On Mac, Dorico 4 does not launch but hangs indefinitely waiting for the audio engine

Hi Ulf,

I had the same problem with windows 10. I had to reboot and let Dorico hanging for a long time (maybe 5 or 10 minutes?) and in the end it started as expected. I have quite a lot of vsts installed so I suppose the initial startup scanning is taking time or maybe it’s an antivirus issue slowing the process?

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Hi @WhatsUpDoc , well, if you do have lots of plug-ins, then indeed the very first launch can take quite a bit of time due to the scanning. So in your case actually everything was fine.
With many Mac users though, it hangs indefinitely because the audio engine really crashes. So this thread is meant to be only for Mac users.

FWIW on a fresh installation of D4 (no previous version of Dorico installed) on a Mac with a recent scratch clean OS install, it went without a hitch and works perfectly.

Hi Dan, sure, but those mentioned Eucon or Groove Agent components usually come from earlier installations of Cubase or other Steinberg products. That’s why, not every customer will hit this wall.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: Multiple messages on Dorico 4 start-up (Windows)

3 posts were split to a new topic: Dorico 4 crashes on start-up on M1 Mac

After rebooting, Dorico 4 started right up!

By the way, I had the same problem and when loading the audio engine Dorico 4 froze. Because I made a very simple mistake, which will probably happen to many other users. In the download assistant you can select 2 options: Dorico Pro 4 update & Dorico Pro 4
First I downloaded logically the “Dorico Pro 4 update” and then it didn’t work. Only when I subsequently installed the file “content Dorico Pro 4” from the Dorico Pro 4 folder, it worked smoothly.
So either I did not understand the possibility of the update or I understood it correctly and it does not work as supposed.

I have been having the same problem trying to install Dorico 4 Elements. I am updating from 3.5 elements. I saw two choices for the new download. Either Dorico Elements 4, or Dorico Elements update. The First time I tried this my download manager selected Dorico 4 Elements, so I thought this was the right choice. This froze upon launch at “SKI” or “initializing audio engine”, or “initializing Playback controller”, sometimes it freezes on “attached to audio engine.” I did everything as instructed here in this post and was told to do the same thing in a support chat today by Chris. I went into those folders and I took everything out of them but no success. Then I deleted the app and all folders that said Dorico 4. I then chose the other download, Dorico 4 Elements update, and reinstalled everything again. Still no success. I have never had this type of a problem before downloading any Steinberg product. However I do not understand in the post above how to zip the mentioned folders in a file and post it here? I have been trying to resolve this for four hours now but still no success. is there anything else that I can do to remedy this situation?

Removed from Dorico Content folder


I removed these items that were in the EuCon folder from the Steinberg folder.

Still no success.

Dorico 4 Items for Ulf.zip (3.1 MB)
Thank you for offering to fix the problem that I am having with Dorico 4 not launching.

I have been having the same problem trying to install Dorico 4 Elements. I am updating from 3.5 elements. I saw two choices for the new download. Either Dorico Elements 4, or Dorico Elements update. The First time I tried this my download manager selected Dorico 4 Elements, so I thought this was the right choice. This froze upon launch at “SKI” or “initializing audio engine”, or “initializing Playback controller”, sometimes it freezes on “attached to audio engine.” I did everything as instructed here in this post and was told to do the same thing in a support chat today by Chris. I went into those folders and I took everything out of them but no success. Then I deleted the app and all folders that said Dorico 4. I then chose the other download, Dorico 4 Elements update, and reinstalled everything again. Still no success. I have never had this type of a problem before downloading any Steinberg product. I have been trying to resolve this for four hours now but still no success. is there anything else that I can do to remedy this situation?

Hello Ulf, I’m having the issue of Dorico hanging, however it doesn’t hang for at least one of my projects, and I had neither the Ecun[version].bundle, nor the Groove Agent SE.vst (even though I have Groove Agent installed). Zipped folder and the one project that doesn’t hang is attached. That project is, coincidentally, the one I posted on the forum yesterday with a separate issue.

thomasjude_folders.zip (2.2 MB)
thomas_bells_dor4.dorico (1.7 MB)

I have exact same problem. Dorico version 4 screen freezes forever but 3.5 starts no problem. No idea,

Thanks for the data @rrgilley , I took a look but it is still unclear to me. Paging @Ben_at_Steinberg , is it possible that also rrgilley has a misconfigured license like you mentioned in other threads?

Finally, Did work!!!
So Happy!

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It was only about 20 or so Dorico SE licenses that were affected by that misconfiguration. Dorico Elements should be fine. I’ve checked @rrgilley 's licenses and they look OK.

The only think I can see from the logs that could be worth trying is to force a refresh of the licenses as it’s still thinks the license is the “pending verification” (which should still allow Dorico to run):

  • close Dorico
  • ensure that the VST Audio Engine process is gone from the task manager (or activity monitor on Mac)
  • sign out of Steinberg Activation Manager
  • close Steinberg Activation Manager
  • wait 10 seconds or check that the Steinberg license Engine has shut down completely in the task monitor
  • start Steinberg Activation Manager and sign in
  • start Dorico

Could you try that for me @rrgilley and let me know whether that works?

Hi @composerjude , thanks for the data. Now, your problem is different. There are several crash files of the audio engine where two of them are in the Pianoteq plug-in, so Steinberg can’t do anything about those ones, but there are the some other crashes, which are our fault. The problem is that there is corrupt data in the project file that the audio engine chokes over. In earlier Dorico version this corruption was simply ignored, now in D4 it falls over. We are already working on a solution. Do you have many such projects? I can try to correct them so that they load in D4, but no guarantee at the moment. Please send them to ‘u dot stoermer at steinberg dot de’.

Hi Ulf,

Thanks very much for following up on this. I am having the same problem. Also, the Steinberg ELicencer seems to be hanging on an update for me. I did manage to open and use Dorico 4 for the first day with no problems. I still have Dorico 3.5 installed and I use Noteperformer. Dorico 4 worked fine the first day, including using Noteperformer. Now hangs on opening. Zip file attached.

Thanks in advance

Dorico_4_errors.zip (1.1 MB)

Hi @seanodalaigh , could you please open Activity Monitor and see if there is a VSTAudioEngine process in the list?
If there is one, kill it and try to restart Dorico. What is happening?