VST3 and AU Indexing Errors

[mauvehead]

Hello...I keep getting an error message saying that Mixbus 10 Pro has not indexed my AU and VST3 plugins. I have already scanned all of my plugins but any time I try to add a plugin to a channel strip or mixbus or master bus I get the indexing error message. Is there a setting somewhere that is causing this to happen? Never had these issues in v8 and I completely uninstalled v8 before installing v10 so there shouldn't be any old caches or residual preference settings on my machine. 

I'm on an M1Max MBP running macOS Sonoma 14.4.1.

[mauvehead]

Bump.

Anyone having similar issues? Weirdly enough all of my AU's and VST3's still show up in the Plugin Manager window. But when I try to add an AU or VST3 to a channel strip I can only see LV2's or LUA's. If I do a fresh rescan then I do gain access to all of my plugins again, until the next time I open v10 and then it's the same issue all over. This makes v10 unusable for me if it forces me to rescan my Au and VST3s every time as it takes a very long time. Is this a bug or is it some setting that is new to v10. Never had this issue with v8. 

Thanks!

[Dingo]

@mauvehead Have you seen this thread https://forum.harrisonconsoles.com/thread-11869.html
Are you using any 'Mac cleaner' type of applications ?

[mauvehead]

Thanks for the reply! Yes I use CleanMyMac regularly. I read through the thread you linked. Where are Harrison's AU/VST3 caches located? Surely I can tell CleanMyMac to overlook those locations. Thanks for the help!

[Dingo]

Thanks for the reply! Yes I use CleanMyMac regularly. I read through the thread you linked. Where are Harrison's AU/VST3 caches located? Surely I can tell CleanMyMac to overlook those locations. Thanks for the help!

I am just a mixer, not an IT expert.... but I don't use cleaners I just tend to do house keeping myself.

There are two locations you might want to quarantine from your cleaner.

~/Library/Preferences/Mixbus{version} this folder contains all of your user setting (preferences, colors, shortcuts Plugin list etc. )

If you delete preferences, Mixbus when launched will create a new folder and this is one way to get a 'factory reset'.
You will be asked to do a plugin scan, but this will be very quick as it uses cache to update the plugin log in Preferences.

~/Library/Caches/Mixbus{version} this folder contains blacklists and logs of all your plugins.

If you delete cache you will have to do a new and (depending on how many) longer plugin scan.

More details in Power User section of the manual.

[Dingo]

I completely uninstalled v8 before installing v10 so there shouldn't be any old caches or residual preference settings on my machine. 

General note to all users, you do not need to remove old versions of Mixbus, you can maintain all older versions on your system.
Each version of Mixbus 5,6 etc...10 have there individual preference / cache paths so there is no conflict.
I have v4 to v10 on both my systems and no issues - I always finish in the version I started a project on and this applies to PT or MB.
If I want to re-visit an older session I do so in the version it was created in.

[mauvehead]

Dingo...Thanks for the assist!

Per the caches, I also have the following folders:

~/Library/Caches/ardour-vst-scanner
~/Library/Caches/ardour-vst3-scanner

Both are showing as updated per the same time I started a fresh scan of all plugins (including VST2 plugins this time...even though I don't have hardly of those anymore). Am I correct in assuming these folders are also integral to Mixbus's plugin cache?

Unfortunately, CleanMyMac doesn't have a way to preemptively exclude user designated folders or files until after it has performed a system scan. So I'm currently having Mixbus do a fresh plugin scan to recache things, then I'll scan my system with CleanMyMac, at which point it will create a list of all of the folders and files it "cleaned up", and then from that list I'll be able to designate which of those folders and files I wish to exclude from future system scans. Total PITA but it may be my only option as I really like CleanMyMac and I've been using it on my Macs without any issues for several years now.

It does seem odd (and hugely inconvenient) that of all of the DAWs I keep on my machine (PT, LPX, S16, Live12, Waveform12, MPC DAW, Reason 12 and prior to Mixbus 10 I had Mixbus 32Cv8 and Mixbus v7 installed), this newest version of Mixbus 10 is the only DAW that I have ever had any issues with the plugin caches getting wiped out by routine system scans by CleanMyMac. To me that points to Mixbus 10 being the culprit here versus the scanning software someone chooses to use on their machines. Something seems amiss with Mixbus 10's plugin cache system. That needs to be looked into. 

Thanks again for the help!

[mauvehead]

Quick update on using CleanMyMac.

Once I performed a fresh plugin scan for Mixbus, I then did the normal system scan with CleanMyMac. Once CleanMyMac did its system scan, I was able to review the folders and files that CleanMyMac targeted as "System Junk", notably under the "User Cache Files" category. Within that User Cache Files list were all of the folders and files that were associated with either Ardour or Mixbus, at which point I was able to add them to CleanMyMac's "Ignore List" by control-clicking on them. Once I added those folders and files to the Ignore List, I then performed CleanMyMac's system scan and afterwards all of my AU, VST and VST3 plugins were still cached and immediately available in Mixbus without needing to perform another plugin scan! Yeesssss! Problem solved!

Hopefully this will be helpful to others using CleanMyMac or other similar system cleaners who are experiencing the same issues that I was. 

Thanks again for the assist!