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-   -   Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences (https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=420697)

nickkmet 06-24-2022 11:38 AM

Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
I'm running Pro Tools Ultimate 2022.5 (just installed today).
My computer is a 2021 MacBook Pro M1 Max.

Pro Tools is currently unable to save or change preference options. I can open the preferences window in Pro Tools, change some option, close the preferences dialogue, and upon re-opening it's as if I had made no changes at all. No changes save.

I think this is somehow a result of Pro Tools being unable to write new information to the preferences folder on my computer, which is informed by my attempts to change to the dark UI. Attempting to do so causes this error message to pop up:

Permission denied (13) while deleting "UITheme.txt" while opening "UITheme.txt"

Pro Tools has full disk access permissions in my Security and Privacy options in the system preferences.

I'm fairly certain this issue has been going on since I moved to my new laptop, but it's only recently become annoying enough that I've felt a need to look into potential fixes. Is this an issue with M1 installs, or is there something else going on here?

My original install was from a system migration from another computer, so I'm wondering if that might be an issue.

Darryl Ramm 06-24-2022 12:13 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickkmet (Post 2640264)
My original install was from a system migration from another computer, so I'm wondering if that might be an issue.

Uh. Did you migrate apps and drivers using migration (assassin) assistant? Or something else? Then Yep, you take a risk when you do that.

What are the UNIX permissions on all the pref files are they owned by you (same uid and gid?) if not try fixing that.

All troubleshooting should start with trashing prefs. Ideally using Pete Gates PT Prefs. So try that. If that still does not fix things you might stop trying to work out what is going on and just do a wipe/clean macOS install and reinstall apps and drivers and plugins.

Ben Jenssen 06-24-2022 12:44 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm (Post 2640267)
Uh. Did you migrate apps and drivers using migration (assassin) assistant? Or something else? Then Yep, you take a risk when you do that.

What are the UNIX permissions on all the pref files are they owned by you (same uid and gid?) if not try fixing that.

All troubleshooting should start with trashing prefs. Ideally using Pete Gates PT Prefs. So try that. If that still does not fix things you might stop trying to work out what is going on and just do a wipe/clean macOS install and reinstall apps and drivers and plugins.


Darryl's advice is good. Migration Assistant has be known to cause problems for PT. I'm guessing a simple prefs trashing might be all you need. But before you go thru the big job of installing MacOS and applications from scratch, then making every configuration and setting which might take ages, I want to say that in my experience Migration Assistant today is good.

If Darryl's tips don't work, my suggestion is to, as I've done myself several times is:
Start with a fresh system. You don't need to install it again, you can just boot from the recovery partition and erase the Mac HD - Data volume. This will make your mac startup like it was never used, and ask you to make a new user account and all that.
Then install iLok and PT and test if PT is working like it should.
Then use Migration Assistent to copy everything except Applications.
This will leave you with a mac that looks like your old mac and have all licenses, contacts, bookmarks, preferences and so on, and with a working installation of PT. You will then have to manually copy other applications to Applications folder. Most will be a simple copy action. Most apps will not need the reinstall.

nickkmet 06-24-2022 02:08 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
Whelp, turns out this was the exact issue. I thought I had addressed this, but I was looking at the wrong folder for the permissions issue. Even though I've always used the same username between computers, it had something I've never seen before as the owner of the preferences folder.

Changing that seems to have solved it for me.

Ben Jenssen 06-24-2022 02:13 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickkmet (Post 2640282)
Changing that seems to have solved it for me.

Changing what, exactly?

nickkmet 06-26-2022 12:19 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
I changed the ownership of the preferences folder so that my account was able to read and write to it; it had been set to some other account as a result of the migration that didn't exist.

Darryl Ramm 06-26-2022 01:14 PM

Re: Cannot change or save Pro Tools preferences
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by nickkmet (Post 2640428)
I changed the ownership of the preferences folder so that my account was able to read and write to it; it had been set to some other account as a result of the migration that didn't exist.

Cool thanks for letting us know, BTW this is a not uncommon problem also when migrating stuff *not* using migration assistant when folks just get the uid of users accounts different on the different systems. So many apps squirrel away so much crap under ~Library, part of Apple's way of creating the illusion stuff is all simple and hidden, which works great until it doesn't. Part of my preference to reinstall apps on new systems/major macOS upgrades is I want the latest installers a chance to do anything they want to there... they should not *have* to... but.... And for some weird stuff (non Audio related) I know the few folders I really need to grab in ~Library to save time even after a full clean install. And to me it's not as much about there is only own way to do things, but more there are problems you might run into going different ways and how to get out of them (or give up and restart) if things go wrong.


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