UserPreferences.xml suddenly growing problematically

Cubase
,
21

Hi,

Thank you for investigating on this!

I’m taking it seriously. Do we know already, when does it start to grow? Is it once you start to edit any setting, which is stored in this file? Or is it when editing specific setting only?

1 Like
22

Thank you!

It can happen without making any changes to the Preferences between loading and saving a new one.

I’ll send you a new batch of files via PM over the next few minutes. Much smaller, but exhibiting the problematic growth.

I’m just documenting what I’ll be sending.

23

Hi,

Thank you! Does it mean, the file gorws only by starting and quitting Cubase? Without making any change?

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24

It grows by

  1. Start Cubase
  2. Open Preferences Dialog
  3. Load a previously saved Preferences Presets file (i.e. one of those located in the subfolder: \Presets\Configurations
  4. Without making any changes, save a new Preset file

Close the Preferences dialog. – This action also saves the UserPreferences.xml file

And now both files have the bigger blob.

HOWEVER:
This only seems to happen when the UserPreferences.xml file already has a bit of a problem - or is in some sort of specific state.

When I have a brand new UserPreferences.xml file, the same actions did not seem to make the blob grow.

I’ll PM you copies of those files. (update: PM just sent).

1 Like
25

Hi @Nico5 ,

Thank you very much for all the information!

I will try to investigate, how to trigger the 1st growth. :wink:

2 Likes
26

How did you make a brand new preferences file? I reinstalled v14 and it didn’t resolve things.

27

Hi,

Just delete the UserPreferences.xml from the Cubase preferences folder when Cubase is not running.

Cubase Preferences folders are:
Mac: ~/Library/Preferences/Cubase X
Win: %appData% \Steinberg\Cubase X_64

Where the X is the Cubase version (for example 14).

1 Like
28

Thanks.

29

Deleting the userpreferences.xml no longer works at addressing the problem.

30

If I am not mistaken, preferences from previous versions (up to three versions?) are migrated to the newly created C14 preference folder. In other words, the issue might be rooted in C13,12, etc.
Please try to temporarily rename not only the C14 preferences folder but also the previous folders and start again.

Does this help?

1 Like
31

In addition to deleting the userpreferences.xml file, you may want to check out the files in the subfolder \Presets\Configurations\

  • Find the smallest one (hopefully that will be a reasonably recently saved preset of yours).
  • In that file find the section ( do Find on “NumberOfTransformers” to get there quickly)
<int name="NumberOfTransformers" value="4"/>
<int name="Active@" value="0"/>
<int name="Selected@" value="1"/>
<bin name="LogPreset@">
--- the huge data blob is here ---
</bin>

And then delete everything from

<int name="Active@" value="0"/>

to the closing bin tag after the big blob

</bin>

Save the changes as a new file name, which should make it available as a preset to be loaded in the Preferences dialog in Cubase/Nuendo.

Then (after also having removed the userpreferences.xml)

  • open Cubase/Nuendo
  • open the Preferences dialog
  • load the newly saved smaller preferences settings file
  • press OK to leave the Preferences dialog
  • save the current project (optionally a new version or project name)
  • Quit Cubase/Nuendo

With any luck you may now have a small userpreferences.xml file again and can continue to work normally without the insane slowdown.

To be sure, examine the userpreferences.xml file, if the blob is indeed gone.

The above is one of the ways I’ve gotten my system back to normal (written to the best of my recollection of steps).

2 Likes
32

Nico,

when you have this big blob of data in the UserPreferences can you take a look at the Project Input Transformers in Cubase?
I found a lot of entries for the filter and the transform section there, which I definetely never created myself.

After deleting those entries and quitting Cubase the file size of UserPreferences was reduced significantly.

1 Like
33

Try this:

  1. Load a user preset into module 1 of the Project Input Transformer. Activate module 1.
  2. Quit Cubase, launch Cubase
  3. go to Cubase → Preferences and load a user created preference preset
  4. Save a preset (under a new name)
  5. Quit Cubase, launch Cubase

In my case going back to the Project Input Transformer I can see that the entries for module 1 are doubled.

Every time I repeat steps 3-5 the preset of the Project Input Transformer will be added to the entries that are already there.

2 Likes
34

Good sleuthing @Johnny_Moneto ! – I think you’ve found the culprit!

In my testing I could even simplify the steps to see the problem.

One doesn’t even have to save a new Preferences Preset or quit Cubase.

Loading a Preferences Preset file adds whatever Project Input Transformer steps to whatever may already exist in the current Project - even if you create a Project Input transformer into a brand new empty project via the menu Project > Project Input Transformer).

For example,

  • My current project had steps to change MIDI channel 1 to channel 2 (yellow outline).
  • My saved Preferences preset file had steps to convert MIDI CC to channel Aftertouch (blue outline) .

After importing the preset file into the project I got this:

image
image880×679 56.3 KB

And there’s uncertainty (?) about what the boolean should be :rofl:

1 Like
35

Does this mean, that without using the Project Input Transformer, there is no bug?

Vice versa: is it still true, that - once the mess has begun - repeatedly using the preferences dialog grows that file exponentially? If yes, even without saving pref presets?
And even if there is no Project Input Transformer used anymore in current projects?

1 Like