Mac Optimization Guide for OSX 10.9 Mavericks

Our Tech Support team recommends Avid’s optimization guide to get the most out of Pro Tools on your Mac. Be sure to check out the full guide for more info.

The following optimizations from Avid’s guide are recommended for use with all DAWs on your Mac running OSX 10.9 Mavericks:

In order to do many of the optimizations below, you will need to access system preferences. To do so, click the Apple logo at the top left corner of your screen and choose System Preferences.

Optimize Energy Saver

This optimization will free up system resources as well as prevent the computer from going to sleep or standby mode which can cause audio dropouts with DAW software and hardware.

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “Energy Saver.”
• Do one of the following (available option depends on your computer model).
  • If present, set the “Computer sleep” slider to “Never.”
  • Otherwise, check the box that says “Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off.”
• Un-check the box for “Put hard disks to sleep when possible.”

Turn Off Wi-Fi

If your computer is equipped with Bluetooth wireless and/or a Wi-Fi (AirPort) card, these may need to be disabled for your DAW to work correctly.  In addition to freeing up system resources, disabling these can help resolve DAE errors -6085, -6086 and -6101 (Pro Tools).

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “Network.”
• On the left hand sidebar, click on Wi-Fi.
• Click on the button that says Turn Wi-Fi Off.

Disable FireWire Networking

This optimization can help free up bandwidth in the firewire bus and allow FireWire devices to work more efficiently.

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “Network.”
• On the left hand sidebar, click on FireWire/Built-In FireWire/Thunderbolt FireWire.
• Click on the drop-down menu for “Configure IPv4” and choose Off.
• Click Apply and restart your computer.

Disable FileVault Protection

This optimization will allow your hard drive to work more efficiently with your DAW and can prevent DAE Error -9035 from occurring (Pro Tools).

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “Security & Privacy.”
• Click on the “FileVault” tab.
• In this window find where it states: “FileVault protection is (on/off) for the hard disk…”
• If FileVault is on, click the button to “Turn Off FileVault.”

Disable Automatic Updates

Some updates to your Mac software can cause conflicts with your DAW.  Therefore, it is suggested to disable the automatic update functionality within the operating system. If there is an update that you need, you can manually update your Mac software my clicking on the Apple menu in the upper left corner of your screen and choosing Software Update.

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “App Store.”
• Make sure the box labeled “Automatically check for updates” is unchecked.

Disable App Nap

App Nap can negatively the performance of your DAW or other software that processes audio or control changes. This is because App Nap considers any app that is hidden from view to be “idle.” It may then temporarily disable the app to free up resources which may cause clicks and pops as well as disrupt any processing that is happening in the background. To disable App Nap :

• Go to your Applications folder.
• Go to the App for which you want to disable App Nap.
• Right-click or control+click the application and choose Get Info.
• In the Info window, under General, you will see an option to prevent App Nap.

Enable Spotlight Indexing (Pro Tools)

Pro Tools 11 relies on Spotlight indexing for Workspace database search operations. It is therefore suggested that Spotlight be allowed access to all mounted drives. This will be the default on Mavericks, but to be sure nothing is hidden from Spotlight, follow these steps:

• Open System Preferences.
• Click “Spotlight.”
• Click on the Privacy tab.
• Be sure no drives appear in this list. It should be empty.
• If any drives do appear, highlight each one and click the minus (-) button below the list to remove them.

Disable Sudden Motion Sensor (laptops only)

If you’re recording in a loud environment, this optimization will prevent the Sudden Motion Sensor from kicking in which temporarily stops the hard drive from spinning to prevent damage if your computer is suddenly moved.

• Double-click on the Macintosh HD icon on your desktop (this would be your system drive if you have renamed it to something else).
• Go to the Applications folder.
• Go to the Utilities folder.
• Double-click on Terminal.
• Type sudo pmset -a sms 0 and press Return (typing in ‘0’ disables it).
• Enter your administrator when prompted.
• Type sudo pmset -g to verify that this has been applied.

To re-enable Sudden Motion Sensor:

• Go back to Terminal following the above steps.
• Type sudo pmset -a sms 1 and press Return (typing in ‘1’ re-enables it).
• Enter your administrator when prompted.
• Type sudo pmset -g to verify that this has been applied.

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Helpful Links

Mavericks: Mac OS X 10.9 Compatibility Information (updated 2/25/14)

Does Pro Tools Express work on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks?

The Waves Online Installer is not working on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.

Sierra: Mac OS 10.12 Compatibility Information

Yosemite: Mac OS X 10.10 Compatibility Information

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