That day again.... rescanning plugins

Here it first startet normal after rescan, now preferences gone, skin f…up…, cubase looking for vst sound files and not accepting the folder ridiculous…

Are you sure this will prevent the problem? The implication is that it’s not the changing of the time in the Windows clock, but rather the automatic process of changing it. Why would that matter? It seems bizare.[/quote]

Yes I’m sure, it has been that way as long as I can remember, and it has to do with Windows way of changing the date/clock field in the file system. It makes Cubase sense the plugins as new/changed. It’s not only a Steinberg thing, other programs that use a similar integrity check, are also affected. Like the more expensive CAD/CAM programs.
i guess Steinberg could program it to never rescan plugins unless done manually, but that would probably result in a support nightmare by folks not seeing their newly installed plugins.
IMHO it’s less of a problem now that SSD’s are being common place in DAW’s, but ok I have only around 40 third party plugins installed, if it were several hundred I might think differently.

It definitely prevents the problem. You can change the clock manually and still won’t get a rescan.

EDIT…Too slow. Covered already by Peakae’s post.

This is unlikely to be connected to plugin rescan…sounds like a hard drive on the way out to me.

Thanks for responding. I understand why changes to the system clock represent potential piracy problems (you can turn your clock back and extend your license period). I also understand why Steinberg might use such a mechanism to initiate a re-scan. But what I don’t understand is why the method of changing the system clock matters given that both automatic and manual changes produce the same end result. Respectfully, I think something else is going on here…

I just realized that the situation is actually backwards in that – from a security/piracy perspective – you should be concerned if someone manually changes their system clock because you have no idea of the reason behind the change. However, changes made twice a year corresponding to DST are explainable and, as such, should be less of a security issue.

I’m worn out complaining about this. I’m sure like most of you, I have 5 squillion plugs and this re-scan takes 45 minutes… why? Because several will crash for one reason or another… or require an ancient CD… or =something= will go wrong. So you have to sit there during the -entire- process.

And there is NO way round it. I have to keep lots of these old plugs around for backward compatibiity sake.

The ‘dongle’ should be enough. The clock deal is simply some sort of cruel joke.

The time changing is something that Cubase needn’t know about implicitly - every time you start up your computer, the installed applications only know the current time, as reported by the BIOS via the Operating System. File attributes (like created and modified date/time) don’t change on disk, just because of a daylight settings change.

Something in the Cubase code must be specifically looking at the daylight savings offset changing, and then triggering a scan.

If this is for anti-piracy reasons it seems to me to be a bit of a ‘chocolate fire-guard’ - you might spoof a license issue by changing the date, but really who would care about a 1 hour shift?

In any case, the clocks go forward at this time of year - only a backwards date shift would be likely to be used in a licensing evasion attempt. Surely a clock change of +/-1 hour could be allowable, without the need for a re-scan.

…and why re-scan all VSTs at once? Why not just re-validate licensing matters as and when a VST is loaded for use?

Yes the file attributes change.
It is documented somewhere by Microsoft, but it has been so many years since I read up on it that I have had no luck finding it.
Unless Microsoft changes something or daylight saving time finally gets abandoned, then this is not going to change.
And complaining to Steinberg is fruitless, they can’t control how the OS handles DST.
Well you could run Cubase on a Mac, as a last resort :laughing:

No no no. It is simply the way windows changes dayligth saving time. It does it in a way that all time file attributes change and cubase thinks they are newly installed version plugins (it keeps track of the install time to see if a plugin has changed).
That is why changes the time manually doesn’t trigger it.
No conspiracy, just the mechanism to catch newly installed plugins and check them.

Oops someone beat me to it…

All this bollox about ‘Windows’ is… bollox. Whether it’s Windows or Cubase or the flying spaghetti monster it’s STUPIDISSIMO. All that’s required is a little checkbox somewhere like so:

“Auto-Scan For New Plug-Ins On Start-Up?”

Personally, I would leave this unchecked. But even if that is the explanation, a more elegant process is certainly possible.

No it is a safety measure! If you install a new version of a plugin and it is buggy and not automagically checked it can crash Cubase and destroy your work. And even if you remember to do it after an install it will then scan all plugins, or you would need an scan mew button and that would take you back to square one since after daylight all plugins are new. BTW I have daylight set to manual for years and years…

Probably through witchcraft or some dark ritual, but this does not happen with Wavelab.

It did with mine (v9 elements)

You know what - I’m pretty damn sure it didn’t happen to me this time.

I switched to Mac since last time so must be a Windows problem?

im using elements 8 and so far have not had a rescan. when is it supposed to happen?

When Jupiter aligns with Mars.

No re-scan here with WL 8.5 or 9.0. Only happens with Cubase (all versions). I’m on Windows 7 on one machine, Windows 10 on the other.

WL 9.0.10 here and no re-scan. Only Cubase.

it used to happen to me during daylight savings time changes. so i switched the “adjust clock to daylight savings time chnages” adn dont have those issues anymore. even tho my computer clock is off