Rain Computers

As a frequent Pro Tools user, I come into, well, frequent contact with its bizarre error prompts commonly known as assertion errors. These frequently occur upon loading the program, or shutting down, but also can cripple your computer into hard reboot mid-session. They happen at random times, for seemingly no reason (or at least consistent reason) imaginable. They also are followed by some inordinate combination of numbers and letters that make no sense whatsoever. You can take a screen shot of the prompt and spend your day typing the code into the Digidesign site's search engine to find an indefinite reason that may or may not help, but before doing so, give this a try.

More often than not, a reboot does not solve the problem because the issue lies in the inner depths of the computer's preferences cache (files that are created by a program temporarily for quick information retrieval). What works more often than not, however, is deleting these files from your system to force Pro Tools to create fresh files when opening the program again. The operation itself is pretty simple, you just have to do a little searching:

Mac Solution

First thing is first: Delete every 'Digidesign Databases' folder from every drive mounted on your computer (internal and external).

Secondly: In finder, go to the 'Home' root directory. This is usually the user's (system administrator in this case) login name. Then 'Library', and finally 'Preferences'. There are a pile of preference cache files in here, many of which beginning with '.com ...'. Your task is to delete ANY file or folder in here that contains the words 'Digi', 'Pro Tools', or 'DAE', in any carnation therein. This usually includes 1-3 '.com ...' files along with the 'DAE Prefs' folder and the 'DigiSetup.OSX' file. Delete all of those and trash your recycle bin.

Lastly: To start fresh, reboot your computer now and open up Pro Tools directly from your dock, and not from the session file. Start a raw session, add a track, and make sure you are up and running. Now close that session (keeping Pro Tools open) and open up your last session.

Windows PC Solution

Everything is the same, however, your locations are different. These are from the Digi site:

DAE Prefs: Start menu > My Computer > Local Disk (C:) or correct Hard Drive > Click "Show the contents of this drive", if files aren't showing > Program Files > Common Files > Digidesign > DAE > Delete DAE Prefs folder

Pro Tools Preferences: Start Menu > My Computer > Local Disk (C:) or correct Hard Drive > Documents and Settings > Your user file folder > Application Data > Digidesign > right-click on Pro Tools Preferences.PTP file and delete. Empty Recycle Bin and Restart. (If the Application Data file is not showing: Tools Menu > Folder Options > View Tab > Select "Show Hidden Files and Folders" > Click Apply and OK. Click on Back arrow and start again at Local Disk (C:) and repeat steps.

Note: This will delete any specific preferences of your own that you had set in your template or last session. Be sure to reset these to your liking when you get back up and running.

This is no foolproof solution for these mysterious errors, but it generally does the trick. There's no harm in doing this any number of times you encounter these errors. Hopefully less often than you'd like.