Time machine, Backblaze affect Pro Tools performance?

[kirkbross]

Which, if any, of these services affect Pro Tools performance?

• iCloud
• Dropbox
• Time Machine
• Backblaze

I have the latest Mac Mini with the latest MacOS (X) and want to configure it to be absolutely as Pro Tools friendly as possible and I have all of the above running all the time (not that they're *active* all the time, but they're on).

[Darryl Ramm]

If they are being used while Pro Tools is running they can all impact Pro Tools.

You should not be recording to any of of these cloud drives, but sounds like you are not.

If you want to copy/archive content to them that can work great, but you don't want any of them running/syncing while Pro Tools is running.. so disable or log out from the service while using Pro Tools... and maybe you don't want WiFi or maybe not any Internet connection while using Pro Tools. Do you really need three cloud storage services?

Time Machine can be OK for backup/archive of user documents and Pro Tools sessions but there are better ways of doing system backups, like cloning boot drives using Carbon Copy Cloner. I would not rely on TimeMachine for that. If you are I'd reconsider that.

[kirkbross]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Do you really need three cloud storage services?

Time Machine can be OK for backup/archive of user documents and Pro Tools sessions but there are better ways of doing system backups, like cloning boot drives using Carbon Copy Cloner. I would not rely on TimeMachine for that. If you are I'd reconsider that.

Thanks for your reply. I use Dropbox for personal stuff. I use File Synchronization to sync my sessions folders to several large, local backup drives. I have TimeMachine on, just because it's convenient for quickly grabbing an older version of a file. I use Backblaze to backup the entirety of my two machines: a Mac Pro which is my music computer, and a PC I built for gaming, personal stuff, and web development / coding which is my day gig. That's more of a peace of mind if the house burns down kind of thing.

I ask because I used to have a 2008 Mac Pro which had fewer performance issues than my current, faster-on-paper Mac Mini, and I never had to turn off TimeMachine or Dropbox, though I didn't have Backblaze back then (that's a new thing).

I'm just at the point where I want to eliminate all the unnecessary background services to see if that helps.

[Darryl Ramm]

What actual issues are you getting?

There is a lot of other stuff to look at. Do all the optimizations, *every* last one to start with. WiFi off, BT off, all plugins up to date, power management settings, make sure disk cache is set to a size to cache your sessions (not set to "normal"), sessions and samples are hopefully running off your internal PCIe SSD, plugins are all up to date, etc. etc.

Are you getting CPU errors? Pro Tools 2019.5 and later improved plugin processing significantly for many workloads.

[BCnSTL]

FWIW - I’m a solo/hobbyist and use TimeMachine via external SSD for OS-level file versioning, Backblaze for cloud backup *AND* OneDrive for crosss-device synchronization. Yes, all at the same time - while running ProTools.
No issues. Granted - I’m a lone-ranger with modest-sized sessions on a fast computer and a fat internet pipe. It can be done in certain setups.

[Hugh-H]

Hello,
It's possible to use these four services without appearing to affect ProTools performance, but they all use resources. From your note you said you were trying to make it as PT friendly as possible, here are a few thoughts -

- iCloud - if you are logged in to iCloud it occasionally checks online to update stuff - browser history, Calendar, Messages, etc. In theory it occurs when not too much is going on but you can't guarantee that. Your personal machine is one thing but our production machines are not logged into iCloud at all. You'll still get Console entries as it tries to connect but nothing happens. Up to you.
However - if you have enabled iCloud Drive then it's doing the same for online storage which is even more resource consuming. I turn that off completely even on my personal machine.

- Time Machine - TM occasionally checks the backup drive which can interfere with performance. In theory it occurs when not too much is going on but you can't guarantee that and drive access is time consuming. I always disconnect TM volumes when working.

- Dropbox and Backblaze - I don't use Backblaze but am familiar with it and Dropbox is similar. They're checking online periodically to see what needs to be backed up, this can consume resources. I've seen several clients with severe UI and performance issues running Office 360 online, Dropbox, iCloud Drive, disabling all of them solved their issues. I never have online things running during production to avoid performance issues.

The above is based on you wanting to "configure it to be absolutely as Pro Tools friendly as possible". I would disable them all when doing production but that's up to you.

Hugh

[kirkbross]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What actual issues are you getting?

There is a lot of other stuff to look at. Do all the optimizations, *every* last one to start with. WiFi off, BT off, all plugins up to date, power management settings, make sure disk cache is set to a size to cache your sessions (not set to "normal"), sessions and samples are hopefully running off your internal PCIe SSD, plugins are all up to date, etc. etc.

Are you getting CPU errors? Pro Tools 2019.5 and later improved plugin processing significantly for many workloads.

Well, two things but one of them is probably plugin-specific. The first and main one is just the typical one where playback stops and you get 'you're running out of CPU power. Try removing plugins or increasing the buffer... yada yada'. The second, and probably unrelated one, is just that Batter 4 constantly crashes Pro Tools. I've read a lot of people having issues with Battery 4. Native Instruments hasn't updated it in quite a while.

[Darryl Ramm]

Lots of standard troubleshooting to dive into then. Maybe these issues are related, maybe not. But as always suspect plugins, start by trashing prefs and double checking you have every optimization done.

Hopefully this happens frequently enough it is easy to troubleshoot. Uncheck ignore errors to help there.. and within reason set the IO buffer size to the point where errors happen frequently enough to try to more easily find the cause (but esp. when using VIs that just may not be able to track with very small IO buffers... look at freezing tracks if needed).

Make troubleshooting progress by trying big bold steps. For example try disabling networking in macOS (would be already if I fully optimized the system) ... still problems, then its likely not your cloud services. Move all .aaxplugin files out of the plugin folder and test with only Pro Tools default ones.... if still a problem then its not a third party plugin, otherwise put them back in batches until the problem comes back, and keep iterating. If a plugin is causing problems may or may not be one you are actually using. Try using built in output etc. to exclude the interface/driver. Get disk cache set large enough to fully cache the session, look at the cache meters, only use after green=fully loaded... that excludes most Pro Tools disk IO issues, but not VI sample issues..

You might want to try a more recent version of PT, 2019.5 or later with AAX processing improvements.

[kirkbross]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Lots of standard troubleshooting to dive into then. Maybe these issues are related, maybe not. But as always suspect plugins, start by trashing prefs and double checking you have every optimization done.

Hopefully this happens frequently enough it is easy to troubleshoot. Uncheck ignore errors to help there.. and within reason set the IO buffer size to the point where errors happen frequently enough to try to more easily find the cause (but esp. when using VIs that just may not be able to track with very small IO buffers... look at freezing tracks if needed).

Make troubleshooting progress by trying big bold steps. For example try disabling networking in macOS (would be already if I fully optimized the system) ... still problems, then its likely not your cloud services. Move all .aaxplugin files out of the plugin folder and test with only Pro Tools default ones.... if still a problem then its not a third party plugin, otherwise put them back in batches until the problem comes back, and keep iterating. If a plugin is causing problems may or may not be one you are actually using. Try using built in output etc. to exclude the interface/driver. Get disk cache set large enough to fully cache the session, look at the cache meters, only use after green=fully loaded... that excludes most Pro Tools disk IO issues, but not VI sample issues..

You might want to try a more recent version of PT, 2019.5 or later with AAX processing improvements.

Many thanks for your thoughts. Are you saying a plugin can cause problems even if it is not in, or active in, the session? i.e. just simply being in the AAX folder can cause problems? Also, is disk cache an OS think or a PT thing?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by kirkbross

Many thanks for your thoughts. Are you saying a plugin can cause problems even if it is not in, or active in, the session? i.e. just simply being in the AAX folder can cause problems?

Yes absolutely. Just being loaded into Pro Tools, even if you are not using it can cause all sorts of issues. May pay to first suspect plugins you are using, but "unused" plugins are alive and able to do bad things.

Also, is disk cache an OS think or a PT thing?

Disk cache in Setup>Playback Engine. Set it to a few GB or whatever is needed to fully cache your session into memory. "normal" is effectively "off". Confirm the session is fully loaded by looking at the Disk Cache meter in Windows > System Usage (one of the few times you'll hear me suggest looking at meters ) .