Waves Auths DON'T WORK on USB Stick - RESOLVED

[James Steele]

I don't know if this is due to Monterey 12.5 or something to do with my M1 Max Mac Studio, but after a lot of trouble shooting, it seems Waves plugs on my system WILL NOT see the licenses when they are installed an a USB thumb drive. I had been using a USB thumb drive like a dongle for both my Waves (v14) plugin licenses and my Plug-in Alliance licenses. For some unknown reason, even though it mounts on the desktop and Waves Central sees the licenses on the thumb drive, when DP does a validation scan the plugs they fail.

I tried moving a license to a different thumb drive, still did not work. However, I can take the same thumb drive, plug it in my old MacPro5,1 and the Waves plugs open right up on the Intel machine. I also tried launching DP in Rosetta... same deal. I did NOT try finding the AU Validation app itself and setting it to run in Rosetta... maybe that might work... don't know why.

The solution was to move the authorizations to my actual boot drive. Then they scanned just fine and worked perfectly. It's just weird, but for me Apple Silicon + Monterey means Waves licenses on a USB thumb drive is a no go. Don't know if there's anyone out it works for. If you're on a similar M1 Mac... try moving just one of your licenses to a USB stick formatted as Waves recommends: ExFAT, Master Boot Record. Those instructions are bit old... for MacOS 10.11

I just noticed that when I choose to erase a USB stick with Disk Utility in Monterey, it doesn't let me choose the formatting scheme. When I choose ExFAT there are no other options. Got a crazy idea to format it in Monterey and see if that makes a difference. It was last formatted on a Mojave machine. Maybe that will do it?

[James Steele]

Well... that didn't work either. One other thought is I don't think I've plugged the thumb drive DIRECTLY into the USB-A port on the Mac Studio... but used a hub of one kind or another. Still what's odd is that Waves Central sees the licenses on it, but AU Validation and DP simply don't see them when they're on a USB stick. I guess I'll just move all my Waves licenses on the the hard drive and the Plug-in Alliance licenses as well. I just feel better when they're on a "dongle" of some sort.

[bayswater]

Does the AU scan work with other audio apps?

Surely a support call to Waves is in order? Seems very unlikely that the licensing arrangement that a zillion people have in place would stop working on the new machine/OS and we’ve not heard anything about it, and Waves hasn’t posted anything about it.

(I appreciate the details you’re posting here. As some point I’ll have to do this too, so it’s great info)

[James Steele]

Well... well... well...

Hate to say it but this is looking like a DP 11.11 problem... and specifically DP at that.

To save time I've been moving just one license, Abbey Road Plates, back and forth between the boot drive and the USB stick using Wave Central. It fails to load and says it can't see the license in DP anytime the license is on the USB stick... it's fine on the boot drive. Note that a Waves plug won't even pass AU Validation in DP if the license is on a USB stick. Only way I got them scanned and DP saw them was to rescan when the license was moved to the boot drive.

When I moved the Abbey Road Plates license back on to the USB stick and tried to instantiate it in DP I saw this:

Screen Shot 2022-08-13 at 9.42.21 AM.png (209.15 KiB) Viewed 1764 times

I clicked "Skip"... and then saw this:

Screen Shot 2022-08-13 at 9.44.09 AM.png (77.33 KiB) Viewed 1764 times

So guess what? With the Abbey Road Plates license STILl on the USB stick, I quit DP and launched Pro Tools Studio... latest version... Abbey Road Plates opens up just fine. So Waves Central sees the license on the USB stick... So can the plug in when running in Pro Tools. This happens with all Waves plugs that I own... they're all v14. It's a Digital Performer thing. I'll make a report to MOTU soon as I get some sleep. Ha!

Here's Abbey Road Plates open in Pro Tools with the license on the USB stick:

Screen Shot 2022-08-13 at 9.46.03 AM.png (569.56 KiB) Viewed 1764 times

[cuttime]

Silly question perhaps, but are you running DP in AS native or Rosetta2?

[HCMarkus]

I've got my Waves autos on a USB Thumb Drive. But the Waves install was done under an earlier version of DP... DP 11.1 IIRC.

[James Steele]

Silly question perhaps, but are you running DP in AS native or Rosetta2?

I tried it both ways. Makes no difference.

[James Steele]

I've got my Waves autos on a USB Thumb Drive. But the Waves install was done under an earlier version of DP... DP 11.1 IIRC.

The one thing I haven't tried yet... is putting the USB stick directly into one of the Mac Studio's USB-A ports on the back... it's been in a hub. I WILL try it just to be thorough, but the real "head scratcher" is the fact that Waves Central sees the licenses AND Pro Tools sees the licenses... only DP has this issue so far. I may try instantiating a Waves plug in DSP Quattro and some other apps that are capable of hosting audio plug-ins to see just HOW specific this issue is to DP.

It also may have something to do with the method used to format the USB stick... but I don't know. I formatted it how Waves recommends, but their tech notes on that are rather old.

[rp88.2]

Sorry you are having issues. I am having problems w/DP11 scanning VSTs on M1 (I move back and forth between a Mac and PC). VST scanning works as it should under 12.5.1 on an Intel Mac.

Not sure if this will work, but may be worth a try... I just noticed this tonight on my Intel Mac and am going to see if these settings are the same on my M1 Mac

In Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy tab
In category "Files and Folders", Digital Performer.app has access to:
Removable Volumes
Documents Folder
Desktop Folder

Usually macOS asks for you to grant access, but IIRC, my M1 Mac didn't (will check when back on the West Coast).

I would try opening a DP project file in each one of those types of locations -- it may force the OS ask and grant access DP.

Just a thought.

Rich

[James Steele]

Sorry you are having issues. I am having problems w/DP11 scanning VSTs on M1 (I move back and forth between a Mac and PC). VST scanning works as it should under 12.5.1 on an Intel Mac.

Not sure if this will work, but may be worth a try... I just noticed this tonight on my Intel Mac and am going to see if these settings are the same on my M1 Mac

In Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy tab
In category "Files and Folders", Digital Performer.app has access to:
Removable Volumes
Documents Folder
Desktop Folder

Usually macOS asks for you to grant access, but IIRC, my M1 Mac didn't (will check when back on the West Coast).

I would try opening a DP project file in each one of those types of locations -- it may force the OS ask and grant access DP.

Just a thought.

Rich

Hey thanks, Rich!! THAT WAS IT!!! I am a refugee from an old MacPro5,1 running Mojave so had no idea to look for that, and DP did not bark at me about it when I installed it. Sure enough... it was unchecked and that got me up and going with the auths on the USB stick. Fantastic! Thank you!!

dpremovabledrivers.gif (50.58 KiB) Viewed 1575 times

[cuttime]

Glad you got it working, James. Once again, Apple is protecting you from you.

[bayswater]

Glad you got it working, James. Once again, Apple is protecting you from you.

You got that right. The “just works” crew left the building a long time ago. At least macOS is free. Hard to imagine paying for this sort of abuse.

[cuttime]

Glad you got it working, James. Once again, Apple is protecting you from you.

You got that right. The “just works” crew left the building a long time ago. At least macOS is free. Hard to imagine paying for this sort of abuse.

I think this all started when they hid the Library from the user by default.

[cuttime]

Glad you got it working, James. Once again, Apple is protecting you from you.

You got that right. The “just works” crew left the building a long time ago. At least macOS is free. Hard to imagine paying for this sort of abuse.

I think this all started when they hid the Library from the user by default.

[rp88.2]

Awesome James!!

Glad I could help.

Have a great week!!

Rich