FCP hangs forever on opening scanning AUs

[sebalvarez]

The whole "Apple Experience" is getting really sour on me. I have defended Macs and Apple to all the Apple haters for years, but I'm done.

There's the pathetic display management assigning monitor roles at random, but at least that one you can correct, even if you do so hundreds of times.

But this Sunday evening I wanted to do some more edits in Final Cut Pro X and it's been wasting my time for the last half hour, because it suddenly decided to scan for AU plugins again. So it's been stuck on this for ten minutes or more:

How is it possible this app is designed so poorly that an incompatible plugin can bring it down???? That's pathetic!! Any decent, well thought out program will see that the plugin is not compatible and move on. Even Premiere has a setting to not scan for plugins. And FCP has a setting, apparently, to force it to scan for them!!! I have piles of music plugins, and I'm not going to mess with them, start moving the components folder around, and put them back one a time to see which one is the offender. I have 144 files in that folder. Do I want to waste an entire day moving one at a time inside the folder because Apple thought it was a good idea to scan for plugins to death, even if they are not compatible with FCP? And it's not the plugin fault, the plugin you see in my screenshot works perfectly fine in Logic Pro X and Cubase.

I'm not going to start messing around with those files, not knowing if that's going to break Cubase, which is what I use the most these days, because at least it's a lot more stable than Logic Pro X, but hell, at least Logic has a proper plugin manager where you can disable the plugins you don't want!!! And when it scans for them, and finds incompatible ones, it disables them.

But Apple thinks it's a good idea to make a video editing app scan for audio plugins with what is obviously a very poorly coded side app and not put any timeout code in it when it doesn't work. All this time that I've been typing this, it's still there.

And to answer your probable questions, yes, I rebooted, twice, and yes, I started FCP three times while pressing Cmd+Opt to delete the preferences.

I'm so close to sell this $5,000 machine for maybe $4,000 and use $3,000 to build myself a hell of a PC with the best components. Because as of now, it looks like FCP will never start again. I mean, how much longer should I wait until it decided that the plugin RC48 is not compatible? One hour? Two? One day? One week?

No, this is just pathetic. Apple presents this image of a machine and OS and apps that are much more solid than PCs, and I'm starting to see it might be the opposite. I wanted to spend a couple of hours working on a video, and now I'm screwed. I lost time of my life I will never get back.

 

[sebalvarez]

Oh wait!! Now it's on plugin 38! That's 7 more plugins that it took like an hour to scan!! So maybe in like a week I can expect FCP to finally load and let me work on my project???

Why is it that companies these days think they can waste everybody's time just because they have some stupid deadline imposed by some idiot manager that doesn't understand how things work???

 

[sebalvarez]

I'm starting to think that I was a bit too harsh on Apple. I mean, come on, two hours after I started it, an hour and ten minutes after my second post, and it advanced a whooping total of 7!!! Seven plugins in an hour and ten minutes. That tells me that it takes 10 minutes per plugin. Not being good at math, I use Apple's own Numbers app to tell me that it's going to take 14 hours and 50 minutes to finish scanning them and finally allow me to finish this project.

Maaaan, this thing is faster than a freaking Ferrari Testarossa!!

But hey, I guess it's my fault for being a sucker that buys into the Apple marketing.

 

[lin2log]

What a wonderfully jejune, ad hominem, and equally useless rant.
🤦🏼‍♂️

Hey, then maybe do us all and yourself a favor and just switch your self-importantness to WINDOWS and PREMIERE? Horrible Apple "Problem" solved! And thanks for your selfless, years-long "sucker" service! 🫡

We'll see you back in that forum then, whining about endless other things. 👍🏼

And of course, it's Apple's fault and not the plugins or your machine since we obviously ALL have that issue, so it couldn't possibly be you!!!

Oh… wait… 🤔

And who in the world could possibly be so clever as to simply not use the AU versions of any given plugin, but instead e.g. the VST ones?? No one. Especially when that circumvents any and all opportunities to whine in endless threads for weeks on end about how horrible Apple is, right? Who wants to be constructive instead and maybe, I dunno, remove all AUs, then gradually reintroduce them, and test to find the culprit?! Or maybe use Logic's plugin manager to quickly and easily activate and deactivate plugins as needed?? 😱 What a crazeballz idea, hm?!

Oh, right. It's just so much easier and fun to author endless rants!

Cuz who doesn't need a Guitar Rig plugin IN FCP??! 😂

 

[sebalvarez]

Yeah dude, you're absolutely right. It's not Apple's fault for designing "Pro" software that hangs for 14 hours scanning for plugins without any timeout.

Yeah, you're absolutely right, I'm whining and you're the greatest, not an Apple fan boy that will keep on drinking the Kool Aid no matter what Apple puts in front of you, because everything Apple ever did, does, and will do, is flawless and if any user has problems, it's always the user's fault, never Apple's.

Suuuuuuuure.

 

[Renderwarrior]

I'm in the same situation, and I'm not the only one.
It seems latest Ventura + FCPX + M1/M2 broke something with the AU Validation Tool.
I tried to reinstall from scratch (and I've about 1 TB of VST from Native, Waves and Izotope...) and it seems that Waves plugins works well. Izotope and Native Instruments are the ones that could hang FCPX.
I filed a bug with Apple but after 24 hours, no answers.
I noticed Da Vinci Resolve works with all the VST/plugins, so it's for sure something related to the AU Val Tool.
Someone told to move plugins to another folder when you need FCPX, but it's not an option for everyone.
And of course, I spent hours to figure what was happening, just when I needed to edit a movie for work....
On an old MBA from 2015 (i7 2cores) FCPX works well, but I just installed the Waves plugins. Maybe NI and Izotpe could hang it too... So I used my old machine for making that video, it was far slower than the M1 machine. But hey, better than nothing.
Using Da Vinci is okay but I miss all the content bought in the last years for FCPX.
Windows + Premiere? I have Windows machines too, but Adobe is something I don't want on my computers. ;-)
Using Logic for managing the plugins doesn't works for FCPX I think... as Logic starts without problems with all the plugins.
Let's hope for a quick fix from Apple...

 

[sebalvarez]

I'm in the same situation, and I'm not the only one.
It seems latest Ventura + FCPX + M1/M2 broke something with the AU Validation Tool.
I tried to reinstall from scratch (and I've about 1 TB of VST from Native, Waves and Izotope...) and it seems that Waves plugins works well. Izotope and Native Instruments are the ones that could hang FCPX.
I filed a bug with Apple but after 24 hours, no answers.
I noticed Da Vinci Resolve works with all the VST/plugins, so it's for sure something related to the AU Val Tool.
Someone told to move plugins to another folder when you need FCPX, but it's not an option for everyone.
And of course, I spent hours to figure what was happening, just when I needed to edit a movie for work....
On an old MBA from 2015 (i7 2cores) FCPX works well, but I just installed the Waves plugins. Maybe NI and Izotpe could hang it too... So I used my old machine for making that video, it was far slower than the M1 machine. But hey, better than nothing.
Using Da Vinci is okay but I miss all the content bought in the last years for FCPX.
Windows + Premiere? I have Windows machines too, but Adobe is something I don't want on my computers. ;-)
Using Logic for managing the plugins doesn't works for FCPX I think... as Logic starts without problems with all the plugins.
Let's hope for a quick fix from Apple...

No worries, here's how to get it working. Move every single AU plugin to another folder out of the system library, launch FCPX, and maybe you'll see a list of plugins that suposedly didn't pass validation. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with the plugins, NI, iZotope and the rest. It's just FCPX being buggy.

So after you click OK to that, FCPX will continue as usual, at which point, you can move back all the plugins back to the original folder. That folder, in case you didn't now, is /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. That's the one in the system drive, which if you didn't rename, is called "Macintosh HD".

After that, you can close FCPX. From that moment on, it should open fine. Maybe some future update will break it again, but you can do that again. I recommend a cheap app called Magnet which makes it super easy to have Finder windows side by side or even 4 Finder windows if you want. It does the same for windows in 99% of apps except Adobe and a few more.

Regardless, it's really lame that FCPX hangs for eternity trying to validate stupid plugins. It's like the troll above said sarcastically "Cuz who doesn't need a Guitar Rig plugin IN FCP??! 😂". I agree. Who the hell needs Guitar Rig and tons of plugins in FCPX? Just put a freakin' toggle to scan plugins or not, simple as that. And write more efficient code with a timeout that if a plugin doesn't work well with FCPX, then move on!

 

[Renderwarrior]

Of course, I don't need Guitar Rig, and other VST for editing my videos. Some plugins are useful, like Clarity VX or Nectar, as you can fix voices without leaving the video editor or detaching the audio track and send it to Logic.
For sure, a switch for "validate/don't validate" would be a smart feature.
So it's just for the AU plugins? Oh well, I'll do a try. Thanks for pointing to this!

---
Update: it works! Thanks a lot!

 

[Shamgar]

I got hit by this bug as well. I use Logic and Final Cut. I need both to both to work, and both reference the same audio units plugin library. The AU scanner in its current implementation for FCP is broken. I was able to isolate specific plugins that were causing the hang, and fortunately they weren't ones in my current workflow so I removed them for now. The plugins that were tripping the bug were totally unrelated to what FCP was reporting as the currently scanned plugin, and I had to isolate these issues manually by moving all plugins out of the Audio Units folder and then relaunching FCP with a new block of plugins added back.

 

[mipo]

Was this fixed in the latest Beta update of Ventura or are these issues waiting for the updated FCP which will be released alongside of the iPad version of the FCP? I am right now constantly moving Components In and Out of my Audio Library folder. Damn, its 2023 and I do stuff with files like I am running OS9?

 

[angelhairaudio]

I'm starting to think that I was a bit too harsh on Apple. I mean, come on, two hours after I started it, an hour and ten minutes after my second post, and it advanced a whooping total of 7!!! Seven plugins in an hour and ten minutes. That tells me that it takes 10 minutes per plugin. Not being good at math, I use Apple's own Numbers app to tell me that it's going to take 14 hours and 50 minutes to finish scanning them and finally allow me to finish this project.

Maaaan, this thing is faster than a freaking Ferrari Testarossa!!

But hey, I guess it's my fault for being a sucker that buys into the Apple marketing.

View attachment 2186679

Hey. I'm sorry that guy started to mock you because you were really frustrated. For some reason, when people feel really upset by something, other people have this impulse to bully them. I think it's because they are insecure and others showing emotions is triggering for them. (Oh, and don't call it bullying...that just makes them even more mad! For the same reasons.)

Anyway, I think that your rant is so valid and comes from a very justifiable place of frustration. Plus I enjoyed all the sarcasm and irony and satire in your rants. I too like to use humor when I'm pissed off.

I came here to say I am dealing with this too. It's constantly re-scanning and making it so I can't work, every time I open the application anymore. I have to keep moving the plug-ins, which is so ridiculously annoying because I edit videos AND work in Logic back and forth all day. I too am dumbfounded about why this has to still be a thing. It should not be hard to just tell FCP not to re-scan. And if there are plug-ins that can't be used, it should do as Logic does and just say they couldn't be validated. That simple.

However I don't take the stance that Apple is now **** and should be disregarded. There is a LOT of BS that goes on with them and how they take care of their customers and implement updates and create bugs that they don't fix. And, they're really awesome for many other reasons. I think it's important to see both angles and not be polarized.

 

[sebalvarez]

Hey. I'm sorry that guy started to mock you because you were really frustrated. For some reason, when people feel really upset by something, other people have this impulse to bully them. I think it's because they are insecure and others showing emotions is triggering for them. (Oh, and don't call it bullying...that just makes them even more mad! For the same reasons.)

Anyway, I think that your rant is so valid and comes from a very justifiable place of frustration. Plus I enjoyed all the sarcasm and irony and satire in your rants. I too like to use humor when I'm pissed off.

You are probably one of the few people in the world that understands me 😆😆 (and this one is not sarcasm, trust me)

I wrote this at a time where I was seriously fed up with Apple because of the multi-display management issue that I had reported shortly after receiving my Mac Studio in June 2022 and kept reporting and calling, and being ignored, so after months of wasting time rearranging my displays after each reboot or sleep, my patience went away. So the FCP plugin issue got added to the pile of frustration that I had with Apple at the time.

But one day a couple of months ago, without any warning, or even a note about it in the release notes, a Ventura update fixed that display role problem.

And a couple of days ago I received an email from someone at Cupertino (first time ever), saying:

"This is Chris from Apple Pro Apps in Cupertino. Thank you for your recent feedback.

As of today, we have released macOS Ventura 13.4 and Final Cut Pro 10.6.6 updates. When combined, they should resolve your issue. At your earliest convenience, can you please install both updates, and report back with your results?"

And indeed, after installing FCP 10.6.6, it scanned again all the AU plugins (I made sure I put all of them back in), and some of them took a while longer. I didn't really time the scanning, and I had to leave my computer for about 40 minutes, but when I came back FCP had loaded. So I would assume that it's fixed. It seemed to me that some plugins were scanned fast, about 5 seconds, and other that were more heavy logically took about a minute maybe. And I think it gave me a dialog saying there were some that can't be used, but when I closed it and opened it again, I saw Ozone 10 scan for a second, then loaded FCP fine. After that, it's not showing any plugin in the loading screen.

I replied to Chris, apologized for my attitude, thanked him for fixing it, and suggested that it would be a good idea to adapt the code for the plugin manager in Logic Pro X to FCP, because some music plugins are too much and really not meant for an NLE, but there are some audio filters like reverbs, compressors, etc that could be handy for some project without the need for a round trip to Logic.

 

[wendylou]

I'm in the same situation, and I'm not the only one.
It seems latest Ventura + FCPX + M1/M2 broke something with the AU Validation Tool.
I tried to reinstall from scratch (and I've about 1 TB of VST from Native, Waves and Izotope...) and it seems that Waves plugins works well. Izotope and Native Instruments are the ones that could hang FCPX.
I filed a bug with Apple but after 24 hours, no answers.
I noticed Da Vinci Resolve works with all the VST/plugins, so it's for sure something related to the AU Val Tool.
Someone told to move plugins to another folder when you need FCPX, but it's not an option for everyone.
And of course, I spent hours to figure what was happening, just when I needed to edit a movie for work....
On an old MBA from 2015 (i7 2cores) FCPX works well, but I just installed the Waves plugins. Maybe NI and Izotpe could hang it too... So I used my old machine for making that video, it was far slower than the M1 machine. But hey, better than nothing.
Using Da Vinci is okay but I miss all the content bought in the last years for FCPX.
Windows + Premiere? I have Windows machines too, but Adobe is something I don't want on my computers. ;-)
Using Logic for managing the plugins doesn't works for FCPX I think... as Logic starts without problems with all the plugins.
Let's hope for a quick fix from Apple...

In addition to FCP videos, I produce audio with Reason, and occasionally Logic. I just bought an M2 and used Migration Assistant to transfer data from Intel iMac. Initially, I got FCP, Reason, and Logic to run from the migrated assortment of carefully vetted plugins (with a bunch of incompatible plugins parked in a "_Disabled" folder). Then I discovered that iZotope finally completed making all their plugins compatible with Ventura, so I updated a bunch of them. Afterward, FCP took several hours to validate using the AU Val Tool. It flagged a bunch as incompatible, and so this had to have happened due to the recent iZotope Venura-compatible updates. Ditto for Logic, which now failed after scanning, with some flagged as crashed or not compatible. Reason uses VST and VST3, but not AU. That also now was choking during plugin scanning, ultimately hanging and never launching. Clearly, the recent iZotope updates caused this but it's really an Apple permissions thing that cropped up several OS's ago when they tightened security. From experience, I learned that once these problems occurred after iZotope updates, the only way to run various apps to avoid audio plugin crashes or failures was to relocate offending AU, VST, and VST3 to the "_Disabled" folders. It's a complete disaster. One of suites that failed this time is Ozone 10 comprised of a lot of individual plugins, but it's not limited to that brand, as several others no longer work. Whatever Apple changed to tighten the OS security, it seems to plague many plugin users.

 

[EDF]

Still dealing with this AFTER the update.

 

[wendylou]

Now that I'm on a Mac Studio M2 that comes with Ventura, iZotope Ozone 10 is not working, despite running audio apps in Rosetta mode. Reason 12 chokes validating Ozone 10 suite. I was able to get into Reason 12 and saw all the Ozone 10 VST3s were there, but I cannot use them without locking up the program. I'm still going back and forth with iZotope Tech Support about the incompatibility of Ozone 10 and Insight 2 on M2 with Ventura. So far, no joy. So I've been searching the interwebs on this issue and see many others having similar problems in Logic. I also just discovered that Final Cut Pro is flagging all the Ozone 10 Component AUs as incompatible. Learning that iZotope just became part of Native Instruments with Plugin Alliance and Brainworks does not instill confidence, as PA is also suffering from M-series and Ventura incompatibilities according to many users. I don't know how iZotope could claim that Ozone 10 plugins were now compatible with Apple Silicon when so many users cannot get them to work.

This whole audio plugin situation is disheartening.