Hey guys,

So a couple of days ago my (yes, cracked) version of FabFilter ProQ2 timebombed, and when it did a large number of my other (yes, cracked) plugins stopped working as well (trilian, omnisphere, autotune, etc.).

My questions are this:

1. Is it even possible to completely remove all of the little files that all these plugins undoubtedly left on my mac, so that I can start over and reinstall them? and..
2. If it is possible how would I go about doing so?

Or am I just eternally destined to be without all of the plugins I lost...
Oh, and Im on a macbook pro, OSX 10.8.5
Sorry for the very noobish question, but thanks in advance for the help!

-Vato

 

Never had these problems on my hackintosh, Wanna know what i have in mind ??

Download and install mavericks, Update, to the lastest version, i think 10.9.5 too, and re-install your favorite plugins, Check Cleanmymac 2 too, it is a good Program,

anyway my suggestion is a very good idea for you! think well, and put in mind that Mavericks don't have compatibility problems like the latest Apple OS X Yosemite.

and btw i don't think that ProQ2 is timebombed, Instal R2R version and nothing is gonna happends.

 

Hi DirtyVatoJoe,

I see that you are on Mac, so it will be pretty straightforward.

From my experience, there are several ways to do that, the top 2 ways that comes to my mind are the following:

OK, FOR EDUCATION PURPOSE ONLY

Method 1) (If you're lucky) Use an app like AppCleaner and drag the .component or .vst of your plugin in it. Sometimes, AppCleaner detect all of the related files attached to the plugin. If you're lucky enough, it will includes files like .plist and so on...

Method 2) (Advanced): Download and install Fseventer (it's a freeware/donationware) and grab the installer of your timebombed plugin (if you don't have it anymore, try to find it or re/download it). Now launch Fseventer, and launch the plugin package/installer.
Don't run the installation yet.

Click on the "Play/Run" icon of Fseventer, it's gonna start monitoring your computer. Now you can execute the installation of the plugin. (doesn't matter if you previously uninstalled the plugin or not). Fseventer is gonna show you EVERYTHING that is happening on your laptop during the installation process.
It's gonna show you the registry changes, the .plist created in subfolders, and so on...
And you get a better overview of what's now left to remove... in order to perform a "CLEAN" install

You have to be very careful and try to remove the related files. (Take care of not removing important file from your computer).


If you love them, now it's time to buy your favorite plugins and support developers !

 

Thank you so much for the help guys! Got it all working now thanks to y'all.
I appreciate the friendly welcome to the audiosex community!

(and yes as soon as i get out from beneath my mountain of student debt I cant wait to be able to support the great developers, lol)

 

Welcome to the forums DirtyVatoJoe.

Your comment was funny.

 

Glad to hear you were able to fix your problem

its good practice to make a bootable clone of your main harddrive when using cracked software.... you never know what could time bomb again..... my original fabfilter Q2 install did somthing similar.... in the cleanmymac.app there is an uninstall section that deletes leftover files that are created during instalations... for some reason this triggered a timebomb that deleted the majority of my components and vsts... they disappeared right out of the plugs folder .... i knew somthing was up when the leftover file was a lot larger than any other one id seen before..... if i hadnt made a backup i would have been up shit creek

use littlesnitch.app to block any outward bound network access from programs .... for instance the cracked version of soundtoys plugin bundle for OSX atempts to phone home via ableton live almost daily

these programs are like an isurance policy

carboncopycloner.app is great for creating bootable clones of your drive
littlesnitch.app for blocking outbound connection attempts

ive even started putting the things i really care about on cloud storage .... hardware failure is often unrecoverable