Pro Tools maintenance, session inspection and audio-file tools

PT Prefs takes dated snapshots of supported preferences and support data, with a configurable destination. It can continue an existing PT Prefs 2 backup folder, so an established backup history is preserved when upgrading.

You can keep unlimited snapshots, or set retention between 1 and 10 completed snapshots. A new snapshot completes before any older ones beyond retention are moved to Trash, and incomplete backups are never offered for restore. Full Restore returns the supported contents of a snapshot; Advanced Restore lets you restore only selected categories — useful for recovering I/O Settings or presets without bringing back every previous preference.

Backups include the Pro Tools Documents support content: Clip Effects and Fade presets, Grooves, I/O Settings, Plug-In Maps and Settings, Pro Tools Presets, Session Templates and Track Presets. This is preference and support-data backup, not a backup of PTX sessions, audio or video files, or a whole workstation.

A maintenance sequence: capture a dated working snapshot first, quit Pro Tools before any changing operation, reset only the relevant category, reopen Pro Tools and test, then restore selected presets or I/O only if the test shows you need them. A backup restores supported preferences and support data, not sessions, media, plug-ins or an entire Mac. A cache restored from before plug-in updates may not describe today's installation, so check what a snapshot predates before relying on it.

The CLI and local HTTP JSON interfaces remain maintenance-only, same-Mac and authenticated — they are not remote analysis tools. No maintenance step is a universal cure; test after each change before moving on.

Plug-in Sets are repeatable named collections with comments and editable membership. New Set captures the currently active movable plug-ins; New Empty Set starts without optional plug-ins; the built-in [All Plugins] set returns movable bundles to active. Editing a definition and activating it are separate steps — activation changes which bundles sit in the active and unused folders.

Sets are useful for minimal troubleshooting configurations, dialogue editing, music mixing or particular studio setups. Newly installed products do not silently join old sets; you add them to the membership explicitly. Deleting a definition does not uninstall any product. Protected and Waves components sit outside normal set control.

A practical minimal-troubleshooting workflow: create a New Empty Set, activate it to remove optional movable AAX bundles from the active folder, relaunch Pro Tools and test, then return to your working set. Protected and specially managed components retain their own state.

A manufacturer set gathers the selected manufacturer's installed movable AAX bundles for review. It is a quick way to see everything one vendor has installed across the active and unused folders before deciding what to keep active. As with any set, it contains AAX bundle membership, not binaries, licences, presets or processing settings, and activating it only moves supported movable bundles.

PTX Sessions → Create Plugin Set… (Pro) builds a set from the selected saved PTX, not from unsaved Pro Tools inserts. Save the intended session in Pro Tools first, load or select its PTX, wait for scanning to finish, then choose Create Plugin Set… and review the matches before inspecting the resulting set. The filename supplies a distinct set name; a name collision adds a numerical suffix. Installed unused AAX bundles can match.

Match evidence uses identifiers and cached or full product names. Ambiguous strongest matches stay unresolved rather than arbitrarily choosing a bundle. Shared-shell products use the matching physical shell bundle, so activating the set may expose other products in that shell. Missing AU or VST versions cannot stand in for missing AAX.

Unresolved session plug-ins appear separately as red warning rows without editable activation boxes, with the set name and comment shown red while unresolved. If some plug-ins match, an incomplete set can be deliberately created; if none match, no set is created. Creation does not activate, move plug-ins, transfer licences, copy settings or edit the PTX. Resolve missing or ambiguous installations and refresh metadata before recreating or reviewing the set; do not treat this as a compatibility certification. Activating an incomplete set may deactivate optional bundles not included in it.

New Current snapshots the active movable folders; New Empty starts without optional movable plug-ins; protected Core/System and managed Waves components retain their established handling.

PTX inventory inspects saved PTX files without opening them in Pro Tools. You can inspect a single file or run recursive folder scans, with an option to include session backups. For each file it reports session version, date and size, sample and frame rates, audio and track counts, notes, media state, and the tracks and plug-ins stored in the file.

Media covers audio and video. PT Prefs checks recorded paths and the conventional session Audio Files and Video Files folders, including parent-session context for backup PTX files. The session summary reports Checking, Complete, Missing, Error or No Media. Individual references show their link status, with recorded and resolved paths and diagnostics in tooltips. Complete means the references resolve on the current Mac, not that the archive is self-contained; Missing often means a drive is unmounted or media has been moved. PT Prefs does not relink or rewrite PTX files. A selected saved session can be refreshed after a save.

Excel and text exports can include optional Media Filepaths and Tracks/Plug-ins. Media Filepaths covers supported audio and video references together, not an audio-only filepath option. Tracks/Plug-ins is independent. Main reports also include supported markers and track markers where decoded — marker track, number, name, timecode or position and comment — alongside clips, groups, playlists and notes.

For an incoming session, the inventory shows its scale, sample and frame rates, track and plug-in counts and whether its media is online before you commit time to opening it. For an archive, a recursive scan catalogues every stored PTX with media state, so you can see which sessions still resolve and which need relinking — without opening each one.

A practical handover: confirm you have the intended PTX, mount the media it references, and let the media checks settle before reading the summary. Then inspect Track Details, Edit View, I/O and Routing for the structure you need. Investigate any Missing references using the recorded and resolved paths in the tooltips — Missing usually means a drive is unmounted or media has moved, not that the archive is broken. Export the detail you need once the picture is clear.

"Complete" means the recorded paths resolve on this Mac, not that the archive is portable or self-contained. PT Prefs does not relink or edit PTX files, and inspection does not modify the source files. All reported values are saved or decoded data, not live values; Pro Tools must save for recent edits to appear, so refresh the selected file after a save before comparing results.

The I/O view groups hardware inputs and outputs, buses and sub-buses, and bus-to-hardware-output assignments. Columns show name, type, width and assignment/table, with Copy and Export Summary. These are the session's stored definitions, useful when moving between rooms — not live hardware validation.

The routing grid lays out sources as rows and destinations as columns, covering outputs and sends with send letters A–J. Source filters let you focus on Track, Aux, Bus or Input; destination filters cover Track In, Aux In, Bus and Out. The grid scrolls and highlights crosspoints on click.

Circular routes flag all involved crosspoints red with a !, so a loop such as !A identifies Send A as part of the loop, following normal outputs and sends through bus-to-track and Aux connections. This is a potential feedback warning based on saved routing, not proof of audible feedback. A typical path to check: a track routes to a bus, the bus feeds an Aux, and the Aux feeds a print track.

After a target scan, Adjust WAV creates adjusted copies. Originals are left unchanged. Output goes to a folder beside the source named _PT Prefs - Preset Name: adjusted files are written as _normalised.wav, and already-passing files are copied as _unmodified.wav.

Gain is limited to ±24 dB, with a limiter path used when needed to hold a true-peak ceiling. Outputs are measured again before the completed output is made available, and the completion report distinguishes adjusted, copied, skipped and failed items. Measuring tells you the loudness; Adjust WAV changes the audio to meet a target — listen to the adjusted deliveries to confirm they still sound right.

A Finder Quick Action and Services item named PT Prefs Loudness opens the app and starts measurement of the selected WAV files or folder using your saved preset, once the app has been launched once. It requires Pro and does not need the HTTP server. Folder selection follows the same non-recursive behaviour as the main tool.

A typical pass: scan the delivery folder with WAV/AIFF Integrity and review any warnings or errors first. Then measure loudness against the correct target preset, reading the integrated LUFS, true peak and loudness range. If a file fails, select it and run Adjust WAV, which writes separate adjusted copies, caps gain at ±24 dB, uses limiting when needed for the true-peak ceiling, and re-measures the output before completing. Inspect the adjusted, copied, skipped and failed counts, then audition the adjusted deliveries to confirm they still sound right. Originals are preserved throughout; Adjust WAV works with WAV input and does not support AIFF adjustment.