Preferences Questions

[DonaldM]

I have a couple questions on the preferences folder. First, remind me where I find it on my hard drive on Windows? Second, I’m having a new system built, and I’ve been told that it’s best to trash your preferences and start over with the new install on a new system. But if I want everything the same, why wouldn’t I just want to bring the preferences over as is? What will I lose by doing that?

I backed up all my data and session drives, etc. etc. Are there any folders on windows related to any of the plug-ins that I use that would be on any of the system folders and windows such as the program files or similar that I might need to be sure to Access or bring over to the new system so it’s not to lose settings or whatever. Or is all that stored on the documents folder? I sometimes find it a little confusing to figure out exactly the right things stored.

Thanks

[albee1952]

My 2 cents; don't bring over prefs from the old system. If you're not sure what you have going on in there, you could take notes, create a Readme file or save screen captures of each tab(this is what I did years ago when I had my big HDN rig with 4 interfaces as the hardware setup was really tough to remember). I just don't see a point in risking a corrupt prefs file from the old rig. To be honest, I have been using guitardom's handy Trasher app for so long that I can't remember where the actual file is saved. Your sessions should move(copy) without issue. The only other things I would copy over are Track Presets(if you have any) and Session Templates(if you have any that you made). Every install is going to also install the stock Session Templates, which I usually (immediately) delete as they serve no purpose for me. While I often keep prefs when doing incremental updates, if its a big update(like going from 2023.x to 2024.x), I will uninstall prefs and database files when I uninstall the previous build(which I always do before installing a newer build). Hope that helps.

[Darryl Ramm]

You can find where standard pref files are with a Google search. Avid has KB articles etc. That has not changed in a decade or so.

The plugin cache moved recently from the old prefs location/file to C:\Users\Public\Pro Tools\AAXPlugInCache (2023.12 and later). It makes no sense to move the plugin cache or worry about it in any way unless there is a plugin loading problem. Install the plugins and let Pro Tools create the cache.

Personally I just never bother moving preference files to a new or reimaged system, the few settings that matter I just change manually. Some folks like moving them around, OTHO should there be problems hopefully trashing prefs recovers any issues.

The less crap you move over often the better things will go. Reinstall apps and plugins from their latest compatible installers. If you have kept you system setup clean without stuff scattered around in wrong places on the system drive there should be nothing else to move over.

[DonaldM]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

You can find where standard pref files are with a Google search. Avid has KB articles etc. That has not changed in a decade or so.

The plugin cache moved recently from the old prefs location/file to C:\Users\Public\Pro Tools\AAXPlugInCache (2023.12 and later). It makes no sense to move the plugin cache or worry about it in any way unless there is a plugin loading problem. Install the plugins and let Pro Tools create the cache.

Personally I just never bother moving preference files to a new or reimaged system, the few settings that matter I just change manually. Some folks like moving them around, OTHO should there be problems hopefully trashing prefs recovers any issues.

The less crap you move over often the better things will go. Reinstall apps and plugins from their latest compatible installers. If you have kept you system setup clean without stuff scattered around in wrong places on the system drive there should be nothing else to move over.

Thanks Darryl. My main worry is after reinstalling everything on the new system (and by that I mean a clean install) I'll be missing some file or folder from the old system when I open a session and have the plugin settings wrong or something. But, if I understand things correctly, that should not be an issue.



I will be making a clean install of ALL my plugins and programs. I made a list yesterday of all the ones I want to re-install on the new system. I also made sure I had the latest version of all the installers (ie Avid Link, Waves, etc). So I'll start with those.


About half the plugins I currently have are going bye bye (many were freebies I downloaded years ago and never use). I tried to keep things fairly organized on my OS drive as well as my download files.



The new system should be ready for me to pick up today. I'm just going to take my time re-installing everything to make sure its all on there correctly and working.



This process makes me a bit stressed because I'm not a computer/software engineer and I'm afraid I'll do something incorrectly and create problem. Which is why I ask questions here. You guys rock!