"The VST Plugin Could Not Be Found"

louischarette · Post by **louischarette** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:08 pm

Hello,

I've tried searching on this topic without much luck, so figured I'd start a new post in hopes that someone might be able to help...

I have historically created all of my Live projects on my iMac, however, I recently got a newer Macbook, so I've been creating solely on that... I put every plugin / software application onto the laptop that was originally on my iMac desktop - so I figured there would be no issues.

Unfortunately, I went to open a project created a few months ago - on my desktop - and upon loading the project, it says "The VST Plugin Could Not Be Found" next to a list of a few plugins that ARE on my laptop. Some Waves plugins, Serato Sample, etc etc...

I tried to Re-Scan plugins from within Ableton Live before even opening a project, to see if that would update things, but no luck...

I think that the issue is the plugins have a different file directory path than they did on my desktop, so Live is not finding them... which leads me to my question -- is there ANY way to relocated the plugins without losing my settings??? The pop-up box reporting the missing plugins does NOT give the option to locate these "missing" plugins... although, again, they are on my laptop.

I know that I could just re-load the plugins in question, but patch selections / presets are lost if I do this. Further, on Serato Sample, I have to re-load the samples I had chosen (not to mention their key, the same slice settings, etc...) which is impossible.

You would think that this would be a common issue and/or easily rectified, but I can't seem to find any solutions... Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Stromkraft · Post by **Stromkraft** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 5:27 pm

Chances any of the involved plug-ins at any point were AU?

Da hand · Post by **Da hand** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:38 pm

louischarette wrote:I think that the issue is the plugins have a different file directory path than they did on my desktop, so Live is not finding them... which leads me to my question -- is there ANY way to relocated the plugins without losing my settings??? The pop-up box reporting the missing plugins does NOT give the option to locate these "missing" plugins... although, again, they are on my laptop.

You have to make sure to specify the correct directory for your plugins in Live on the new computer - in other words, point Live to where your plugins are actually residing on your hard drive in the new computer.

Preferences >> File/Folder Tab >>

1) Use VST Custom Plug-In Folder >> ON
2) VST Plug-In Custom Folder >> Browse (for the folder where your plugins reside on your HD).
3) Rescan Plugins

H20nly · Post by **H20nly** » Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:57 pm

yep ^ that would be my guess too.

the only other reason i can think of would be that your old Mac was 32 bit and the new one is 64 bit...
and/or your previously installed version of Live was 32 bit and your new version is 64 bit (or vice versa).

Joseph_M · Post by **Joseph_M** » Tue Apr 10, 2018 1:32 pm

Hey guys

I just changed from windows to Mac.

I opened up a project and as expected I got several missing VSTs. I installed them all one by one and opened the project back up and unfortunately there is one plugin still not being found. Ohmforce Ohmicide

Now, it is installed and does work.... i can open up a new instance of it fine. But it just doesn't find it from within old projects and obviously i wont have a clue what settings i used in each instance of the effect so would like to get it to work.

My theory is perhaps the naming convention has changed. Ableton is telling me "ohmicide_vstwin_x64" cannot be found. But the vst installed on my mac is labelled as "Ohmicide_VST2MachO"

I tried changing the name of the vst to match the old title, but it doesn't seem to be that easy on Mac.

I am using VST only, as the names prove. And also, i am using 64bit only, back then as well as now.

So yeah... any ideas how i can resolve this?

[Joseph I've merged your topic with this similar one]

louischarette · Post by **louischarette** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:14 pm

Thanks for the replies and sorry for the delayed response on my end (didn't realize I needed to subscribe to my own post in order to receive new post notifications...)

So, I have made some progress since reviewing your responses and doing a bit of research... In regards to the possibility of having used AU plugins - most of them are... I am on a Mac, so was to understand that is preferable (as long as I'm not collaborating w/ PC folk)?

I came across an article on Ableton's site saying that Waves plugins are NOT supported in the AU format... however, that is the installed format on both of my Macs - and they have always worked just fine:

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... leton-Live

I did look under Preferences within Live and noticed that I did not have "Use VST Plug-In System Folders" selected! I honestly don't know if I ever have?? I did update to version 10 recently, so maybe it defaulted back to that being unselected? Regardless, when I turned that ON and Rescanned the plugins, all of the Waves plugins now loaded fine! I was afraid this wouldn't work, since they apparently are all installed under Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Waves (as this is where it made me install...), but alas, no worries at all.

The only issue I still had was with Serato Sample. It was only showing up as an AU plugin, so long story short, I opened the installer and then installed the VST version (along-side the currently installed AU version). This worked! Now I just have to go and relocate every single missing sample... but the settings, sample star points, etc all seem to have loaded properly

Hopefully I'll be back to normal, once I relocate missing samples and/or save new versions of my projects... Thanks again for your help!!

Stromkraft · Post by **Stromkraft** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 7:25 pm

Louis, now you're confusing me. If Live says it can't find a VST plug-in that is indeed what it expects to see. If you serve up AUs this does not fit the bill.

My idea was that when the project was saved a VST version was used and this is the reason for the request. This means it needs to be available also in this new machine. The AU version won't do.

As far as Waves AU support in Live goes, all you need to do is to go to the Supported Hosts page and check the Version 9.92 listing for Live;

"Ableton Live 9, 10 (VST)"

Notice the lack of "AU". This means that even if everything works now, if you have problems in the future, Waves will tell you to use the VST versions. So will I and many others.
Life's too short for using unsupported plug-ins. I have a Live installation that almost never crashes, at least not in session. Nor do I have performance problems. It didn't get this way by me taking chances.

You're on your own for Waves Au support.

The on topic question is why isn't the actual VST plug-in — not the AU the VST! — available? What does "I put every plugin / software application onto the laptop that was originally on my iMac desktop" even mean? You're not using Waves Central? Did you transfer the licenses?

louischarette · Post by **louischarette** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:15 pm

Hey Stromkraft - thanks for the reply... Trust me - I was/am a bit confused myself. I think that the issue was my not having "Use VST Plug-In System Folders" selected. Since re-starting Live, I now see the Waves plugins in both the VST and AU folders (was only AU previously...)

As far as the Waves plugins go - yes, I most definitely have Waves Central and transferred my licenses from the iMac to my Macbook Pro. Further, what I meant by "I put every plugin / software application onto the laptop that was originally on my iMac desktop" was that - every plugin that was installed on my iMac was then installed on my Macbook, upon using the Macbook as my main means of music creation. Most plugins/software will allow more than one installation (Waves aside), but in cases like that, I transferred the license to the laptop.

Yes, I agree that "life is too short for unsupported plugins". But my question is, isn't AU supposed to be the format for Macs? Why would they be unstable/unsupported? Apparently I've been using AU plugins, despite the possible negative affects I may incur... Although, I've never had any issues, crashes, etc... (knock on wood!)

H20nly · Post by **H20nly** » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:49 pm

louischarette wrote: But my question is, isn't AU supposed to be the format for Macs?

i think AU is the supported format for Logic would be more accurate.

i think the biggest two issues with AU (at least in Live) are as follows;
1. it's unsupported by the application - recipe for disaster
2. collaboration becomes more limited - recipe for missed moments

slifty · Post by **slifty** » Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:47 am

Just wanted to bump this thread since I'm facing the same issue Joseph was facing -- the VST works when I create a new track with it, but all my old tracks (and the presets) say it can't be found after switching computers / devices.

In my case I'm working with Sylenth1.

Any advice?

Da hand · Post by **Da hand** » Wed Apr 20, 2022 3:13 pm

Hi Slifty, apparently, if you contact Ohmforce explaining the issue, they will provide you with a solution - as suggested by the last post on this thread:

viewtopic.php?t=221066

Edit: Oh sorry, I just saw that you mentioned Sylenth1. For Sylenth1 I would contact Lennar Digital for a solution, as it seem that this issue would be similar to Ohmforce and could be due to the way both manufacturers handle their plugins on each OS.

cids · Post by **cids** » Thu Apr 21, 2022 11:51 am

If your Mac is a M1 and you're using Ableton 11.1 or later please have a look here:

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/artic ... -Live-11-1

Sylenth is not yet universal or M1 native:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... d&start=15

"The VST Plugin Could Not Be Found"

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VST cannot be found.. but it is there!

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