Logic Re-scanning Audio Units Almost Every Time!

Since upgrading to High Sierra (bad idea), Logic Pro is "updating information" about audio unit plugins almost every time. I cannot detect a pattern, but it seems like every other or every third time. I am running 10.13.3, and the latest Logic Pro 10.4.0. I've trashed the audio units cache, I've trashed preferences, I've fixed permissions, I've removed all plugins and returned them one by one. It's incredibly frustrating. I have many plugins and I can't wait for them to rescan every time I want to boot Logic. The most frustrating thing is it's almost impossible to test, or rule out causes, because it's intermittent, but occurs often enough that Logic is essentially useless to me at this point. I know there have been other threads related to this issue, but there doesn't seem to be any solution or consensus. Does anyone have any other advice? I've become desperate.

I'm wondering if this has something to do with this...: https://www.logicprohelp.com/small-warning-updating-macos-10-13-high-sierra/

 

Another troubleshooting step would be to create a new user account and see if that account suffers the same issue or not?

Do you have Novation Automap installed?

David, I tried to reveal the hidden directory and there's nothing in it. Also, it says that if this problem occurs, it will "totally break" Logic, and this isn't the case, though. Aside from this plugin re-scanning issue, all my presets and channel strip settings and other preferences are showing up.

 

Eric, I do not have Novation Automap installed.

 

I guess trying to create a new user account will be my next option. Thanks for your replies, guys.

A bit obvious this one, but i presume you have restarted/shutdown your machine along with the other tasks you've tried?

Oh I've restarted a thousand times. I've been trying to solve this for weeks.

Thought so

 

Have you got any kind of software that wraps plugins (Such as 32 Lives etc.), or has plugin managers that may be causing a change (auganizer etc.) to the AU List which will cause Logic to rescan? also any other disk utilities that offer to 'clean' your machine? i.e. disk diag/ccleaner etc?

 

As it's doing the entire list when it happens it suggests something major is happening to trigger a complete rescan (i.e. it's not just 1-2 being triggered), and that can only be your au cache corrupting, or Logic is not able to read or write to it following a valid scan.

 

As it doesn't occur each time i think you can rule out that writing is ok so probably not a permissions issue if it seems to be writing at some times and not others, so i would be thinking corruption maybe, or another app/utilitiy triggering a rescan, OR another app locking the file.

 

Do you have any other apps that can access/manage the AU cache? Other DAW's perhaps?

 

Or even plugin managers such as you get with Waves, or Arturia that may need authorising again?

 

Also, have you checked that you got the correct com.apple.audiounits.cache file?

i.e. inside /Users/yourname/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache

 

It used to be in a different location, so it may be possible that you're trashing an old obsolete file if you've updated your machine over time? I'm not 100% as i'm on clean install, but be sure to check thoroughly in the cache's folder incase another one exists.

 

One other thing, when it does a scan next time, check that file and see what the last modified date was so you can confirm Logic has written to it.

 

Sorry if a lot of that is obvious, but thought i'd throw anything in the hope that something sticks

Hey man! I think I may have found something. I have NO com.apple.audiounits.cache file in /Users/yourname/Library/Caches/AudioUnitCache. There's nothing related to audio units whatsoever in the entire Caches folder. Perhaps Logic isn't writing the cache file at all, or writing it into the wrong location and then when it goes to check it in the correct location, it can't find it? Not sure but this certainly seems fishy.

Doesn't sound right, you could have a permissions issue on your entire Caches folder, i believe you can trash that entire caches folder and OSX will rebuild it when you next restart, but please don't take my word for it - hopefully someone else who knows for sure will reply.

 

If i had time i'd google around for you, but i'm super busy atm but i did notice this post from a while back:-

 

viewtopic.php?t=87501

Do you have Novation Automap installed?

 

Good call Eric. I bought a Novation midi keyboard and installed Automap. Same issue with scanning Automap AU plugins. Ditched Automap, bought a Virus KB ( same keybed) and problem solved. Didn’t want to waste time figuring out Automap.

There's been a development: my audio units cache is somehow disappearing. Yesterday it was there, I started and restarted Logic several times throughout the day, and it started without having to re-scan. This morning, I turned my machine on, navigated to library/caches, and the audio unit caches folder was GONE. As far as I know, I do not have any automatic system-maintenance software running. Could something be deleting it at startup or shutdown? At least I have a better idea of what's actually happening, now the challenge is to figure out why that cache is being removed.

Possibly permissions issue then, Using the right click and 'info' method for each, check your Sharing & Permissions section for the 3 main elements:-

 

library/caches (folder)

library/caches/AudioUnitCache (folder)

library/caches/AudioUnitCache/com.apple.audiounits.cache (file)

I've attached mine, if it helps.

 

Be interesting if yours differ, and if you do find a difference there restart after making the changes and see how that works.

I thought I'd come back here and post what I think is (was) the possible solution to my problem in case any other users had the same one. After deciphering startup logs, it seemed that some sort of Sierra launch daemon was deleting many of my caches (not just audio units). I eventually narrowed the cause of this behavior down to the fact that my Time Machine backup drive was out of space and that Time Machine was for some reason having difficulty clearing space on the drive for backups. Evidently Sierra/High Sierra have cache-clearing daemons that upon launch delete caches in order to minimize the size of backups. I am almost certain this was the cause of my problem because since reformatting my backup drive and freeing up space, my audio units cache has remained in place and not been mysteriously deleted as it was. Of course I could be wrong and could wake up three days from now with my cache gone, but for now this seems to be the most likely explanation. Thanks Apple!

Well... thanks a LOT for adding this information to this thread. Very useful indeed!!

I wonder if I can revive this thread a bit, coz it seems I'm having a similar problem and it must have a different cause... I already deleted Automap, and I don't use Time Machine. But still Logic is scanning all of my plugs every time I open the program, and that's over 1000 plugins (!) Should I be looking into my startup logs? And how does one do that? Or are there more prefs to be trashed?

 

I checked permissions, and the cache file is read/write for me/administrator, but read only for staff/everyone, which seems correct isn't it? This is really costing me some time and angst and I'm on a deadline.

 

THe only other recent suspect changes have been that I just trashed all Logic prefs after USB conflicts were causing Logic to crash (trashing prefs solved that one). Also I just re-installed all my Waves Mercury bundle plugins after renewing my 'WUP'. So that's alot of new plugins that may have messed with something??? Grasping at straws here.

Another bizarre symptom to add.. It seems Logic is losing contact with my USB Midi controllers after about an hour of use. (!) When I start work, everything functions as it should. But an hour or so later, my keyboard controllers mysteriously just stop working and Logic shows no MIDI input, even though the AudioMidi utility shows everything normal, 'Full MIDI reset' does nothing in Logic, and starting a fresh project doesn't help either. I have to say, I thought I new my way around this program and I've used it daily since the Notator days, but this is some WEIRD behavior. Totally baffling and I'm wondering if I have to trash all my prefs - again. Aargh.

Sounds like you have a lot of issues, and it will be one cause i suspect.

 

How did you delete automap, is it possible it's resident somewhere else on your system? There will be a full uninstallation guideline to follow i suspect.

 

Obviously, ensure that you unwrap all wrapped plugins before you uninstall automap too, or there will be remnants of wrapped plugins scattered around which will upset the au scanning as the automap engine will no longer exist to support those wrappers.

When you first install Automap it installs it's uninstaller in your Applications folder. When you run the uninstaller it deletes Automap, your Automap settings and the uninstaller itself.

Yes, that's what I did. I ran the Automap uninstaller and - as far as I can tell - there's no trace of any wrapped plugins, which I assume are the ones with 'Automap' appended after the name.... I spent an hour on the phone with Apple support yesterday and we tried a few things but still no luck. Next step will probably be to create a new user account, but that would be a huge undertaking to reinstall/authorize all my software. I have deadlines NOW so I'm just trying to restart Logic as rarely as possible (coz it's a 45 minute wait for 1000+ plugins to be scanned). Grrr.

Just to follow up - the "AU Rescan" problem has been solved, and the culprit was my recent Waves 'Mercury Bundle' installation. Seems there was an extra out of date 'waveshell' in my AU folder. I had updated to 10.0 and there was still a 9.7 and a 9.6 in the AU folder. Waves tech support directed me to leave the 9.7 alone (since it's needed for compatibility) and delete the 9.6 file -- that did the trick. No more rescans! PHEW!

 

Now if I can just figure out how to get my new Behringer X-Touch to behave.... aargh.

Thanks for your work Timbertune! Gonna save me a lot of time from here on!

-D

 

Ignore my sig—OLD

#20 fix the problem here.

Hi guys,

 

Has there been any new developments? Read through the entire post. I’ve had the rescan issue for a lot of months now. Just deleted an old waves shell 9 file, left the 10. Didn’t work. I have no audio units folder in my cache. Have about 170gb free space. Don’t have novation. Run high Sierra with logic 10.4.3

Annoying.

Hope someone knows the latest trick.

Did you check permissions?

No limitations for the cache folder. Read and write for user/admin/everyone. No other audio folders in there

Just to follow up - the "AU Rescan" problem has been solved, and the culprit was my recent Waves 'Mercury Bundle' installation. Seems there was an extra out of date 'waveshell' in my AU folder. I had updated to 10.0 and there was still a 9.7 and a 9.6 in the AU folder. Waves tech support directed me to leave the 9.7 alone (since it's needed for compatibility) and delete the 9.6 file -- that did the trick. No more rescans! PHEW!

 

Now if I can just figure out how to get my new Behringer X-Touch to behave.... aargh.

 

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! this problem has been plaguing me for months now. it was about 9 plugins it would scan every startup. wasnt too big of a deal besides a time waste, so I never looked into it. I did now, and its all cleared! THANKS!

delete the 9.6 file -- that did the trick. No more rescans! PHEW!

 

This worked for me. Thank you

I'm still stuck

Deleted an old waves file but didn't help

I'm still stuck

Deleted an old waves file but didn't help

 

What's in your audio plugins folder now?

Hi Triple,

Can you specify the location you mean? If you mean the cache, then the correct com.apple/audiounits etc is in the right location and the permissions are read/write, read only, read only. And I deleted that old waves file. Don't know what else I can do...

Tnx!