Greetings everyone,
I'm making a Pro Tools "Community Wiki" on here since we seem to get a lot of Pro Tools related tech questions. It seems a bit unnecessary to clog this place up with tech issues where the info can be found on Avid's own forum. Unless it's technique, workflow or creative, then to me it seems that sort of falls into the realm things that should be asked on the DUC and 99% of the time, deleting your Digidesign Databases and Preferences can resolve your issue.
So, I'll post the info on how to do that here to make it easy to find since admittedly, Avid's support is a bit tricky to navigate and unless you've been through all this before it's hard to figure out the first time.
And just for posterity, I'll post this here as well:
IMPORTANT! You MUST use a secondary hard drive (not your main OS drive) for recording and playback of audio in Pro Tools. Recording or playback from the OS drive is known to be problematic and the cause of many different error types. If you are using your system drive and encountering errors, the first thing you should do is get a compatible drive.
Ok, I will split this into sections based on Operating System and at the top of the info I will include a link to where the info was pulled from. These links also include operating system specific "optimization tips" as well as other "best practices" and "troubleshooting tips". I'm only including the info for how to delete your databases and preferences here since that's the most common fix and like I said before, Avid/Digi already has this info posted. I'm just trying to lead you to water in this situation and make navigating their support a little easier.
Since this is a community Wiki and can be updated by others, please update the date of when the information was updated in the section specific to the operating system.
Mac OSX Last Updated on: June 5, 2011
Taken from: http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=54888
Delete Pro Tools preferences -Go to Users > “your user name” > Library > Preferences -Delete 'com.digidesign.protoolsLE.plist', 'DAE Prefs' (folder), 'DigiSetup.OSX' and 'Pro Tools preferences'. -Empty trash, then restart the computer.
You can also use the Pro Tools Preference and Database Helper to trash preferences and databases automatically, as well as providing a few other useful tools. (This application is provided by a 3rd party and is not tested or supported by Digidesign) *I have used this and it works great.
Repair Permissions -Quit Pro Tools and launch Apple's "Disk Utility" application, located in:
MacHD>Applications & Utilities.
-Select your boot drive (the whole drive, not the volume underneath the drive) -Go to the 'First Aid' tab and select "Repair Disk Permissions"
Apple recommends doing this any time you install new software, update your OS or install any software.
Delete Databases and Volumes
This step can be useful when receiving random 'assertion' or 'neoaccess' errors, especially when recording or saving.
-Delete the "Digidesign Databases" folders on the first level of all mounted hard drives. -Delete the "Volumes" folder: Pro Tools versions 7.3 and earlier it's located in MacHD > Library > Application Support > Digidesign > Databases. Pro Tools 7.4 and higher will find it in MacHD > Library > Application Support > Digidesign > Databases > Unicode.
-Empty trash, then restart the computer.
Windows 7 Last Updated on: June 5, 2011
Taken from: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=349411
Delete Digidesign Databases and Preferences
To delete Digidesign Database folders for all hard drives in Windows 7:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the Pro Tools folder.
Right-click on the Databases folder and delete it.
NOTE: If you are using Pro Tools HD, DV Toolkit 2 or Complete Production Toolkit, you will want to backup your Catalogs folder before deleting the Databases folder.
To delete Pro Tools preference files in Windows 7:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Common Files folder.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the DAE folder.
Right-click on the DAE Prefs folder and delete it.
Go back to your C: drive.
Double-click on Users.
Double-click on your user name.
Go to the AppData folder.
NOTE: If the Appdata is not showing, click on Organize and choose 'Folder and Search Options'.
Click on the View tab.
Select 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'.
Click Apply and OK. AppData should now be viewable.
Go to the Roaming folder.
Right-click on the Digidesign folder and delete it.
Windows Vista Last Updated on: June 5, 2011
Taken from: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=211077
Delete Digidesign Databases and Preferences
To delete Digidesign Database folders for all hard drives in Windows Vista:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive.
Right-click on the Digidesign Databases folder and delete it. Do the same for any additional hard drives or volumes. (As of Pro Tools 8.0.3, this step is no longer required. This step is still required for all versions of Pro Tools prior to version 8.0.3)
Go back to your C: drive.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the Pro Tools folder.
Right-click on the Databases folder and delete it.
NOTE: If you are using Pro Tools HD, DV Toolkit 2 or Complete Production Toolkit, you will want to backup your Catalogs folder before deleting the Databases folder.
To delete Pro Tools preference files in Windows Vista:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive or whichever drive you installed Pro Tools to.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Common Files folder.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the DAE folder.
Right-click on the DAE Prefs folder and delete it.
Go back to your C: drive.
Double-click on Users.
Double-click on your user name.
Go to the AppData folder.
If the Appdata is not showing, click on Organize and choose 'Folder and Search Options'.
Click on the View tab.
Select 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'.
Click Apply and OK. AppData should now be viewable.
Go to the Roaming folder.
Right-click on the Digidesign folder and delete it.
Windows XP Last Updated on: June 5, 2011
Taken from: http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=349591
Delete Digidesign Databases and Preferences
To delete Digidesign Database folders for all hard drives in Windows XP:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive.
Right-click on the Digidesign Databases folder and delete it. Do the same for any additional hard drives or volumes. (As of Pro Tools 8.0.3, this step is no longer required. This step is still required for all versions of Pro Tools prior to version 8.0.3)
Go back to your C: drive.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the Pro Tools folder.
Right-click on the Databases folder and delete it.
NOTE: If you are using Pro Tools HD, DV Toolkit 2 or Complete Production Toolkit, you will want to backup your Catalogs folder before deleting the Databases folder.
To delete Pro Tools preference files in Windows XP:
Go to your Start menu and click on Computer.
Double-click on the C: drive or whichever drive you installed Pro Tools to.
Double-click on Program Files.
Go to the Common Files folder.
Go to the Digidesign folder.
Go to the DAE folder.
Right-click on the DAE Prefs folder and delete it.
Go back to your C: drive.
Double-click on 'Documents and Settings'.
Double-click on your user name.
Go to the 'Application Data' folder.
If the 'Application Data' is not showing, click on the Tools menu and choose 'Folder Options'.
Click on the View tab.
Select 'Show Hidden Files and Folders'.
Click Apply and OK. 'Application Data' should now be viewable.
Right-click on the Digidesign folder and delete it.
