At my wits end!

[jamiet]

Thanks so much!

Please excuse my ignorance, but how do I go about installing Mojave and the version of pro tools you recommend?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by jamiet

Thanks so much!

Please excuse my ignorance, but how do I go about installing Mojave and the version of pro tools you recommend?

You Google "Mojave full install " and read carefully. But a quick sketch specific for your situation...

Before you do anything else, you are going to make one or more backups, and then remove them to somewhere else safe away from finger mistakes, as a simple mistake on your part can destroy everything. Don't have backup drives? You need to get some USB HDD. Get a brand name USB 3 or 3.1 drive at least 1 TB and 7200 rpm. G-Tech brand is probably my choice, but avoid their larger but slow as all hell 4,800 RPM drive. If it does not clearly say 7200 rpm it will be some dog slow pile of crap, too slow even for me to want to use as a backup drive. And purchase Carbon Copy Cloner (https://bombich.com/) and back use that to perform backups of the boot/system drive. Do not use Apple TimeMachine, it's a terrible choice for boot backups. How to back up sessions on a different drive is a separate topic.

For the Mojave install ideally grab a nice external USB SSD like a Samsung T5 that is much faster than a HDD to deal with and go ahead and install a full new clean version of Mojave on that drive. You will test everything works there and then clone that image over your internal drive.

By 1TB SATA disk I assume you mean the iMac has a 1TB internal SATA HDD. If so then where are your sessions stored? You should not be putting them on the internal boot/system SSD. If you are using the internal HDD for sessions, they yes get that T5 drive and later convert it to an external session drive on your iMac.

A clear full install on a separate drive/partition is similar to an in-situ upgrade (which you do not want to do) you download the Mojave installer from the Apple App store and run it in place on your boot/system hard drive but instead of choosing to do an upgrade you select the option in the installer to install on a spare drive or partition.

You then reboot the Mac from that new drive, install as little as possible to just test, i.e. Pro Tools 2019.6, latest ILM, and the drivers for your Mbox (check that folks here tell you that is know to work on Mojave before doing anything...) and test that works, then install any third party plugins, and any other applications, all from new installers compatible with Mojave, and transfer any user documents over. Do not use the system migration assistant (aka Assassin) to move applications or drivers (You can use it to move user accounts, including documents, etc. of needed). If all that works fine you can then clone that test install you just did back over your internal drive in the iMa, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

-----------

Are you on an upgrade subscription for Pro Tools? If so 2019.6 is in your Avid.com account. If not you need to work out if you are re-upping a perpetual product license, or if doing what Avid wants people to do and subscribing to Pro Tools for $99/year. Lots of other discussions, and lots of complaints from users, on this here on DUC.

You can buy/subscribe from the Avid store or any number of resellers. Not sure who if anybody is worth dealign with in Australia. In the USA folks like to buy from companies like Sweetwater or Vintage King as their sales reps and support folks can add lots of value.

[jamiet]

Thank you Darryl for your assistance. The time you have taken to help me out is amazing and I really appreciate it.

I will endeavour to follow your instructions and will let you know how I go.

Once again, this is the most comprehensive and detailed assistance I have ever received via a forum. Users of this forum are lucky to have such a willing helper!

[gives]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

You Google "Mojave full install " and read carefully. But a quick sketch specific for your situation...

Before you do anything else, you are going to make one or more backups, and then remove them to somewhere else safe away from finger mistakes, as a simple mistake on your part can destroy everything. Don't have backup drives? You need to get some USB HDD. Get a brand name USB 3 or 3.1 drive at least 1 TB and 7200 rpm. G-Tech brand is probably my choice, but avoid their larger but slow as all hell 4,800 RPM drive. If it does not clearly say 7200 rpm it will be some dog slow pile of crap, too slow even for me to want to use as a backup drive. And purchase Carbon Copy Cloner (https://bombich.com/) and back use that to perform backups of the boot/system drive. Do not use Apple TimeMachine, it's a terrible choice for boot backups. How to back up sessions on a different drive is a separate topic.

For the Mojave install ideally grab a nice external USB SSD like a Samsung T5 that is much faster than a HDD to deal with and go ahead and install a full new clean version of Mojave on that drive. You will test everything works there and then clone that image over your internal drive.

By 1TB SATA disk I assume you mean the iMac has a 1TB internal SATA HDD. If so then where are your sessions stored? You should not be putting them on the internal boot/system SSD. If you are using the internal HDD for sessions, they yes get that T5 drive and later convert it to an external session drive on your iMac.

A clear full install on a separate drive/partition is similar to an in-situ upgrade (which you do not want to do) you download the Mojave installer from the Apple App store and run it in place on your boot/system hard drive but instead of choosing to do an upgrade you select the option in the installer to install on a spare drive or partition.

You then reboot the Mac from that new drive, install as little as possible to just test, i.e. Pro Tools 2019.6, latest ILM, and the drivers for your Mbox (check that folks here tell you that is know to work on Mojave before doing anything...) and test that works, then install any third party plugins, and any other applications, all from new installers compatible with Mojave, and transfer any user documents over. Do not use the system migration assistant (aka Assassin) to move applications or drivers (You can use it to move user accounts, including documents, etc. of needed). If all that works fine you can then clone that test install you just did back over your internal drive in the iMa, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

-----------

Are you on an upgrade subscription for Pro Tools? If so 2019.6 is in your Avid.com account. If not you need to work out if you are re-upping a perpetual product license, or if doing what Avid wants people to do and subscribing to Pro Tools for $99/year. Lots of other discussions, and lots of complaints from users, on this here on DUC.

You can buy/subscribe from the Avid store or any number of resellers. Not sure who if anybody is worth dealign with in Australia. In the USA folks like to buy from companies like Sweetwater or Vintage King as their sales reps and support folks can add lots of value.

GOOD HELP HERE DARRYL! It was nice of you to be so kind to do this!
Just wanted to say . G

[groovilator]

I just want to chime in with a fairly random but extremely useful tip since I've also been experiencing serious problems due to minimal specifications, compatibility issues and so forth, and do not have spare funds for computer upgrades.
I haven't suffered your fundamental problem of PT shutting down even with no plug-ins happening but I do have difficulty running a lot of them simultaneously, particularly since I use some pretty hefty third-party plugs, such as the Abbey Road suite, which draw a lot of DSP.
A friend of mine told me of a function called 'freeze track'. This function will temporarily print the effects from the plug-ins on that track directly onto the audio of the track, and disables those plug-ins. That way you can hear the work you did on the track without all the extra power drain. This even works for auxiliary tracks.
One of the drawbacks is that if and when you need to make changes to the track you have to 'unfreeze' it, make your adjustments, then 'freeze' it again, and the rendering can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes depending on how many plug-ins you're using on that track and how intense they are. This process can add a lot of time to your mixing sessions and seriously slow down your work flow if you're relying on it the way that I've had to.
The other drawback is that when PT renders one of those audio files it gets saved to a Rendered Files folder and then stays there. For some stupid reason, when you unfreeze a track the old rendered file doesn't go away, it just sits there in the folder utterly useless and taking up space. So every time you unfreeze and refreeze a track you lose a little more hard drive space.
And if you go and trash the rendered files from a session to free up that space you can inexplicably end up losing something you really needed, as I learned quite inconveniently. Never could figure out why and how some particular things got lost when I did that but it happened and I learned to be extra careful.
To be more specific, there were some tracks that had been frozen for a while that I wanted to punch in some new takes on but when I unfroze them most of the audio was missing and I couldn't retrieve it. So I hit 'undo' on the 'unfreeze', keeping what I had, and I had to do a weird thing where I used automation to mute the bits where I wanted to punch in then did the punches on a new track and just had them playing side by side.
All of that said, the freeze track option is the only way I was able to continue working on my current project and it totally saved my ass, as cumbersome and maddening as it is.
So now you know a new thing.
Probably.