Free Pro Tools Application - Delete Prefs/Database now V2.1

[smlworld]

i am curious, why is your app removing apple audiomidi prefs?

thanks

scott

[studiojimi]

Are you all really trashing your prefs so much you need an app do to it? I'd go as long as a year without trashing.

on a side note, when you DO trash, do you still need to restart?

Tim

kinda really makes the software suspect doesn't it

ok guys i bought a G5 dual 7.2 with 8 gig of RAM i'll be getting it going this week and back to work and if i still have the same problems i'll resurrect my PROBLEMS PROBLEMS PROBLEMS thread

i've had to downgrade to HD3 due to reduces slots in the G5 under the slot capacity of the G4 in order to have a digi approved puter....i guess i can sell the Accel card to pay for the computer...who wants it?

what a nice labor of love to make this macro or whatever it is....thanks for sharing i can't wait to try it....can you add in one that restores fresh audio "sweet" favorites?

[JC925602]

Are you all really trashing your prefs so much you need an app do to it? I'd go as long as a year without trashing.

No I don't trash my prefs often, but I work for more than one studio (6 ProTools studios, 9 users), and in tree of them, nobody speak English so I cannot tell them over the phone "Go read the troubleshooting tread on the DUC".

And if I'm not home (ex: Working on a show setup at 2 am) I cannot start Chicken of the VNC and take control of their Mac and do it for them (and I only have one of the studio setup for that).

So I wrote those scripts.

on a side note, when you DO trash, do you still need to restart?

I rarely do. It's an old reflex from OS 9, as reinstalling the OS once a month used to be on Windows 95 for some people.

Sometime just closing the OS session is OK.

i am curious, why is your app removing apple audiomidi prefs?

I wrote those scripts at the first OS X version of ProTools, and audiomidi pref was on the troubleshooting thread. It's not there anymore, so I will move it to an independent button.

Hi, excellent app. Can you add in "com.digidesign.CoreAudioManager.plist" to be trashed as well? This has caused many a problem when running Logic with DAE

Yes

I will also add on another button the "Volumes" folder in MacHD > Library > Application Support > Digidesign > Databases. I forgot to add it in the script 2 years ago, and I did not miss it. Plus I think it hold the "catalog" that I created in the digibase, and I don't want to lose them (there will be a warning when you click on that one)

I transformed these scripts into an application using Project Builder from the apple developer tools because I wanted to learn it. It took me half an hour to find where to change the version number as the french documentation I have for AppleScript Studio date back to 2004.

As I learn more AppleScript I will add a button for:
It is working well now, so make a copy of all my prefs so I can restore them later and one for:
I'm having problem right now so let's try a restore of those prefs to see if it cure all those problems
I will also add a French, Italian, Spanish, Polish translation.

History: I wrote those scripts at the first OS X version of ProTools, it was a simple script.
Tell finder to delete this and that file and delete Digi database on all disk.

Then came OS X 10.3 and the Digi Database script didn't work because of a new Network volume that the Finder was seeing, and ProTools was naming it's pref with the version number.

In a discussion on the DUC Tiago Silva wrote the actual Delete database script

tell application "Finder"
set disk_list to disks
repeat with i in disk_list
set folder_list to every folder of i
repeat with j in folder_list
if name of j is "Digidesign Databases" then delete j
end repeat
end repeat
end tell

So it's a simple copy and paste, but it gave me the basic knowledge to face the changing name of the prefs (ProTools v6.4, 6.7, 7.xx preferences) with this script

tell application "Finder"
set file_list to every file of folder "Preferences" of folder "Library" of home
repeat with i in file_list
if name of i starts with "Pro Tools" and name of i ends with "Preferences" then delete i
end repeat
end tell

Then, yesterday, I opened the book to learn how to integrated them into one AppleScript Studio application, went to the theatre, then made a version 1.1 with 5 independent buttons because Andre Knecht asked for it.

I will not transform this application into a 20 windows with 5 tabs each and a 10cm thick book to cover all troubleshooting options. It will stay a simple one window with 3 big buttons for the non geek ProTools users, and I will add translations for all those users who can't really read English well (for that I really like the command-control-D place the mouse over a word and see it's definition).

If you have ideas or some script that you want in this little app, then ask for it, and I will look into it.

JC

[AG]

Thanks JC, this is cool.

[JC925602]

version 1.2 is out

Delete ProTools Pref and Database

new button for com.digidesign.CoreAudioManager.plist
moved com.apple.audio.AudioMIDISetup.plist out of the main scripts
Added version history

JC

[Willard]

Nice scripts JC925602! You could also build this with Automator and then have the actions sitting on your tool bar or, make it a "workflow," that is only accessed when you control click. Automator works for all programs that have the requisite "handles;" the finder, Filemaker Pro, iTunes etc. But not Pro Tools itself.

Kevin

[Chief Technician]

Nice scripts JC925602! You could also build this with Automator and then have the actions sitting on your tool bar or, make it a "workflow," that is only accessed when you control click. Automator works for all programs that have the requisite "handles;" the finder, Filemaker Pro, iTunes etc. But not Pro Tools itself.

Does it? I tried writing an automator action that moved a plug-in from the plug-ins folder to the plug-ins (unused) folder, and it didn't move it, it copied it. So, I thought, its an automator bug, I'll add a step to copy and then delete. Well, guess what it did? It didn't copy then delete, it just deleted it! This was all in the Finder, which of course is supposed to be automatable.

If you're going to do this with Automator, please test it rigorously. Automator has issues.

[Willard]

Yes absolutely!! Automator has bugs and should be thoroughly tested. But for simple tasks like this it can save a minute or two. You just have to learn it's "quirks." I can't program apple script so thanks again to JC925602 for writing and posting this app.

Kevin

[francois]

Thanks JC

[Michael James]

JC, you might consider moving DigiSetup.OSX away from the first button. I've found that I never need to trash it, but about once a week I trash the following, and all is well.

Pro Tools YYY Preferences
com.digidesign.protoolsYYY.plist
DAE Prefs
All Digidesign Databases folders on system and audio drives

My setup uses 4x 192 I/Os loaded with DA exp. cards and a Big Ben clock, so resetting DigiSetup.OSX, one interface at a time, is time-consuming. Therefore, it makes sense to give it a separate button if it rarely needs to be reset.

Thank you for making this application!