UAD’s policy of installing their entire plugin catalog onto your system has always bugged me...leaving you having to then sort through which ones you actually own licenses for and which are just demos sitting there taking up space....I eventually got so fed up I stopped using UAD's plugins altogether.

Anyway, I stumbled across this little app called Bypass the other day. It scans your system, shows you every plugin and format you’ve got installed, and lets you delete the ones you don’t want.

It’s only a few quid, but honestly, the main thing is just that it works and makes managing all this plugin chaos a bit easier. Thought this might be useful for some people out there dealing with the same thing.

It’s not just for UAD stuff either, it works for all your plugins, so you can properly tidy up your system no matter what’s installed.

 

Bypass - The plugin Management Tool --> https://helpmedevvon.com/products/bypass

BYPASS is designed to work efficiently on most modern Mac computers, so you can focus on making great music without worrying about compatibility. The program requires macOS 10.11 or later, a 64-bit processor, and at least 2 GB of RAM.

 

Works online ??? i found this for macs for uad pluguns removal https://shop.ryansummer.com/p/uad-plugins-tool/

 

Last edited: Oct 29, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Uninstalling is working for a short time, plug-ins that we don't own licence come back with the next update. I stop uninstalling them, now i'm adding plug-in in my DAW with a Stream Deck.

The advantage of a Stream Deck is now my plug-in are classified by genre and type. Fast access granted. Unowned UAD plug-ins are still installed but not present in my use list on this gear.

No more frustating "Start demo" when i add a UAD plugin from the list within DAW.

 

Wide Blue Sound Audio Plugin Uninstaller does the same thing, or close to it. It gets rid of a good majority of leftover junk too, but it's not as thorough as some Revo monitored install might be. It was free for quite awhile, and it's $9 or something now. It takes care of an annoyance almost as much as K5/K6 library adding was.

UA probably made a ton of money dumping all those pre-installed-but-not-activated plugins onto the system when you were installing their hardware. That's a nice way to make a $100+ 2 click decision so fast there is not a nanosecond for buyers remorse. I cannot think of any other reason why they did that.

There's got to be some workaround to it that does not involve giving them ~20gb space on your system disk. Maybe you could symlink their default installation locations directly into your trash can for when an update tries to put them back. (mostly joking). But I think for Mac, at least; creating a script would be a better option than just ssd surrender. Also keep in mind, each time they are reinstalled that way; are they also overwriting the plugins you'd keep with a new U2B binary each time? So each update actually reclaims back all the ssd space for the plugins you don't want, but also doubles the size of the ones you do want? Even that part sucks.

 

My workaround is that I do not give UAD the time of day...I only use it for the Apollo Twin MK2. For the plugins I use Waves Audio alternatives.

The other thing is that even though UAD have brought out 'native' versions of their plugins, they still expect you to pay for the native version for licenses you already own.

 

That might not be that bad now that you can find a used desktop unit for half their original prices. You get the benefit of nice convertors, but by not using their Apollo format plugins, you've taken away the whole expensive dongle aspect out. The rack units are still comparatively expensive to other manufacturers units if you want to get something with a serious amount of i/o. From my own personal experiences with any external dsp units for nearly any reason but live recording; it's a nice way to end up with poor resale values in the end. You can find people selling Twin X mkii Quad units used and in great condition for ~$600 now.