Hi all,
This is my first post here and had a question. Recently just bought a M2 MBA. Upgrading from an Intel 2018 MBP. Making a list of all the plugins I have so I can try to download them again. I have alot of AU plugins on my old laptop. Is it possible to just copy and paste the AU folder from my old laptop to new or would I need to download them all again?

 

I'd recommend doing a migration assistant to copy your own stuff. Plugins aren't just the plugin file, they often have support directories, presets, and other necessary files, let alone authorisation stuff, that they require to run.

Or you can reinstall everything from scratch, which isn't a bad idea when transitioning from an old Intel machine to a new Apple silicon one, but takes longer to do.

 

I didn't even think about the authorization stuff and presets. Always heard it would be better to start fresh instead of migration. Like you, thought it would be better to not migrate since I'm moving from Intel to Silicon. Is it possible to pick and choose what data gets migrated?

 

not working. you migrate the whole old system or nothing. do a fresh start with the newest setups of your plugins and get rid this way of stuff you never use.

 

Thanks didn’t think there was a way to pick and choose. Rather just start fresh.

 

While you could migrate some things, making the move from intel to an m chipped Mac, I chose to go manual old school long way, and I'm glad I did.

It's taking me a lot longer, but I'm not bringing over a load of stuff that isn't going to work, or I don't use etc...

If I have presets and whatnot dependancies from my older system that I want, after going through my audit of what I need and don't, and what works and what won't etc... I just grab them later.

There's just a big move here with the two architectures, and I think your future self will thank you for starting off on the right foot, despite the fact it is absolutely going to take some more time and thought..

 

I spent most of the weekend moving everything over. Had to redownload a lot of plugins but everything is working. Definitely don’t regret doing it manually. A lot of stuff I didn’t carry over because I never used it

 

I like to not install everything again if starting to install everything again from scratch. I add the usual major bundles I know I will use like Fabfilter, Waves, and so on. But after that, I only reinstall plugins if I need them for a project. If you do not have to reinstall the plugin, it means you never used it anyway. I keep a folder on my external drive called /Unused Plugins, and I move stuff in there to get them out of my way. One of the nicest things about MacOS is you can move a plugin out today, instead of outright deleting it; and put it back in a simple drag and drop to return it to /Components.

If you find that moving to new MacOS breaks digital signatures on plugins, try this:

fire up a terminal and paste in this command: xcode-select — install. if you have not installed Xcode already.

in Terminal, this batch of commands below will codesign every plugin on the machine all at once. It takes a little while, just let it do its thing. If you use other formats such as AAX or Clap, you can add 2 more lines of commands to do those, too.

cd /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/

find . -name "*.bundle" -execdir sudo xattr -cr \;
find . -name "*.VST" -execdir sudo xattr -cr \;
find . -name "*.vst3" -execdir sudo xattr -cr \;
find . -name "*.component" -execdir sudo xattr -cr \;
find . -name "*.dpm" -execdir sudo xattr -cr \;
find . -name "*.bundle" -execdir sudo codesign -f -s - {} \;
find . -name "*.VST" -execdir sudo codesign -f -s - {} \;
find . -name "*.vst3" -execdir sudo codesign -f -s - {} \;
find . -name "*.component" -execdir sudo codesign -f -s - {} \;
find . -name "*.dpm" -execdir sudo codesign -f -s - {} \;

 

There were a couple plugins I didn’t download again. I use Logic. I want to try out Fabfilter so may get that. Surprisingly, didn’t have any issue redownloading my plugins. Thought I would get a lot of compatibility issues going from Monterrey to Sonoma.

 

after migration setup, many plugs will have to be reauthorized for new hardware. The plugin scan will need to be re-run since it is stored in a cache file in you user library. logic settings re-set for the most part, and then that's about it.