Preventing iLok Auth While Opening PT

[anackman]

I bring my iLok to another studio outside my house a few times a week for sessions, so I can access certain personal plugins of mine while working from there.

When I am not there, how do I prevent Pro Tools from asking for ilok authorizations when booting up? In other words, I don't want other engineers and producers to be bothered by those messages when opening their sessions (of course they won't have the ilok authorization because the plugins are mine). But, I would like to have my "special" plugins available to me in the plugin folder when I am there. If I put the plugins in the "unused folder," then they are not there for me. I can't figure out how to make this system work.

Example: all my Sonnox plugins ask for authorization if the iLok is not plugged in when opening Pro Tools. I am the only engineer who has Sonnox plugins and we don't have the the authorizations for Sonnox at the studio, unless I bring my iLok.

Thanks.

[albee1952]

The only way to prevent this would be for you to drag the Sonnox plugins out of the plugins folder when you leave.(create a spare folder so you have an easy path for dragging to/from). The other solution would be for the studio to buy the plugins

[Bruce Paine]

To follow up on what Dave said, you could do something like this...

1 - Create a folder somewhere on the mac (Desktop, Documents, whatever is easy for you to get to), or on your own hard drive if you bring one with you to the studio.

2 - Name it whatever you want, like My Stuff

3 - Create an alias inside that folder for each of these 2 folders:
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Digidesign

Now you have your own folder with these alias folders, which contain these 4 subfolders:
AAX Plugs:
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins (Unused)
RTAS/TDM Plgs:
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins
Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins (Unused)

The easiest way (IMHO)) to create an alias is to highlight a folder or file like "Audio" or "Digidesign" in the example above, hold down Command+M, and drag to the location where you want to create the alias.

I don't go to that much trouble on my own system, but I've always found it useful to drag the Pro Tools folder from /Applications/Avid to the sidebar in the Finder window. Makes it quicker for me to get to the AAX Plug-Ins and DPM Plug-Ins alias folders located there.

Also, I always have "Show path bar" enabled in the Finder > View settings. Makes it easier to navigate to a parent folder by clicking on it at the bottom of the Finder window. You can also add the "Path" option to the Finder toolbar using Finder > View > Customize Toolbar or by right-clicking on the toolbar in a Finder window.

Just some options, whatever works for you.