The Out-Of-The-Blue-Pro-Tools-Won't-Launch Tips thread

[noiseboyuk]

Thought this could be a useful resource to keep updated. I've had this twice now in 6 months on Win 10 Pro, both different versions of Pro Tools (once 2018.7, once 2019.5), where nothing has changed with the rig but Pro Tools one day stops launching. Even more alarmingly, on both occasions, the basic attempts to restore - re-installing and trashing prefs - have made the situation worse for me.

First time it happened, some PT functionality had become broken (the Strip Silence command had been greyed out). Second time PT would hang on the Audio Engine part of the startup routine. By pressing "n" on the splash screen I was able to reset the Audio Engine to the correct place - my RME Babyface - but it did not resolve the problem. In both cases I tried reinstalling and trashing prefs, only to lead to a cascading series of problems with the plugins, either crashing on load, or generating huge numbers of compatibility errors. It feels like your whole rig has gone rogue, and attempts to fix are like sinking further into the quicksand.

Here's my collected wisdom on what to do.

1. Don't Panic.
2. Uninstall / reinstall PT (if you have not already done so)
3. Trash prefs (I always move that folder elsewhere rather than simply deleting, just in case). Instructions for this are here - https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare...s-preferences/
4. Move ALL AAX plugins to a new directory you create called Temp Plugins (folder location here http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...older-location )
5. Now launch - hopefully PT can now get past the splash screen. If you are still stuck, its out of my experience - possibly time to panic. Otherwise:
6. Close again, and begin the process of moving the plugins back. If you have a lot - I do - its probably worth doing this in a few blocks at a time - A-G, H-M etc. Once I got errors reported on UAD and one other plugin, so I removed them, started again successfully, closed once more, put the same plugins back and this time they took. It's a fairly tedious and flaky process, clearly there is something not entirely right in this routine in Pro Tools. You have to coax it back to life bit by bit.

If others have any other tips or scenarios similar but different to this, please do add, hopefully this will stem some hair loss around the PT world.

[Darryl Ramm]

Uh reinstalling Pro Tools should not be a first response.

What to do depends on how it is failing/how far it gets but in general I would...

0. Ask your self what changed/why is this failing.
1. Hold down N while Pro Tools starts and make sure the correct interface is selected.
2. Trash prefs and databases (make it easy, use a tool like Peter Gates PT Prefs http://petegates.com/pg-pt-prefs.html or Guitardom's Trasher https://www.pro-tools-pc.com/support/trasher).
3. Remove plugin files. Trash prefs again.
4. Try with a different interface, especially Built-In Output on a Mac.
5. Create a new admin user account. Try from there. (if this works it *might* point out prefs were not trashed properly, or the user account has some serious corruption).
6. Reinstall Pro Tools. (you want the new install to be done and tested ith the old 3rd party plugins still removed etc.)
7. Go get your last working backup/boot disk clone and boot off that to get going.

Assert crashes may point to particular problems with know solution... Google keywords from that error message.

[noiseboyuk]

Just to add - except for the rogue (and incorrect) plugin warnings, I never got any crash error messages - it was all freezes and hangs at various points.

As for (0) - absolutely nothing changed in either case. Zip. Hence the thread.

I would personally advise against adding a new Admin user account, as that will lead to a ton of other work further down the line with the rig (mine shares with Cubase and various other audio apps). It hasn't ever been necessary in my experience - far better to fix your normal account.

[daeron80]

It happened to me a few times with 2018.x on Win10. Each time, restarting the computer solved it.

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by daeron80

It happened to me a few times with 2018.x on Win10. Each time, restarting the computer solved it.

Wish I could say the same! I probably should have said - that was my first step each time, but to no avail.

[DontLetMeDrown]

This started happening to me back on 2018.3 on Win 7. Never did find a solution. Still on 2018.1 untilI can move to Win 10