Final Cut Pro STUCK VALIDATING AUDIO UNITS

Happy to report this worked like a charm:

• moved all my AudioUnits from /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components to AudioUser/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (AudioUser being the user I'm using for Audio)
• created another user (VideoUser) for using FCPro
• switching to VideoUser: I can use FCPro, no AudioUnit, no problem
• switching to AudioUser: I can use LogicPro with all my AudioUnits

Took less than 2 minutes.

Far easier than creating another boot volume with another version of MacOS, right?

Last week, I migrated from a MacBook Pro i9 (on which FCP worked very well) to a MacBook Air M2. FCP stalled on the splash screen, indicating that it was 'Validating audio units...' (followed by the name of one of my several Izotope products).

I have worked through uninstalling a few Isotope products at a time but have wound up uninstalling all of them and, now, FCP will launch reliably.

Method:

1. Quit FCP (force quit, if necessary)
2. Log into the Izotope Product Portal and uninstall all products.
3. Go to Applications folder and delete Izotope products.
4. Go to ~Library>Application Support > [delete all Izotope products]
5. Go to Documents> Application files> [delete all Izotope products]
6. Go to Library>Audio>Plug-ins>VST>[delete all Izotope products]
7. Go to Library>Audio>Plug-ins>VST3>[delete all Izotope products]
8. Go to ~Library/Preferences/com.apple.audio.InfoHelper.plist
9. Empty Bin.
10. Restart machine

That should do it. But, it's drastic because I can no longer use the Izotope products. My immediate problem is using FCP!

When the time comes, I'll add these back, one by one and see how things progress.

Hope this helps.

Having the same problem here, but as I'm using both FCPro and LogicPro on a regular basis, this is a nightmare.

First, I had to test my 152 plug-ins, and spend hours doing this instead of earning money.

I have indeed identified that some NI and Izotope plug-ins are putting FCPro in this "stun" mode. Guitar Pro, some of Neutron, Ozone, RX (for those using Izotope, you know each product comes with many individual plug-ins) ...

I can run my music production w/o Guitar Pro, but not w/o the Izotope suite, and I should not have to.

So I have to remove the AudioUnits from the /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components when I want to use FCPro, and put them back when I want to use LogicPro. Not safe (and it requires Admin credentials).

Getting another partition to boot an older version of MacOS is simply not a practical way of working. One thing I will test is having the AudioUnits into the user Library folder, and there I could devote a user for FCPro and another one for everything else (including audio). But hey, is this really what we have to do because devs broke something in FCPro (remember, the same plug-ins ARE working fine with LogicPro)? Is this pro-level software?

For people recommending avoiding the MacOS upgrade ... well remember there are people doing many things on the same (very expensive) computer. Not all of us are purely audio or purely video or purely development centric. Not all of us can afford have different computers (each of them being expensive). There are numerous indies, just like me, who will have to do everything on the same computer. And when you need the latest version of Xcode, you need the latest version of MacOS, alongside LogicPro and FinalCut.

Hopefully this is helpful. I followed some suggestions then found somewhat of my own solution. I placed my Izotope components into another folder. Then FCP launched but it had detected two incompatible AUs - aupitchshift and something else. Then I closed FCP, place the Izotope plugins back into their original folder and FCP loaded without issue. I just downloaded the latest version of FCP also.

I did something similar that fixed my problem. Running MacOS Ventura 13.4 and FCP 10.6.6, FCP was hanging while validating Audio Units as described above. Specifically, Izotope Ozone 9. I installed a pending update to Ozone 9 in Product Portal to no avail. Then I tried moving all the Ozone 9 Components out of Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components and into a separate folder on the Desktop. Final Cut Pro loaded but flagged Ozone 9 as incompatible (along with Ozone 10 & Neutron 3 & 4, but those plug-ins didn't seem to be causing the program to hang on launch).

I then uninstalled and reinstalled Ozone 9, and FCP again flagged the same plugins as incompatible but otherwise opened without issue.

Playing devil's advocate here: The 13.3.1 security update likely broke other things too. I'm sure Apple had to weigh the speed of getting this security fix out versus running it through more thorough testing. Or maybe they did test and saw that it broke AU validation in FCP and decided that the security of millions of users was more important than a temporary inconvenience for many thousands of FCP users. Sucks to be us. ;)

Renaming the Components folder when you want to use a DAW with the AU's FCP finds problematic takes a few seconds. You could likely write an Automator or bash script to get that down to under a second.

Ventura 13.4 has just been released and may cure the problem.

I completely agree that FCP should have a more elegant way of disabling AU plugins like Logic. This is a user-to-user forum. Please send your FCP AU feedback to Apple using this link Feedback - Final Cut Pro - Apple or use the menu item Final Cut Pro>Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback...

As a temporary fix you can create a new volume using Disk Utility on which you install an earlier macOS.

FCP X and everything else will then work normally.

Same issue - iZotope plugins AND Native Instruments plugins. Has totally disabled my ability to use FCP, and given I also do extensive audio work, I can't just remove all the plugins. Does Apple no longer test the basics anymore?

Yes, you boot into the OS on the external.

The FCPX on your internal Mac drive will work when booted into the external but it may be better to simply copy it across to the new OS.

I haven't done any comparative tests so I can't be certain whether or not there will be any performance differences.

I have both these macOS on my iMac drive but I also have Catalina (not connected at the moment) on a bootable SSD.

I agree but this is a just FCP user-to-user forum. If you want your feedback to be read, please send it to Apple via Final Cut Pro>Provide Final Cut Pro Feedback...  or use this link Feedback - Final Cut Pro - Apple

Found this Terminal trick on a YouTube video from 2020, and it worked without having to move any files around! This code allows you to open FCP in Rosetta which will bypass or not load any non-working plugins. If prompted, choose to "Skip All" and FCP should open immediately. Anyway, here's the code you need to type into Terminal every time you want to open FCP:

screen -d -m arch -x86_64 "/Applications/Final Cut Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/Final Cut Pro"

In addition to Ian’s excellent suggestion you might want to try the public beta of 13.4 to see I’d that alleviate the problem.

You could try installing 13.4 on an external drive or on separate volume for a quick test with the AU plugins.