[Solved] Plugins Fail VST Scan After Years of Working Fine and Re-installation

I have a project which has crashed and I can no longer open, unless I use safe mode;  I have not identified which plugin is the culprit and instead, have loaded the file by selecting No to All.
 
In my quest to solve the crashing project, I have reset and rescanned my plugins.  A lot of plugins failed the scan:
 
BX stereomaker, PSP Xenon, PSP Stereomaker, Stillwell the Rocket, Trackspacer, Eventide UltraChannel and 3 UAD plugins out of the full UAD package that is installed.  All of the plugins are the 64 bit VST 2.4 versions and this is the first time I have seen these plugins fail, after having worked fine for years and many projects.
 
Yesterday I reinstalled all of the plugins that failed the scan, I followed this procedure:
 

• I reinstalled Sonar
• I uninstalled all plugins that failed the VST scan
• I deleted all remaining files in every directory I could find including %appdata%
• I emptied the recycle bin
• I reset and rescanned
• I reinstalled each plugin one by one and rescanned after each installation, WITHOUT resetting (no need, right?)

Each plugin worked the first time it was scanned so I didn't reset before each scan.  All was well until today.  I am using Lounge Lizard in this project and Sonar can't seem to find it since the reinstall, so I reset and rescanned.  Now all the plugins I just re-installed have failed the VST scan again.  I have enabled the plugins anyway and I know it is risky.  They seem to load in Sonar ok, despite failing the scan and this has me worried;  if I continue to use them, will they corrupt my project one day?
 
Does anyone have similar experience with plugins working fine for years then suddenly breaking?  Why would only a handful of UAD plugins fail, wouldn't they all fail if they were incompatible?  Also, I am pretty sure UAD plugins are compatible!
 
I have run MSE, Avast and have Symantec running and I am virus free.  It does seem that this trouble may have started when I updated Sonar to the Foxboro update, but that seems unlikely as I haven't seen anyone else in the forum have this issue.
 
Any help is appreciated, I will email support about this if I can't work it out.
 

You seem to have an awful lot of antivirus stuff running. Never recommended to have on during installation. Certainly no need to have it on while running Sonar.

Hello please send me a vstscan log which should list the reason for the failures. In Foxboro there is a new feature to capture a scan log.
 
To do this, first ensure the following folder is present on your system.
%appdata%\Cakewalk\Logs
You can type that path in windows explorer. If The Logs folder doesn't exist yet create that Folder. (the scanner needs that to store the logs - future builds auto create that folder when necessary)
 
Open preferences VST
Hold down the shift key and click the "Reset" button.
This should reset the VST inventory and automatically rescan all the plugins. However this time it will write a VstScan.log file in the %appdata%\Cakewalk\Logs folder.
 
The log file should reveal what is failing. If you provide a link to that file I can take a look at the failure messages.
 
thanks,
Noel

You shouldn't be running two virus scanners at the same time. They will conflict. You will probably need to uninstall one of them.. Try disabling symantic in the meantime.

Ta.

I actually did uninstall Avast before I started the reinstallation, I should have clarified.
 
Thanks

I, personally, would remove Norton (Symantec), and keep Avast (less intrusive). I have had trouble with Norton in the past, showing virus (almost) pr plugin. I have Avast on my studio pc, but it is disabled. I run scans manually, if I feel the need. 
Best of luck.
Ps. Listen to these guys / girls. They know their stuff

Hello Noel,
 
I have reinstalled my UAD plugins and they now scan fine, the following dlls failed my last scan which was about 5 minutes ago.  Here is the new log:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0tw1ydvgvqwhry0/VstScan.log?dl=0
 
The following dlls failed on this last scan:
 
PSP Springbox.dll
PSP StereoEnhancer.dll
PSP Triplemeter.dll
PSP Xenon.dll
PSP StereoController.dll
rocket.dll
Eiosis AirEQ.dll
Kush UBK-1x64.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
LFOTool_x64.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
Midnight Compressor 64.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
Midnight EQ 64.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
FabFilter Pro-C.dll
FabFilter Pro-C (SC).dll
FabFilter Pro-C (Mono).dll
FabFilter Pro-L.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
FabFilter Pro-L (Mono).dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
iZOzone4.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
iZotope Ozone 4.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
iZotope Spectron.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
Ivory VST.dll  - wasn't a problem until this scan
 
The scanner crashes right at the end of scanning.
 
Thank you very much for the help!
 
 
 
 
 
 

You have a lot of redundant paths in your VSTScan paths. This is likely the reason for spurious errors.
Also the bad paths will cause the scan to take very long since its unneessarily scanning the same plugins multiple times.
 
I think for some reason some plugins are causing issues when they are being scanned twice in the same session like the Fabfilter ones. Please look at the list below and eliminate the redundant scan paths that I have marked in bold. Then redo the scan.
Important: There is no need to include subdirectories for a scan path since the scanner already scans all plugins within subfolders.
 
-------- VST scan path's --------
c:\program files\cakewalk
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstinstruments
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64\arc 2
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64\plugin alliance
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64\psp
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64\softube
c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins64\stillwell
c:\program files\common files\vst3
c:\program files\steinberg\vstplugins\powered plugins
c:\program files\vstplugins

Hello Noel,
 
Thank you very much for your assistance with this! 
 
I kept only the following VST paths:
 
c:\program files\cakewalk
c:\program files\common files\vst3
c:\program files\Steinberg\vstplugins\powered plugins
 
And I was able to reset and rescan without any errors!  I also loaded my project that was crashed.
A big thank you to you Noel, thanks for taking the time to look into this!
 
 

It may be working once all the redundant scan paths have been eliminated .

However, Adding redundant scan paths seems to be triggered by using the Reset, Rescan advice given so early on in the Platinum roll out.

Although I have background scan set there have been times where I've had VSTs not be recognised and therefore have to go in and reset, rescan. On further inspection I've always found redundant paths that were not previously there but contained plugins. Once I manually removed those paths all was good. But it begs the question How do the paths get there?
There's some fundamental problem that causes redundant paths to be added.

Just a quick post to remind myself to check this.