Pro Tools Locks up after a short time

[Brinewr]

I have Pro Tools 2019.5 running on an

iMac Retina 5k
4.2 GHz Intel Core i7
64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM

Ever since I upgraded from Pro Tools 12 (about 1 month ago) I find that the system will fail once or twice a day. (I use PT all day long for Voice Acting work). Once it fails, it requires a restart. Rarely, it will restart without trouble, but most of the time requires a complete system restart. Most of those times, Pro Tools will prevent the system from restarting on its own and I am forced to hold the power button until the system reboots by force. Force Quitting does nothing. I have also tried opening the Activity Monitor and killing the Pro Tools app any anything else I can find that might be associated with Pro Tools. Many times, Pro Tools doesn't show up in the Activity monitor at all, but the Pro Tools icon appears in the Force Quit window.

I upgraded to 2019.5 hoping that the update would solve these troubles but it hasn't. I also began using the iLok Cloud feature with 2018.12 for the first time and think that maybe this might have something to do with it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a noob on PT or on Macs, but maybe I'm overlooking something?

[LDS]

Originally Posted by Brinewr

I have Pro Tools 2019.5 running on an

iMac Retina 5k
4.2 GHz Intel Core i7
64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM

Ever since I upgraded from Pro Tools 12 (about 1 month ago) I find that the system will fail once or twice a day. (I use PT all day long for Voice Acting work). Once it fails, it requires a restart. Rarely, it will restart without trouble, but most of the time requires a complete system restart. Most of those times, Pro Tools will prevent the system from restarting on its own and I am forced to hold the power button until the system reboots by force. Force Quitting does nothing. I have also tried opening the Activity Monitor and killing the Pro Tools app any anything else I can find that might be associated with Pro Tools. Many times, Pro Tools doesn't show up in the Activity monitor at all, but the Pro Tools icon appears in the Force Quit window.

I upgraded to 2019.5 hoping that the update would solve these troubles but it hasn't. I also began using the iLok Cloud feature with 2018.12 for the first time and think that maybe this might have something to do with it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm not a noob on PT or on Macs, but maybe I'm overlooking something?

Have you tried doing the usual troubleshooting like deleting Pro Tools preferences and working through your plugin list to make sure one of them isn't the culprit? Have you tried a totally clean OSX installation and a fresh installation of Pro Tools 2018/2019?

[Brinewr]

I have reinstalled MacOS (over the current one. I didn't wipe the drive and start from complete scratch). I have also reinstalled Pro Tools. I also deleted the Preferences for PT and it still hangs at least once a day.

[Darryl Ramm]

When "it fails" .... What *exactly* happens. The Pro Tool windows stops responding? You get a beach ball when you click on a PT window? Other things still work? Can you force quit Pro Tools? You have to restart... you mean Pro Tools or the iMac... I am assuming you mean iMac but I want to be clear here. How are you restarting the iMac?

What does Activity Monitor show... have it as an uppermost Window while you work. if it's ever increasing memory usage and your system is just running out then it's likely a faulty plugin. What third party plugins are installed? including demos etc.

Generally if you have any third party plugins you should have tried moving all plugins out of the plugin folder early in troubleshooting. Trash prefs again and start pro Tools. You should have tried this way before reinstalling anything. Then trash prefs and restart. Reinstalling Pro Tools and the OS has left all those suspect plugins in place.

If the whole system hangs, is not responsive, and it's not a plugin memory leak then device drivers are something to suspect. But by reinstalling over the top of a previous OS you kept all those in place. Uninstall any audio interface drivers you added. It may also be drivers for non-audio devices. If it' not a device driver it may be a faulty iMac... you should look System.log in Console.app "unusual" looking errors or warning. What is "unusual"... hard to know without seeing it. There may be other things to look at in Console.app.

Doing a full clean macOS install on a spare partition/drive may end up being the best test to do here, do *NOT* use system migration assistant if you do that. Install only Pro Tools and ILM and check if that works OK with Build-In Output.

[Brinewr]

I get a beachball when the cursor is over the PT window.

If I Force Quit, the app stops, but if I try to launch it again, the icon will bounce in the dock for a while, but the app never starts. Then, I can try to force quit, but that doesn't work; the words" Pro Tools" stay in the Force quit window and never goes away.

I can open the Activity Monitor and nothing is there that indicates Pro Tools or Avid.

I cannot restart the computer without holding the power button for 10 seconds. If I just try to restart, I get a message that says that Pro Tools kept the system from restarting.

[Brinewr]

... OH! and the rest of the OS works fine the whole time.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Brinewr

I get a beachball when the cursor is over the PT window.

If I Force Quit, the app stops, but if I try to launch it again, the icon will bounce in the dock for a while, but the app never starts. Then, I can try to force quit, but that doesn't work; the words" Pro Tools" stay in the Force quit window and never goes away.

I can open the Activity Monitor and nothing is there that indicates Pro Tools or Avid.

I cannot restart the computer without holding the power button for 10 seconds. If I just try to restart, I get a message that says that Pro Tools kept the system from restarting.

OK Pro Tools is hung and is not fully quitting when told to. I suspect there are processes associated with Pro Tools still in the systems, may be a bit hard to find them in Activity Monitor.

The first suspect here is a bad audio driver.

What audio Interface are you using?

If it is not already Built-in Output you should try that (don't assume check what the playback engine is set to, and you need to test with Built-In Output itself not an aggregate with it).

Reboot your computer. Hold down the N key while starting Pro Tools until you see the play back engine dialog panel. Select "Built-In Output". See if the problem occurs with that.

[Brinewr]

Thank You!! My Playback engine is a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20. Audio Output is typically a Bluetooth Bose Speaker or AirPods. I work in a recording studio and I have all my gear sitting outside the windows of my booth to avoid any errant sounds getting to me recordings. So, Built-in outputs can't work for me.

[Brinewr]

Again I forgot to mention... The Audio Output of Pro Tools is the same Focusrite Scarlet. I have an audio monitor system in the booth that I use to hear playback. (Presonus HP4)

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Brinewr

Thank You!! My Playback engine is a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20. Audio Output is typically a Bluetooth Bose Speaker or AirPods. I work in a recording studio and I have all my gear sitting outside the windows of my booth to avoid any errant sounds getting to me recordings. So, Built-in outputs can't work for me.

I don't care what will work for you, I am not proposing how you actually work. I am giving you something to do to troubleshoot your problem. If the problems happens "after a short time" now, do the test with Built-In Output and see if the system still locks up. Ideally disconnect all that stuff as well from the Mac then reboot, then test.