Since the latest Cubase 14.0.10 build 144 on Mac silicon, the start of Cubase has become vey slow while initializing mediabay (2 minutes). I cannot find any mediabay.db file on my harddrive (I was trying to delete it to make a new, but it is nowhere to be found), I suspect this is the problem. Where is it supposed to be located on a mac silicon? I realize I need to give permission to write, if I want to make a new. I suspect that the problem arose when I updated Dorico last week, but I’m not sure.
The problem seems to have solved itself after a couple of resets of the computer. Apparently you don’t need at mediabay.db anymore, the file still doesn’nt exist, but anyway cubase starts very fast now.
Since Cubase 13/HALion 7, I think, the MediaBay database has been transferred in a common folder (which means out of a given Cubase installation one), I guess to maintain its coherency across the Cubase generations that will come, starting from 13, and also to make it accessible to other Steinberg applications. On a Windows setup, it’s here and actually named as MediaBay3.db :
C:\Users\[userName]\AppData\Local\Steinberg\Steinberg MediaBay Server
Note that as far as I understood, since a recent mediaBay server update, the “Roaming” path is now changed to “Local”.
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Yep, you’re right, sorry. Haven’t seen that until now, but indeed, in the \Local path the MediaBay3.db has been updated just few hours ago, as the last update of the \Roaming one has a two months old last modified date.
Just corrected my previous post, thanks…
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Exactly. And some users not knowing this, delete the “old” mediaBay.db thinking it will be refreshed, only to find out that this is not happening 
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Makes me think that this kind of changes should be stated somewhere, as a sticky thread, maybe. This would avoid us thread such as this one, which is perfectly legitimate, if the info hasn’t been broadcasted one way or another…
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On my silicon Mac I don’t have these paths. And I can’t find any mediabay file anywhere, even when I show hidden files. So it seems it is not vital for Cubase 14 to work.
It must be existing somewhere in one of the MacOS paths equivalent, otherwise I’m really wondering how you could work with any preset/content material in Cubase. 
Check /Users/Your User Name/Library/Preferences/Steinberg MediaBay Server.
Well, almost no dev out there wants users to manually alter databases, there are plenty of things that can go wrong. I have to guess this might be a reason not to state the paths to mediaBay.db.
OK, but deleting/renaming this file is well known (as some preferences files) to make Cubase generate a new one which should be working as expected.
As there is a Steinberg Helpcenter page existing for the preferences files, there should be an equivalent for Mediabay, in my view.
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They can just put a menu for this inside mediaBay, something like a “Repair” which would truncate the tables and reconstruct them. But I get your point, just wanted to share a possible explanation…
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Thank you Cubic13 and m.c
Now I know how to show hidden folders correctly, (I’m rather new on Mac silicon) and I’ve found the mediabay3.db.
Luckily everything works, so I don’t need to change anything but now I can find it if I need to.