Move AudioUnits .Component plugin Files to external Drive "Works"

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Move AudioUnits .Component plugin Files to external Drive "Works"

This thread contain the necessary information to effectively move all Audiounits . components plugin to an external drive in order to save "A LOT" of space...

This method is specifically designed to move .Component File and Allow Logic, Live to scan, find, user all Audiounits.

In my system all paranoic things like SIP, Certified developer, allow from... are disabled...

i own my system and i manage my system...

( i'm an I.T. System Architect & Engineer, Cloud, Security and network Specialist.)

*I DON'T TAKE ANY RESPONSABILITY TO WHATEVER FAILURE YOU CAN ENCOUNTER OR EXPERIMENT

*SIP have to be disabled to do this procedure

*You have to ALLOW application from EVERYONE!!!!

Tested on MacOS from Sierra up to Tahoe

Apple APFS is not designed to be recognize .Component files if you apply on top of them the following solutions

Hard or Soft SymLinks

SymLinks from terminal

SymbolicLinker Services

SymLink in general

Finder / MacOS Aliases

Brew - bindfs

MacFUSE

osxFUSE

LinuxFUSE

Components Audio Units Plugins

.Component files are essentially a Folder ( or bundle ) that contains a precise Structure but, unlike VST, VST3, CLAP,AAX Plugin... Apple don't ALLOW for Files redirect. This is by design... a clear choice and not a limitations.

Audiounits plugin are strincly associated to a validation process that involves "Attributes, Files Positions, Permissions, Owner and an hardcoded Path inside all Applications that uses AudioUnits Plugin .Component

The only way to move .Components plugins are to make a dedicated File System level Mounting Point , that points, to the default AudioUnits Path defined in MacOS/Application and Aueval Tool.

Default PATH:

Macintosh HD/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/.component Here.

The External Drive - via Systemwide File System level Mounting point

On your External Drive , formatted as APFS you have to create a NEW Volume called ( Audiounits ).

Don't worry, APFS is designed to shared all available space dinamically, you don't have to specify a Volume Size.

Create the Dedicated .Components VOLUME

Open Terminal

verify you Disks and take note of them:

sudo diskutil List

"enter your password when asked"

you get a list like this one, in ( MY CASE ) the external Drive is the External_HDD ( disk5s1 )

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk1 524.3 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 494.4 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk2 5.4 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +494.4 GB disk3

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 82.6 GB disk3s1

2: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.3 GB disk3s3

3: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.3 GB disk3s3s1

4: APFS Volume Preboot 7.2 GB disk3s4

5: APFS Volume Recovery 1.1 GB disk3s5

6: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk3s6

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk4

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk5 4.0 TB disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk5

Physical Store disk4s2

1: APFS Volume External_HDD 1.9 TB disk5s1

Now, create the new dedicated VOLUME , and give it a name. Audiounits in my case "BUT DON'T CALL IT COMPONENTS!!!!!

TAKE A NOTE of the "0: APFS Container Scheme" > IDENTIFIER COLUMN, in my case = disk5 is the Primary Container.

Please PAY ATTENTION to not refer to "other volumes inside the primary container" ...

in my case one of the volumes inside disk5 container is disk5(s1)...

when i create a new VOLUME , a new "disk5(s2" can be present in the list

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk5

Physical Store disk4s2

1: APFS Volume External_HDD 1.9 TB disk5s1

2: APFS Volume AudioUnits 21.7 GB disk5s2 "the new volume"

Posted on Sep 28, 2025 4:15 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Yuto Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 28, 2025 4:18 PM in response to Yuto

This step is "absolutely" necessary... don't be panic or have a paranoia...

After that, we have to erase the AU Validation Cache and redo a new AUValidation

sudo killall -9 AudioComponentRegistrar 2>/dev/null

auval -a

NOW, my friends... Open logic and ... you have ALL your AudioUnits...

open Plug-in Manager and redo a complete RESCAN....

do the same for Ableton Live!.

the last thing to do is , a permanent automatic mounting point after update or reboot.

In terminal

Take note of your UNIQUE VOLUME UUID

SWAP disk???? with (your) correct VOLUME

diskutil info /dev/disk????? | grep "Volume UUID"

you see an output like this

Volume UUID: xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

now...

create an auto mounting in fstab

terminal

sudo nano /etc/fstab

enter

now you have to ADD a new line like this one, OBVIOUSLY with your UUID

UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components apfs rw

save with - ctrl + o

exit with - ctrl + x

"NOTE:

After that , the new dedicated volume disappear from desktop... it's completely normal.

BONUS:

You can move even VST3, sample library etc, folders with a simple, where you want...

ln -s "a symlink from terminal"

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Answer 2

Yuto Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 28, 2025 4:16 PM in response to Yuto

Now,

you have a new dedicated volume for .Components on your external SSD/HDD/NVME Drive... called AudioUnits and , you can see it on your desktop as empty.

Now, we have to make an EXACT COPY, with all attributes, rights, ACL,Permissions ... from the .Components default system path... with this terminal command

( toy have to adapt this line with your disk and volume names )

cp -R /Volumes/Macintosh HD/library/audio/plug-ins/components/* /Volumes/AudioUnits/

My .Components plugins folder is about 58GB!... please be patient and wait...

now you can see all .component on the new dedicated volume called AudioUnits..

Now... close "all" daw's and application that uses AudioUnits..

and DELETE... yes.... DELETE... the entire Components Folder under

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/

NOW....

we create the Systemwide Files System Mounting Point.

in terminal

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

This command , create a NEW Components folder in the same default location.

MountPoint

Now... you have to use the "diskXXX" volume identifier listed in "Disktuil list"

in my case:

sudo mount_apfs /dev/disk5s2 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

in your case:

sudo mount_apfs /dev/disk????? /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

Now... on /library/audio/plug-ins/ you don't have a folder called Components but "your new volume"

in this example: AudioUnits ... as a normal DISK!. it's completely fine...

Th trick is that "File System OS LEVEL" thinks that audiounits "volume" is a legit Components folder ! .

Now, just to be clean as possibile... permission fix and other things

in terminal

sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

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Answer 3

Yuto Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 28, 2025 4:16 PM in response to Yuto

Create the Dedicated .Components VOLUME

Open Terminal

verify you Disks and take note of them:

sudo diskutil List

"enter your password when asked"

you get a list like this one, in ( MY CASE ) the external Drive is the Samsung_4TB ( disk5s1 )

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *500.3 GB disk0

1: Apple_APFS_ISC Container disk1 524.3 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk3 494.4 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_APFS_Recovery Container disk2 5.4 GB disk0s3

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +494.4 GB disk3

Physical Store disk0s2

1: APFS Volume Macintosh HD - Data 82.6 GB disk3s1

2: APFS Volume Macintosh HD 11.3 GB disk3s3

3: APFS Snapshot com.apple.os.update-... 11.3 GB disk3s3s1

4: APFS Volume Preboot 7.2 GB disk3s4

5: APFS Volume Recovery 1.1 GB disk3s5

6: APFS Volume VM 20.5 KB disk3s6

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *4.0 TB disk4

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk4s1

2: Apple_APFS Container disk5 4.0 TB disk4s2

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk5

Physical Store disk4s2

1: APFS Volume External_HDD 1.9 TB disk5s1

Now, create the new dedicated VOLUME , and give it a name. Audiounits in my case "BUT DON'T CALL IT COMPONENTS!!!!!

TAKE A NOTE of the "0: APFS Container Scheme" > IDENTIFIER COLUMN, in my case = disk5 is the Primary Container.

Please PAY ATTENTION to not refer to "other volumes inside the primary container" ...

in my case one of the volumes inside disk5 container is disk5(s1)...

when i create a new VOLUME , a new "disk5(s2" can be present in the list

/dev/disk5 (synthesized):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: APFS Container Scheme - +4.0 TB disk5

Physical Store disk4s2

1: APFS Volume External_HDD 1.9 TB disk5s1

2: APFS Volume AudioUnits 21.7 GB disk5s2 "the new volume"

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