Issue with .aax plugin showing up in Pro Tools Developer

Audio Plugins
1

Anyone else had issues getting their .aax plugin to showup in Pro Tools Developer? an old version of the plugin showed up once, but I have been unable to get the new build to consistently appear as an option for Pro Tools Developer Inserts. I’ve cleared preferences multiple times, ensured I was using a stereo track (stereo plugin), etc. I can

I can’t identify any noticeable difference between the old build of the plugin that was shown there and the new builds that won’t show up. Has anyone experiences issues with this and have better ways to troubleshoot other than trying to make a change a reloading pro tools and hoping?

Are there any way to run unit tests similar to the built in logic tests au tests in pro tools on the plugin or see a log of why it might not be showing up there?

Thanks in advance!

2

Are you doing signing/notarization?

3

Few things that come to my mind:

  • With macOS, make sure you use same architecture.. are you building arm64 but run PT in x86_64? (or vice versa)
  • Caching, with newer PT there are more layers of plug-in caching. I’d suggest clearing and ensuring they’re cleared properly.
4

I am signing with my Apple developer ID but not notarizing (have tried both debug and release versions to see if there’s any difference) - I am testing on my local machine so my understanding is notarizing isn’t required to run on my machine, is that incorrect?

5

If there is a folder “Plug-Ins” as sibling to the developer build, it will use only the plugins in that folder. That is very handy to avoid scanning all other plugins.

6

Avid provides a free Pro Tools Developer Build specifically for plugin developers, which loads and tests unsigned AAX plugins without any signing or notarization required.

Are you sure you’re using it?

For testing in the full/standard Pro Tools (e.g., Pro Tools Ultimate or Studio), your AAX plugins must be code-signed using PACE’s EDEN tools (via iLok). This is Avid’s requirement for security and compatibility.

On macOS, Apple notarization is also needed post-PACE signing for Gatekeeper compliance, but this is separate from Avid’s process.

7

Where would this Plug-Ins folder live in the. same directory as the developer build application? I see one inside the package contents of the application but I don’t think that is what you are referring to

8

The one inside the bundle is an internal one, don’t mess with that one (it’s also spelled differently without the dash).

The one I was referring to is not there by default, but yes, it needs to be a sibling to the dev ProTools.app. Probably best not to have it in /Applications for that reason.

If you want to direct ProTools to a separate plugin folder, you need to create it.

I was mentioning it, because if you happen to have such a folder, it will stop the default location from being used.