PT 2021.7 - crash while loading session

[digifactory]

Hi Avid-Fam,

I am on OS 11.6 with PT 2021.7 and having some troubles while loading a specific session.

Everytime I am loading this session (around 30 tracks with maybe 50-60 plugins activated) PT crashes without any feedback while restoring the single tracks. Most of the time PT crashes while restoring track "Snare" (3 plugins loaded there).

If I am loading this session without any plugin (holding SHIFT), everything is fine. Afterwards I am activating all the plugins per instance (CONTROL+OPTION+CMD) manually without any crash or error.

What's the reason for this behaviour? How can I find out the suspect plugin or reason for the crash without any report?

Thanks for any help.

Mike

PS: I trashed all prefs with PT Prefs already.

[Obsidian Dragon]

My first guess is that you may have a plugin that is not compatible with either the OS or the version of Protools you are running. MacOS 11.6 is relative new and not all plugins are updated for it yet. Likewise Protools 2021.7 has only been out about 3 months and so some plugins are not updated for it yet. Check with the plugin manufacturers to see if they have an updated version available. Otherwise you may have to do without that plugin (or use a similar plugin) for now.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by digifactory

I am on OS 11.6 with PT 2021.7 and having some troubles

You are on unsupported software combination, but yes, try to move all plugins to unused folder and see if it opens. Most likely one plugin behaving badly.

[digifactory]

@Obsidian Dragon:
Thank you, but how will i find the suspect plugin easy? I do not get any feedback like plugin x caused the crash.

I do not want to commit all tracks and doing the session without plugins.
It is strange that if I load the session without plugins and activate all instances of plugins afterwards the session does not end in any error.

@JFreak:
Thank you, might be a reason. Is this really necessary? I can unload all plugins while opening the session with holding SHIFT.
But as I wrote above, it does not help to find the suspect plugin with little effort

Mike

[JFreak]

Yes, for troubleshooting, unfortunately it is necessary. If a rogue plugin is loaded into memory (when the list of plugins run on splash screen) then it is an issue even if not instantiated. Only way to rule out plugin problem is to move them temporarily to unused folder.

[DetroitT]

It's not that daunting to move-test-putback repeat!

Carve out a two hour session for maintenance. (Billable downtime)

Computer creatives need to do this (Type of thang).
(Or be at the mercy of...)

Remember. We Are The Hat Generation.

[K Roche]

To add to Detroit
To speed up the manual process of moving them all out then adding back in,,, you can do semi-bulk add-ins ,,,, of say 5 or 10 back in at a time , (depending on how many plugins you have) which will go much faster and fairly quickly tell which sub-set has the problem plugin.. and then you test them individually

[digifactory]

@JFreak: Ok. Then I will dive into this annoying work. Unfortunately, I have several hundred plugins (PA-stuff alone is more than 100+).

But, I do not get the point with this method. Moving all plugins into the unused folder leads to a Missing AAX Plugins error while loading my spec. session showing me all the single plugins which are missed for this session. So, I have to put these plugins only back to plugins-folder and restart PT and see what happens? Whats the advantage?

Putting "semi-bulk addins of 5 or 10 back as @KRoche suggests does not help with this specific session to my understanding because I have to concentrate on those plugins first which are missed for this specific session.

Sorry, maybe I am "off the track".

Thanks

Mike

[JFreak]

Sadly, this is the only bulletproof way of troubleshooting plugins. Whenever a plugin is loaded into memory, it contributes to the stability (or instability) of the whole system even if it is not instantiated in a session.

If you have zero problems without plugins, you first rule out a PT problem. Then you keep moving plugins back one vendor at the time, and once the problems re-appear, you know which plugins are the culprit.

Then you move those back to unused, and the rest to the plugins folder and if the problem keeps away you know you have found it, and likely will either try to find update to said plugins or ask the vendor for support.

[DetroitT]

Alternately you can trash AAE preferences, try again.
2. Import the session into an empty session, try again.
3. Check plugin version numbers for compatibility.