Clip/Montage Out User Settings Location

Hi WaveLab friends,

I’ve done a bit of digging, but I’m admittedly out of my depth with these sorts of things.

WavLab Pro 11 recently stopped opening and giving error reports. The help team recommended updating to 11.2 and migrating my iLok license to an eLicense. The activation codes are being accepted, but the license doesn’t seem to be migrating - it keeps failing. I can’t make sense of error reports myself, so hopefully the help team can assist with this. I have a feeling I’m going to need to uninstall, reinstall, and hope for the best.

In the meantime, and before I do that, I’ve been trying to find where all of my user clip and montage output settings are stored (many combinations and chains that have taken a long time to build) with no luck. Keyword searches aren’t bringing anything up, so I’m guessing they are somewhere in Library. I’m not comfortable proceeding without backing these up somewhere and as this has been ongoing since Wednesday, I’ve got 6 album projects due for Monday. Some aren’t fully signed off, so starting completely from scratch would be an issue. Searching for “.plugs” only reveals some saved directly to project folders where settings needed to be shared.

I’ve tried the below from a. Cubase/Nuendo article, but couldn’t find anything specific to WaveLab or any of my chains:

  • FX chain presets
    /Users/your_username*/Library/Audio/Steinberg/FX Chain Presets
  • Channel strip presets
    /Users/your_username*/Library/Audio/Steinberg/Strip Presets
  • Track presets
    /Users/your_username*/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/Track Presets

I’m using Mac OS 12.5.1 and work exclusively in montages, if that helps.

Thanks in advance, from a very stressed out ME,

James

All your WaveLab specific settings are stored in this path:
/Users/username/Library/Preferences/WaveLab Pro 11/

I made a video a few years ago about how to find this folder and I recommend backing it up any time you make a change your settings, add presets, etc.:

You can also expose where this folder is by pressing this button in the WaveLab Preferences if you can Open WaveLab:

Also, upgrading from 11 to 11.2 and migrating your WaveLab license from the eLicenser to Steinberg Activation Manager will not affect your Preferences folder. Everything will still be there.

Big version jumps like 9.5, 10, 10.5, 11 are separate installations with their own Preferences Folder, but going from 11.0 to 11.1 or 11.2 are all considered the same basic version and would all share the the same WaveLab Pro 11 Preferences folder.

Uninstalling WaveLab and reinstalling doesn’t even affect your preferences folder.

You can delete the entire preferences folder which usually clears up issues like your, but you will indeed lose all your settings/preferences/presets so backing up that folder first is a good idea. You can manually put back some things like FX Chain Presets etc.

Sometimes simply deleting the general.dat file clears up issues but without knowing anything about your crash report, it’s hard to say more.

Hey Justin,

Thanks for the response. I’ve backed up my chains and have made some more attempts to get things back up and running. I’ve also attached the most recent error report after reinstalling 11.2 today - wasn’t sure if this is right place for these sorts of things. One potential problem is that my WL 11.2 (Upgraded to Steinberg Licensing) will not migrate from the USB to Soft-eLicenser despite following all the correct steps. Something isn’t working as it should, although I’m not aware of any system changes that could have kickstarted the issue. I got rid of the general.dat file after backing it up and also the preferences folder with no luck.

When WaveLab starts up, it does give a ‘Licenses Valid’ notice just before the programme then fails to open and provides a crash report. The license is activated. Hopefully it’s something small and support come through so I can get back to work!

WaveLab Pro 11-2023-04-30-130409.ips (23.1 KB)

Cheers,

James

No problem. I should have gotten to the point and said that Plugin Chain presets for the Inspector are stored here:

/Users/username/Library/Preferences/WaveLab Pro 11/Presets/Plugins/Plug-in chains

I wish I could help with licensing stuff but that’s something that is confusing to me as well and not something I really look into often since mine just works. Hopefully somebody at Steinberg will get back to you.

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Thanks, Justin, the help is much appreciated. All this happened after backing up all 2022 montages and audio files to make space. It’s as if a vital file of some kind was also moved, although I can’t find anything unusual in any off the folders; just montages, audio files, .gpk, and backups from auto-save. Shame a reinstall didn’t solve it!

James