Pro Tools freezing when loading a project on Windows – Solved

This week I was booked for two different remote support requests involving different DAWs. One client was running Pro Tools and the other Cubase. Both problems had the same underlying cause.

The Problem

As Pro Tools loads a session template, the loading bar moves across the screen as usual and shows the status of the tracks being loaded into the project. Suddenly, the application freezes and will not progress further. Pro Tools requires a force-quit via Task Manager.

This is almost exactly the same problem I encountered with another client using Cubase.

To diagnose this problem, I took control of my client’s PC using AnyDesk and ran some tests. I estimated the likely cause would be a plug-in issue and after a few tests I found that by removing certain plug-ins from Pro Tool’s plug-ins folders I could get the template to load without freezing.

The Solution

The issue in both cases was caused by plug-ins from the company Waves.

Pro Tools uses a format of plug-ins called AAX. Most plug-in developers release their plug-ins in this format and Pro Tools is able to interact with them as it expects to do so. When there is an issue with a plug-in (for example a missing licence or missing file errors) an AAX plug-in is able to launch an error message in Pro Tools and allow the user to solve the problem. (Activate the licence, locate the missing files etc)

Waves plug-ins use a different system involving container files in AAX format called Waveshells that host bundle files containing the plug-ins. This system usually works fine, but it seems recent changes by either Avid or Waves have caused a situation that where Waves licence errors are crashing Pro Tools.

For this job, the client was happy that his template now loaded and he told me he no longer wanted to use those Waves plug-ins. We removed the Waves plug-ins from the template and replaced them with plug-ins from other developers.

Another option would be to update his Waves plug-ins, but that would have required paying Waves for updated licences.

We could also have run further tests to try to find a version of the Waveshells and Pro Tools that were compatible with each other. This could have resolved the problem without the need to pay for Waves updates.