Mac Optimization Guide for OSX 10.11 El Capitan

Our Tech Support team recommends Avid’s optimization guide to get the most out of Pro Tools on your Mac. The full guide can be found here.

The following optimizations from Avid’s guide are recommended for use with all DAWs on your Mac running OSX 10.11 El Capitan.

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.

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 Pro Tools to work correctly.  In addition to freeing up system resources, disabling these can help resolve DAE errors -6085, -6086 and -6101.

• 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 (FireWire Devices only)

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

• Open System Preferences.
• Click ‘Network’.
• On the left hand sidebar, click on FireWire/Built-In FireWire/Thunderbolt FireWire (may not be present depending on computer model).
• 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 Pro Tools and can prevent DAE Error -9035 from occurring.

• 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’.

Update iLok Drivers

This can help resolve problems launching Pro Tools and some plug-in authorization issues.

• Visit the iLok website.
• Download and install the iLok License Manager.

Automatic Updates

Some updates to your Mac software can cause conflicts with Pro Tools.  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 affect EuControl by causing response time delays when changing parameters on a control surface. This is because the OS appears to see this app as ‘idle’ since it is hidden from view. If you are using a EuCon surface such as an Aritst Mix or S6, disabling App Nap is recommended:

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

Enable Spotlight Indexing

Pro Tools 11 and higher rely 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 El Capitan, but to be sure nothing is hidden from Spotlight please 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.

When Spotlight is enabled, long record passes (over 50 minutes) may stop recording after 50+ minutes. Consider disabling Spotlight for long recording sessions and then re-enable it when you are done recording.

Disable Sudden Motion Sensor (For laptops only, and not available on all models)

If you’re recording in a loud environment, this optimization will prevent the Sudden Motion Sensor from kicking in and throwing a -9073 error in Pro Tools.

• 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.

Disable Automatic Graphics Switching (For laptops only, and not available on all models)

This will prevent the operating system from switching between graphics processors to save energy, which can cause errors during playback or recording.

• Open System Preferences.
• Go to Energy Saver.
• Un-check automatic graphics switching.

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