Pretty much at my wits' end here so if anyone has any wisdom to share...
 
I recently made the mistake of installing Arturia's Analog Lab 3 which magically appeared in my Software Center, since I have a license for V5 and they're teasing the new version. I am asserting that this was a mistake based on the fact that it seems to have obliterated the existing install of AL2, which I have used in various projects, also possibly a mistake, and now those projects will not load. Sonar doesn't gracefully state that it can't load the plugin and give me an empty container as it usually does, it crashes hard. 
 
Easy solution, you say, and well you might think that an easy solution would be to uninstall and reinstall the plugin. Tried this from the software center, it did not work. Tried to go to Arturia's site to download an installer, they make it virtually impossible to find anything but the new versions they want everyone to upgrade to at absurd prices. Eventually I found an old installer file and ran it. Seemed to work. 
 
But Sonar won't list it in the plugin menu. It scans it, I watch it scan and it doesn't fail. I can load a project that contains that plugin and it loads and works. But I can't use it in a new project because Sonar seems to deny any knowledge of it. It *says* it is rebuilding the plugin menus, during the scan, but it does not list AL2 in the ostensibly rebuilt menu. I do realize I could go and manually create a menu that includes it using the Plugin Manager, and I tried to do this, but it wasn't appearing in the available plugins either, nor in the excluded (or permanently excluded) list. Managed to trick Sonar into listing it there by moving the DLL files into a subfolder in the VST directory and rescanning. Again it says 'rebuilding plugin menus' but doesn't actually change anything, but at least now the Plugin Manager is aware of it. 
 
So yeah, I could manually add it, but I kind of like the default, automatically created menus that update themselves (theoretically) when new things are added... so... anyone have any ideas? Is there a way to force Sonar to actually update its plugin menus, as opposed to just saying that it is doing so? Some file I can delete? Anything? 
 
I guess I'm just going to gradually move all new project creation over to Reaper/Reason anyway. But this is still annoying. 
 

The three "Sort By" layouts should show all plug-ins. Make sure to use one of these layouts. Also try the search function in the browser. All the "Sort By" layouts write out temporary files in the layout folder. Maybe there is a permissions problem preventing these files from updating. The tmp files may be deleted. By default the plug-in layouts are stored in "%AppData%\Cakewalk\SONAR Platinum\Plug-in Menu Layouts." The actual location is displayed in Preferences > File > Folder Locations. I don't think lenses interfere with plug-in layouts but it couldn't hurt to set the lens drop down to none.

Thanks I'll poke around a bit based on that tomorrow. Yeah I know the three auto-generated ones should be updating but they apparently aren't so maybe a permission issue is a possibility, though why that would suddenly appear is another question.

OK just by way of an update... it was not Sonar's fault, rather a combination of user error (or rather, acting on incomplete information) and Arturia's strange and unprecedented way of replacing Analog Lab 2 with AL3 - the new version *supercedes* the old one and shares a plugin ID with it, which they've never done before. All previous generations of every other product they've made can co-exist on a system much as various versions of Sonar can, but suddenly and without explanation Arturia decided to make AL3 replace AL2 instead of supplement it. So theoretically old projects should load the new version and presets should carry over. I didn't know this, plus somehow something got corrupted in the install so that old projects were crashing trying to load, and since I didn't know better I tried to get both versions installed together, not realizing they would be conflicting in their plugin ID - and therefore Sonar would not see them both. 
 
Anyway, I have it working pretty much now, projects seem to load, and I've learned a couple of things along the way, so it goes. Annoying waste of an evening, but I've wasted more than a few evenings on even stupider things in my time, so I'll live. Back to work!
 

subtlearts
Pretty much at my wits' end here so if anyone has any wisdom to share...
 
I recently made the mistake of installing Arturia's Analog Lab 3 which magically appeared in my Software Center, since I have a license for V5 and they're teasing the new version. I am asserting that this was a mistake based on the fact that it seems to have obliterated the existing install of AL2, which I have used in various projects, also possibly a mistake, and now those projects will not load. Sonar doesn't gracefully state that it can't load the plugin and give me an empty container as it usually does, it crashes hard. 
 
Easy solution, you say, and well you might think that an easy solution would be to uninstall and reinstall the plugin. Tried this from the software center, it did not work. Tried to go to Arturia's site to download an installer, they make it virtually impossible to find anything but the new versions they want everyone to upgrade to at absurd prices. Eventually I found an old installer file and ran it. Seemed to work. 
 
But Sonar won't list it in the plugin menu. It scans it, I watch it scan and it doesn't fail. I can load a project that contains that plugin and it loads and works. But I can't use it in a new project because Sonar seems to deny any knowledge of it. It *says* it is rebuilding the plugin menus, during the scan, but it does not list AL2 in the ostensibly rebuilt menu. I do realize I could go and manually create a menu that includes it using the Plugin Manager, and I tried to do this, but it wasn't appearing in the available plugins either, nor in the excluded (or permanently excluded) list. Managed to trick Sonar into listing it there by moving the DLL files into a subfolder in the VST directory and rescanning. Again it says 'rebuilding plugin menus' but doesn't actually change anything, but at least now the Plugin Manager is aware of it. 
 
So yeah, I could manually add it, but I kind of like the default, automatically created menus that update themselves (theoretically) when new things are added... so... anyone have any ideas? Is there a way to force Sonar to actually update its plugin menus, as opposed to just saying that it is doing so? Some file I can delete? Anything? 
 
I guess I'm just going to gradually move all new project creation over to Reaper/Reason anyway. But this is still annoying. 
 

You have.....your on crazy LSD, and this is all a crazy trip into your mind!!!

paul jenkins
You have.....your on crazy LSD, and this is all a crazy trip into your mind!!!

I was afraid of that. In fact it's entirely possible. 
 
In related news, this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/.ki/Simulation_hypothesis

I just want to point out.......and maybe I am tripping too, but I'm sure craig anderton told us that scook is a computer!!!.......correct me if I'm wrong scook!!!