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FIX: Waves Preferences “Don’t ask me again”

Make that Waves Preferences pop up dialog window go away forever WITHOUT having to uninstall and reinstall your plugins.

June 21st, 2014 | Recording, Technology | , , , , , , , , , | Comments: 22

The Problem

After doing a fresh install of Pro Tools and my Waves plugins, this Waves 9.2.100 Preferences dialog window (pictured below) kept popping up every time I fired up Pro Tools.

screen grab of Waves 9.2.100 Preferences dialog window

Checking the “Don’t ask me again” checkbox didn’t seem to be working.

I searched for some solutions on the Google machine and found some forums were recommending a complete uninstall and reinstall of all Waves plugins. This didn’t seem necessary. Here’s the fix I used:

The Fix

  1. Quit Pro Tools.
  2. Trash the entire Waves Preferences folder. The folder is located in the Preferences folder in your user Library folder, not your system Library folder. A quick way to locate the folder is to switch to the Finder and hit Shift+Command+G. A Go to Folder dialog window will pop up. Copy and paste the following line in that field and hit enter. 
    ~/Library/Preferences/Waves Preferences

    Put that folder in the trash and empty the trash.

  3. Start Pro Tools.
  4. A window should pop up asking you to select the Waves 9.2 Plug-Ins folder. By default, it should be located in the Waves folder in your Applications folder. 
    /Applications/Waves/Waves Plug-Ins

    Once you’ve located the folder, click Open.

  5. The Waves 9.2.100 Preferences dialog window should pop up again. The “Don’t ask me again” box should be checked. If not, check it and hit OK.
  6. To test if everything worked, quit Pro Tools and start it again. The Waves dialog window shouldn’t reappear.

About the Fix

I adapted this solution from a somewhat unrelated problem I found on Sweetwater Sound’s SweetCare Knowledge Base. The fix definitely works for the following system set up. YMMV

  • OS X Mavericks 10.9.3
  • Pro Tools 9.0.6
  • Waves 9.2.100 plugins

Please leave a comment below if this helped you or not.

22 Comments >

22 Comments

  1. 1 Ilya 10:27 pm Jul 12, 2014

    Thank you very much! You just save me! ))

  2. 2 Aaron 4:05 pm Aug 12, 2014

    Thank you very much…That box was driving be crazy…Now there’s new headaches to take on!!! Peace!!!

  3. 3 Jimmy 6:00 am Aug 19, 2014

    Sweeeet release!!! Thank you=D

  4. 4 Sean McDonald 2:51 am Jan 12, 2015

    works like a charm, thanks!

  5. 5 Michael 9:10 am Feb 11, 2015

    Thanks man!! Sorted me right out!

  6. 6 Prince Titus 8:28 pm May 14, 2015

    Thank you, Thank you Thank you much. This really helped to solved my problem. I used Pro Tools 11 and waves plugins 9.3, though, it helps. Thanks much

  7. 7 Scott Troyer 8:36 pm May 14, 2015

    Cool. Happy it worked for you.

  8. 8 Rodak 2:04 pm Sep 16, 2015

    Thanks! It also works with Windows 7/8/10. All you have to do is remove “C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Waves Audio\Preferences” folder and start ProTools.

  9. 9 Scott Troyer 2:31 pm Sep 16, 2015

    Thanks for the Windows tip.

  10. 10 singingdetective 10:36 am Feb 26, 2016

    Thanks! Works with pt 10.3.10 and mavericks 10.9.5

  11. 11 Amir Perry 2:10 am Apr 11, 2016

    Thank you!!! Had this going on for weeks and couldn’t figure it out but you saved the day!

  12. 12 basem 2:23 pm Sep 20, 2016

    I can’t find the “~/Library/Preferences/Waves Preferences” folder. what to do?

  13. 13 Scott Troyer 3:16 pm Sep 20, 2016

    Make sure your Library is not hidden. Check the instructions under the heading “Locating The Files” on this page: http://scotttroyer.com/2014/05/export-midi-from-garageband/

  14. 14 Rod 5:45 pm Mar 2, 2017

    Windows 10. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

  15. 15 Joseph Smith 6:34 am Mar 4, 2017

    Mavericks 10.9.5 and PT10
    Great fix thanks!

  16. 16 Mike Powers 2:48 am Oct 11, 2019

    Thank you so much for this info!! This issue has been a problem for months. Thank you!!!

  17. 17 Dave 6:22 am Apr 18, 2020

    Thank you so much…that fåß∂ƒ∞∆ªº@@@ panel

  18. 18 Jon 3:29 pm Jul 23, 2020

    That box was driving me crazy, thank you for the concise and useful article.

  19. 19 Daniel 10:29 pm Oct 28, 2020

    Thanks so much FOR THIS FIX; this has been a daily pain in the neck…I have Windows 10 PC…used this and worked like a charm: Just remove the entire Preferences folder:
    “C:UsersYourUserNameAppDataRoamingWaves AudioPreferences” folder and start ProTools

  20. 20 Oscar 10:19 pm Nov 25, 2020

    you’re the true MVP

  21. 21 T 12:18 pm Apr 19, 2022

    Protools 8 will not allow me to click on wave locater window to select plugins?

  22. 22 Scott Troyer 1:21 pm Apr 19, 2022

    Hi T, this article was for a fix that worked way back on Protools 9. I’m on ProTools Ultimate now. Not sure if this works the same on version 8. Let me know if you figure it out.

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