Logic project causing DAW not to respond

[Cam]

A specific project is causing Logic not to respond.

If the project manages to open (often doesn't) I can't click on anything in the window. It isn't responsive to the keyboard either.

With patience, I can scroll along the top bar to File, Revert to - but then all the potential backups are greyed out and I can't click on them.

I have a video to show what I mean, but am unable to attach.

Any help greatly appreciated, many many hours about to be lost 😢

[des99]

It sounds like some kind of alert dialog is being displayed, perhaps out of sight/offscreen.

If you turn off Core Audio and open the project, can you get into it then?

You could try importing all that project's data into a new project, perhaps?

Can you zip up the project (no audio/assets) and attach it here, and I'll have a look...

Edited August 12, 2022 by des99

[David Nahmani]

Here are the instructions to attach your project: 

 

[Cam]

"Can you zip up the project (no audio/assets) and attach it here, and I'll have a look..."

 

Thanks for the reply.

What does this mean?

[Cam]

Can't attach a zip file, too big 

[David Nahmani]

7 minutes ago, Cam said:

Can't attach a zip file, too big 

Are you sure you followed the instructions in the link I shared?

[des99]

44 minutes ago, Cam said:

What does this mean?

Compress the project file, so it's nice and small, without any of the audio files or other assets (as they are unnecessary to diagnose, and are too big to upload) and attach the file to a post here so we can have a look.

[David Nahmani]

...right and make sure you save your project organized as a folder first, then attach only the logic project file. If you save your project organized as a package it will be too large. 

[Cam]

I can't re-save the project as anything, it won't open?

When i compress the project it's 5.5 MB

[David Nahmani]

2 hours ago, Cam said:

I can't re-save the project as anything, it won't open?

Try File > Save As? 

[Cam]

I can't click anything. Even if the project opens, I'm unable to perform any function whatsoever 

[des99]

Can you upload the zip file somewhere else, if it's still too big for the forum, and post a link to it here, then we'll take a look at it.

[Cam]

Thanks dude.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/034rd100469y3ia/Latin Synth Original Kit.zip?dl=0

[des99]

Ok, so I had no problem loading your project.

When I loaded it, obviously the audio files are not found so I skip those, and the project loads, and for me displays a dialog of plugins used in the project that I don't have on my system. Hitting OK on that and I see the main window as normal.

Perhaps you also have missing plugins on your system, but aren't seeing the missing plugins alert box or it's opening offscreen perhaps? Try loading the project and pressing return to dismiss it, even if you can't see it.

Other than that, I had no other problems opening the project.

[Cam]

Thanks for taking a look.

Nah, I don't have any missing plug-ins on the project. If it opens with you then it must be an issue with a plugin, right?

[Cam]

Strange though as the project didn't open on my housemates laptop either

[des99]

2 minutes ago, Cam said:

Nah, I don't have any missing plug-ins on the project. If it opens with you then it must be an issue with a plugin, right?

That would be my next guess. Try turning Core Audio off, and seeing whether the project loads normally. If it does, then likely yes the issue is with a third-party plugin...

[Cam]

It opens with no issue when Core Audio is off. When it's on, many of the plugins are un-selectable, suggesting they're missing or a dialogue error, but they work fine on any other project...

Any thoughts on why? 

Thanks for all the assistance dude

[des99]

Then yes, it's almost certainly a third-party plugin issue. You'll need to troubleshoot this in the normal way by moving chunks of plugins in and out of the plugin folder and open Logic and your project each time until you narrow down where the issues are...

[Cam]

Ok, cheers dude.

I guess that goes for external AU instruments as well?

[des99]

2 minutes ago, Cam said:

I guess that goes for external AU instruments as well?

It could be an issue with any of your third-party plugins, whatever they are.

[Cam]

Could it be that a plugin / au inst only has an issue with this project but can be played in another? Or should the error be categorical and persist any time I attempt to use it?

[David Nahmani]

9 minutes ago, Cam said:

Could it be that a plugin / au inst only has an issue with this project but can be played in another?

Yes, it could well be. 

[triplets]

9 minutes ago, Cam said:

Could it be that a plugin / au inst only has an issue with this project but can be played in another? Or should the error be categorical and persist any time I attempt to use it?

No way to tell until it happens again. Sometimes it can be a combination of 3rd party plugins used in a specific way. There's no pattern with 3rd party stuff.

[des99]

19 minutes ago, Cam said:

Could it be that a plugin / au inst only has an issue with this project but can be played in another?

Maybe an instrument requires certain samples in one used patch, that it can't find and is complaining about, but some other patch is fine. You'll need to troubleshoot as we don't know what the actual problem is. I'd probably try to open all the plugins in that project in another test empty project, to see whether any are not loading properly (there's *ahem* a cool little tool that will list all the plugins used in a project that's quite handy for these scenarios).

If that's not helping, I'd probably save out multiple copies of the project, selectively removing groups of plugins until it started to point to the culprit/s.

[Cam]

Great, cheers for that!

Is it just the component I need to remove from the folder?

[des99]

8 minutes ago, Cam said:

Is it just the component I need to remove from the folder?

Quit Logic, move half the components to a temp folder on your desktop, try to load your project.

If it still doesn't load, the problem wasn't in that batch, move the next batch, try again etc...

[Cam]

Ok so i did that and now if i open the project no audio plays and there is just a screaming, glitching feedback sound coming out off the speakers and cans

[des99]

2 minutes ago, Cam said:

Ok so i did that and now if i open the project no audio plays and there is just a screaming, glitching feedback sound coming out off the speakers and cans

That's not caused by uninstalling plugins. Perhaps you're routing some inputs to outputs and getting feedback or something. Anyway, the contents of the projects, and the troubleshooting are a procedure for you to work through to find the culprit...

[Cam]

But before it at least played my audio. Now it doesn't at all