Is there any way to turn off plugin scan? every time i try to work on my lap top with dorico it asks me for plugin authorizations that i will never use in dorico, and my ilok that contains these authorizations is on another computer. startup without it scanning each plugin, it takes a long time, there should be a way to avoid this scan.
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At the moment, no, you can’t stop the plug-in scanner, though we have it as a feature request in our backlog.
Is it only VST2 plug-ins or also VST3 plug-ins that cause the nuisance? If only VST2 plugs, then you could try with taking out the VST2 search path from the audio engine preferences, unless there are some VST2 plugs that you also want to use in Dorico.
If you go to ~/Library/Preferences/Dorico 4 AudioEngine there is a file called Vst2xPlugin SearchPaths Dorico 4 AudioEngine.xml.
You can open that file in a text editor and since it is XML it should not be too hard to read and halfway understand. To delete a search path, simply delete the 6 lines starting from <obj class… to </obj> or shout out in case you assistance.
This is the main reason I’m sticking with Sibelius for now. I have my Ilok in my studio and have to click through dozens of authorizations each time I open Cubase or Dorico on my laptop. I can get around this as I’ll usually know when I will be using Cubase (or just click through the prompts the few times I have to), but I need to edit or create scores almost every day, so that wait time makes it a no-go for now. I look forward to trying it when/if this option is added. I’m sure my scores will look just as good without Echoboy or VMR…
Hello,
Any update on this feature request to cancel the plugin scan? It takes about 25 min to go through the plugins on my machine that are not on my iLok, and then Dorico 5 crashes. When I reopen, it starts the plugin scan over again. Mac Studio M2 Ultra – MacOS Ventura (latest version).
Welcome to the forum, @jeffrey.gaiser .
So far no change on this.
As Derrek already mentioned, unfortunately no change in the meantime.
I once started an initiative for a solution to this, but because it always has to go hand in hand with Cubase it was put down until an unknown future. I might try again, but can’t promise anything.
@jeffrey.gaiser , are you not able to launch D5 at all on that Mac? Have you checked, is there maybe just an iLok alert window hidden behind other windows waiting for a prompt?
Thanks for the warm welcome!
Not to show my cards here – as I use both Logic and Cubase, but cancelling the scan on the front end, and then allowing the user to enable or disable plugins before re-scanning would be a welcome feature in both Cubase and Dorico, especially when troubleshooting.
I got to the splash page after each crash, and could not open any menu or preference or start a new score without Dorico crashing.
I ended up completely deleting all previous versions of Dorico, and reinstalling via Steinberg Download Manager, resynchronizing my iLok, and after the lengthy scan, I was able to open Dorico 5 Pro as expected. Seems to be working now!
Update: Dorico continues to scan on each open and crashes after… timed it at over 30 min to get through the plugins it’s looking for. Unfortunately, I cannot use Dorico in this state. Will try to switch to a computer with no plugins installed in the interim.
How many plugins did it find? (You will see the list in the Diagnostics file)
Just curious.
It was about 25 plugins that I don’t have the iLok activation for – but I didn’t download the diagnostics file (if you’re talking about the one to send to Steinberg on a crash?) unless I’m missing something?
There is a different error file called a Diagnostic Report, which one generates from the Help menu in Dorico. That leaves a zip file on one’s desktop; but one has to attach it to a message here or email it to Daniel.
I haven’t been able to get Dorico to open. 
I’ve sent you a private message, please check.
I just bought Elements and immediately regret it after finding that this — a notation software — not only forces me to wait for my thousands of VST plugins (which happen to be in the default VST plugins folders) to be scanned on every launch, but also forces me to click through every error / authorization window that happens to pop up on every scan. Now, there was almost a silver lining, in that I noticed I had the ability to delete plugins folders from the list of plugins folders, and I could simply delete all the plugin folders from that list so that Dorico would no longer have anything to scan (and force me to wait for that, which it already shouldn’t, and force me to click through all error dialogues every single time, which it already shouldn’t).
But, alas, Dorico forces me to not delete 3 of the four default VST plugins folders that developers decided to make undeletable for each end user, despite the reality that each end user might have wildly different preferences for where they store their VST plugins (such as on external drives, multiple different drives, or just regular ol’ different folders)
And then I see this thread which confirms that it’s a known issue but one that won’t be updated until it can also be updated in tandem with Cubase’s development, which just recently entered version 13, a paid upgrade.
And then I remembered how a huge community complaint about Steinberg products has for years been a lack of true integration (in workflow, operability etc.) between Dorico and Cubase/Nuendo. And then I remembered I already paid $1000 for Nuendo 13 and now have paid sub-$100 for Dorico Elements and would have to shell another $400+ to get Dorico 5 Pro to get past the arbitrary limitations that Elements has to follow along adequately with a film scoring course, because I keep telling myself it’ll be more worth it to do it the Steinberg way than to learn Musescore 4 for no cost whatsoever and Reaper for a mere $80 license I paid for years ago.
I can’t believe the glacial pace at which “DORICO – The Next-Generation Scoring Software” (quoted verbatim from the Facebook group) is moving in order to keep up with “the next generation”. I’m trying not to be rude by simply saying “it’s just simply not keeping up at all” but when I have to invest $1500 during a recession to access software that can’t fix its most user-hostile, time-wasting feature flaws and design foibles, while knowing I could have had a more user-friendly and essentially equivalent workflow from simply downloading a couple almost-free applications… it’s REALLY hard to have anything good to say about Steinberg in 2023.
I wish I had a time machine to go back to the 90’s when Cubase was to be praised and unequalled, because it seems like that was the last time Steinberg’s bread was still soft.
Sigh. Remind me about this post in late 2025 so I can see the issue yet-unresolved and feel good about my decision to get my money back (if I even can) and use Musescore for free instead
I’m sorry you are disappointed, but that statement is just not so.
If your VSTs are causing errors, or need authorisation admin, should Dorico not alert you to that?
Which other notation software app do you think it’s not keeping up with? It’s demonstrably added thousands of features in only a few years, many of which have no peer in other notation apps.
Can you expand on this? Which folders are trying to delete? I thought that VST3 plug-ins have to be at a particular fixed location, in order to be loaded.
I admire you willingness to address questions that, to me, are mostly trolling… I think a “normal” user would have been asking for specific stuff more often in the long run than just posting a diatribe once they are really disappointed, especially on a forum where you have a real access to the people developing the software 
I’m often working and need to write something with Dorico very quickly. The fact that you have to scan everything from scratch every time you start the software is very uncomfortable. These are things that hinder the Workflow of those who work multifaceted. It would be very beneficial if this scan only happened once as it works in other software.
I think it is what is happening on my system. I have too many plug-ins and launching Dorico does take some time, but probably not that much… I think around one minute.
How would it know whether you’ve added a new VST, or deleted one, unless it actually goes through them all?
Early versions of Dorico did use a whitelist for VST2 plug-ins. It might be possible to whitelist VST2 plug-ins and to blacklist VST3 plug-ins, according to this thread:
