plugin's folder seems prehistoric in 2021, and many of us have way more than we need for normal use, but want to have the whole enchilada available with relative ease when outside or older sessions need to be run.

I find one aspect of UAD frustrating, that they include all the plugins, even if you don't have a license, and you have to manually remove the ones you don't own from their folder. I like that all can show, but would like the option to hide/show.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Howardk

My studio computer is used by others, so I wish to have alternate User IDs. . . however since I upgraded awhile ago Pro Tools Crashes on startup under the other users, but works fine under my original user account. I have tried new User Accounts, both as Admin and Standard, and so far Pro Tools crashes on startup every time. I presume something is missing that has to be reinstalled after creating a new user.

Pro Tools Ultimate 2020.5, Mojave, Mac Pro 5,1

Hoping for advice/shortcuts.

Thanks. . .

Any user using PT needs to be granted Admin privileges. If it crashes it does not hurt to try re-installing on every user account. Whichever system-level prefs files are overriden are irrelevant.

[Howardk]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Any user using PT needs to be granted Admin privileges. If it crashes it does not hurt to try re-installing on every user account. Whichever system-level prefs files are overriden are irrelevant.

Yes, all the users admins, but not the issue in this case. Unfortunately reinstalling all PIs for each user is not practical, way too many PIs. It is days of work. Solution is stated in my post about 4 back. I tried it on 2 different computers and 2 different Pro Tools versions... same problem, same solution.