Yesterday saw the new update and installed in on my Windows 7 computer at my work. On this particular PC I’m restricted to not being able to run most Windows installers so I always update Audacity using the .zip files. As usual I opened the .zip and copied the contents to my existing Audacity directory. I am also restricted with read-only access to any directory other than User directories, including Program Files, and Program Files (x86). I am able to write to any User Directory including AppData. So as a workaround I have installed Audacity to c:(Username)\Downloads\Audacity_... In the past I had just followed the naming format as it is in the downloaded .zip file: audacity-win-2.2.1, audacity-win-2.1.3, audacity-win-2.2.2, etc.
In the past I would just copy the new files from the updated .zip to the existing audacity directory in my downloads directory and manually change the directory name to the updated version. audacity-win-2.2.1 changed to audacity-win-2.2.2 for example in this case. However, I’ve noticed that when I do that it causes the plugin config to get messed up, typically using the add/remove effects will show multiple directories for my VST effects, even when only the current directory actually exists.
Trying to load or use a plugin that is showing up under an incorrect directory will return a failure to initialize plugin error on attempt to load. So what I usually would have to do would be to only enable the effects in the current directory listing and manually disable those in any incorrect directories.
Since this most recent update I have started to get some specific error messages when attempting to add effects with add/remove effects menu. I’m attaching screenshots of the two errors. essentially they seem to be about the same:
Both say : Effect at :C:(User)\Downloads\audacity-win-2.2.2\Plug-ins\ (effect name).dll failed to register. The second error just includes additional information of : Could not load the library.
So in order to fix this issue I attempted to just rename the Audacity directory in downloads folder to “Audacity” and leave out the version number. I then deleted the pluginregistry.cfg and pluginsettings.cfg and attempted to re-add/enable the plugins using the add/remove effects menu. The plugins are showing as “New” under the current directory c:(User)\Downloads\Audacity\Plug-ins.
However, I am getting the same error messages when attempting to enable them. I am certain the plug-ins I’m attempting to add work with Audacity and my other DAW, Reaper, still has no problem with loading them (after updating the VST config path in Reaper to include the current Audacity plug-in folder path). So that would seem to rule out corruption or similar issue with the actual plug-in.dll files.
I have also attempted to delete all Audacity .cfg files, including Audacity.cfg, and then deleting the entire audacity folder in AppData as well. It works to reset Audacity to initial configuration, and when add/remove effects is called the paths for the plug-ins is correct and shows the changed Audacity directory: c:(user)\downloads\Audacity\Plug-ins). But enabling them and clicking OK causes these error messages to come up on every single plugin that I’m trying to enable. So far I haven’t had time to sit here and click OK on each and every one of them to see if can get through all the errors, the time listed is fluctuating up to many many hours, etc.
Anybody have any idea what the heck I can do here to be able to get plug-ins working again?