I guess it’s on Windows’ side, but their latest update specifically caused Cubase 13 to rescan all the vst plugins, which can take literally hours.
So frustrating …
Btw it didn’t happen with other DAWs. It’s always Cubase who manages to have all the issues
I have never seen a Windows update cause a rescan but
how many plugins do you have?
When Cubase does do a rescan here it takes about 30 to 40 seconds.
Hours is absolutely crazy. It shouldn’t take more than a minute. One thing you can do, if you are safe about the plugins you acquire, is add your VST folder(s) and/or the Cubase process itself to the Defender exclusion list. This will stop the virus scan that happens whenever the plugin is loaded.
I can’t think of any reason a Windows update would cause a plugin scan. The plugin scan is a Cubase-specific process.
Which update did you get which caused that? It’ll be listed in Windows Settings > Update > Update History
Pete
Microsoft
If it’s taking hours then that suggests that one or more plugins is hanging, which can happen if they are waiting for an internet connection or an iLok, or trying to show a window. I added some more logging for this in the plugin scanner for Cubase 14 (I think). If you are using C13 then you won’t have this extra logging.
Probably the easiest way to diagnose the plugins causing the problems and to make the process faster is to download the free Dorico SE (or use Dorico Pro as a trial). This shows the plugin scan progress on the splashscreen, and it produces a vstscannermaster.log file that will show you the slow plugins. Once the scan has finished you can copy the output files in the Cubase directory so it should be able to start up.
All the data is in %APPDATA%\Steinberg. The Dorico directory will be something like Dorico 6 AudioEngine_64\Dorico 6 AudioEngine VST3 Cache The Cubase one will be Cubase 13_64\Cubase Pro VST3 Cache
It’s interesting to learn that the VST3 cache files are compatible between Cubase and Dorico. This doesn’t seem to be the case for WaveLab, does it?
Btw, the average rescan time for one VST3 plugin is 60 ms here. 
Cubase and the Dorico audio engine use the same component to do the scanning, and so they will be compatible. I don’t know if Wavelab uses that, or its own implementation.
The scan time can vary hugely. The scanner initialises the plugin dll, queries its meta (name, type) and makes sue that it doesn’t crash during initialisation. One dll can provide multiple plugins, but the number of plugins may depend on your current license. Some plugins will try to contact their license server or wait for a dongle before responding to the initialisation, since it doesn’t know yet which plugins to provide.
Is there actually some timeout when the vstscanner does its work or will it wait forever, if worst comes to worst?
I recently had the issue with two plugins, which hung for several minutes until I got fed up and just killed the vstscanner Prozess, re-enabled the plugins in the plugin manager.
There was recently another thread here where we discussed how this process could be more user friendly, e.g. having a timeout for the vstsanner and if that timeout passes, present a dialog to the user with a message “plugin xy timed out. Retry/Cancel and put into blocklist”.
Dorico does have a timeout, implemented in the version of the vstscannermaster that ships with Dorico. Cubase doesn’t currently implement the timeout. In some cases you want the timeout (‘I’m on a train, there’s no wifi, I’m not using these plugins, so just ignore them for now’) and sometimes you don’t (‘I need all these plugins. Give me time to find my iLok’).
We know this area needs improvement.
Yes, that is my experience with timeouts as well, hard to find a correct, one-size-fits all value, especially when networking and other systems come into play…
Thanks for all your answers guys!
Yes probably it’s the anti virus at play, makes a lot of sense. It wasn’t the whole day, but for sure more than an hour.
Pete, the latest Windows update was:
AV will definitely impact loading time, but not anywhere near 10x-100x. This sounds more like some sort of authorization timeout (web or iLok) for one or more plugins.
But hard to say. The logs folks mentioned should help provide some insight if it happens again
Here’s what was in that update.
Pete
Microsoft
