I bought UAD plugins and after install it I have problems. I think it has removed many other plugins and I can't open projects. Could it have deleted many VSTs? Is there a way to recover them? I don't want to lose my project presets by having to investigate which version of the plugin I had installed.
Sister site plugins lost: Plugin Alliance, Kontakt, D16 group, Modartt Pianoteq Pro...
I think I lost all the VST3 installed on the PC too

 

Last edited: Nov 2, 2025 at 6:13 PM

Check if the files are still where they are supposed to be ( should be something like C:/program files/common files/VST3). If they are, check if the VST3 path on your daw matches or if it has been changed for some reason.

 

Which DAW?

Perhaps there was a problem with the plugin rescan when the DAW went to add the new UAD plugins.

 

I'm not in the studio now, I've been looking for that kind of folder today; the VST3s files that were in the VST3 folder I created has disappeared. I'll check if they're in Program Files/common files.. I don't think they'll be there because I've been looking everywhere they could be, but I'll check just in case

 

Ableton Live 11. It seems strange to me, but it's possible that the plugins were in Program Files instead of the VST3 folder I created, and that installing UAD changed the path. I'll check it, although I don't think that's it.

Could this be related to UA Connect? When I installed them months ago, it forced me to install that program.

 

I remember having a similar problem the first time that I installed UAD native plugins.
After uninstalling all UAD software and reinstalling again, everything start to work properly.
I don’t remember if I also have to update windows

 

I have many legit UAD plugins, and many many sister site plugins, and they all played nicely.. never ran into this issue. That's strange, but I'd just start one by one with plugins you're missing and figure out why they aren't loading. UA Connect isn't going to go and uninstall sister site stuff.

I don't know Ableton but a DAW should be able to tell you whether a plugin is NOT LOADING vs. a plugin is not being seen at all. With the latter, @mk_96 's answer is most likely the one you need. With the fomer problem, that can be tougher to figure out.

 

Nope, UAD installation will not mess with other vendors.

 

First, I would reboot. I would reopen and login to UAConnect first. Probably open and login to the iLok manager app too, at that same time.

I would look on UA Connect and see if there are update versions it wants. It just started pushing UADx copies of everything to me a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure why you say "VST3 folder I just created" because that doesn't sound normal to start. And legit UAD plugins did nothing to your sister site plugins.

I might not be ready to call this a fish story yet; but I feel closer to the beach. The salt air, that sort of thing.

 

Typically, on a win box you should stick to the standard paths for plugin files which for VST2(x64) will be << c:/programs files/steinberg/VSTplugins >>. For VST3 stuff the default path should be << C:/programs files/common files/VST3 >>. Most installers will use those paths as the default. If you made some other rando path to install plugins there's no telling where the installer put them unless you were prompted for a path by the installers. You could try doing a system wide file search for *.VST3 and see where they are that way. Also if you have cracked plugins or .exe's (depending on how they are cracked) and you're running anti-virus on that machine the a/v may have gobbled them up unless proper steps were taken to ensure they were stored in place that is immune to the a/v...

Hard to tell how invasive that UA web tool is. UA is a shit corporation, and I wouldn't put it past them to be rousting around users machines looking for stuff that THEY believe shouldn't be there (acustica), but it's unlikely...

 

There is a registry key that most VST plugin installers (and hosts for that matter) respect. There are a few that don't use this (it's just a suggestion after all), but it's worth a check.

This is on my machine, the paths for 64-bit and 32-bit VST2 plugins, respectively:

Code:

; 64bit plugin path

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VST]
"VSTPluginsPath"="c:\\vst64"

; 32bit plugin path

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VST]
"VSTPluginsPath"="C:\\VST32"

Those keys might be worth checking out, maybe they're set to something odd. Some software actually set those if they didn't exist, usually to the ones that their installer suggests, but this is again fairly random. But it can happen.