Missing plugins

[Greenfit]

I’m on windows 10 using pro tools first 2019.6. It froze a couple of days ago and on rebooting I lost some of my plugins. I can see that they are still in the plugins folder and I have trashed my preferences as directed by videos on YouTube but still no luck. Does anyone here have any further suggestions?
Thanks in advance

[Darryl Ramm]

Pro Tools First? Really First? That product was a total disaster and killed off by Avid and replaced with a much better Pro Tools Intro. Even the support forum here for First users was deleted it was such a disaster. Any help you might have gotten there from other users' experiences was deleted, gone forever. If you are really running First I would try to save cloud projects as local as best as possible (hopefully you can find tips online to do that if needed) and uninstall it and get a version of Pro Tools Intro, checking compatibility with your system.

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If you are *not* running First...

You lost *exactly* what plugins? List them all.

Following *exactly* what instructions to trash prefs (plugin cache locations changed at Pro Tools 2024.12 and later).

Do you see those plugins load in the Pro Tools splash screen? Even better look in the Pro Tools log file C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Avid\Logs\Pro_Tool s*.txt and see if they are listed there loading alongside other plugins... the logs are pretty cryptic but just look for where they all first get mentioned together.

[Greenfit]

Thanks Darryl,
I actually solved it by downloading the last update that they did, 2021.7 and it worked! However, as you strongly hinted I may look to sensibly upgrade. Yes, I save projects locally and never use the cloud.
Cheers Toby

[Greenfit]

Interesting. So it worked when I updated yesterday but today it has reverted to excluding the 3rd part plug ins. I found the log that you suggested and have attached a screenshot of plugins being allowed and not allowed to load but the question is why? Very odd.
Btw I will move to intro or artist but just need to finish a project I am near to completion. Also not convinced the issue will resolve by changing to intro or artist if I have a pc issue rather than a PT/avid issue???

[Darryl Ramm]

Pro Tools First deliberately does not allow third party plugins not purchased through the Avid plugin store. That is likely what is going on here. A stupid stupid idea, and one of the horrible things about First. You need to move to Intro, which does not have that limitation.

If you did purchase a plugin through the Avid online plugin store, then I suspect you cannot just reinstall it using the plugins standard installers, in case you did that. I have no idea if any of the online support for this still exists, you need to get off this killed product, its been dead for years now.

[Greenfit]

They came from avid as part of a bundle and I have been using them for the last 4 years no issue. For example, softube bundle with saturation, reverb and delay, and also the red compressor and red eq.

[Darryl Ramm]

Well it's knackered now and the errors in the log file are likely related to this plugin online store nonsense which may be relying on who knows what online validation maybe with periodically expiring keys that no longer exists. Nobody is likely to be interested in spending any effort here to help you with this, time to get on Intro.

It should not be hard to get Intro up on Windows 10. I would *not* use flaky Avid Link to install anything, download installers from your Avid.com account My Products section after you sign up for Intro. Avid Link is installed with Pro Tools, many of us uninstall it immediately. Follow/check the Pro Tools systems optimization steps.

[Greenfit]

Thanks for the advice. Intro here I come…

[The Weed]

Do be aware of Pro Tools Intro's 8 Track limit if any of your Projects from PT First have more than 8 Tracks: https://kb.avid.com/pkb/articles/how...ro-Tools-Intro