Media composer 7 was working well until yesterday when it slowed for a minute when 'initializing audio', after which it would boot up to the composer windows and project selection screen.

On choosing any project, the settings would not load immediately, but if left for a couple of minutes or more, it would eventually load project and all would appear to run well. If the cursor was moved over parts of the compser before the composer window appeared, the spinning beachball would appear, and the the dock the Avid symbol offered the 'force quit' option, which I took initially then later discoved that left to it's own devices it would start! Phew, some relief at least!

Recently I had to replace my original hard drive with a Samsung 500gb SSD, but re-installation of all programmes from time machine worked really well and Avid appeared unaffected and worked like new.

I have recently added plugins for Canon and Sony cameras which did not affect boot up time at all

I have uninstalled all Avid components, downloaded the latest version and reinstalled, but the problem persists.

I have used Avid at the BBC since the time it was being developed and seen huge improvements, but this issue is very frustratiing.

I am wondering if a recent Mac update may have affected it?

I am working on a 2009 Macbook Pro with 4Gb of memory and 3.06Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo and Samsung 500Gb Eco SSD

Graphics  NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB   Software  OS X 10.8.5 (12F37)

Roger

I´m seeing this myself when having upgraded to the uncertified 10,8,5 , not sure if it is longer than with the certified 10,8,4.

I´m not seeing this as a big thing myself as I usually only open up my Avid once or twice a day, sometimes I actually have it opened up also at nights.

If you are running an anti-virus solution, try disabling it and see if that makes a difference. We had this on the PC side and it turned out to be AV scanning the audio plugins folder. At least for the delay during startup. 

Thanks for sharing similar experiences, I was concerned it may have had something to do with my newly installed Samsung SSD, and the time machine reinstall. Media Composer 7 has on occasion got throught the audio setup quickly, but then after selecting project takes minutes just to load settings, so either watch the spinning beachball in anticipation or go make a quick coffee by which time it is up and running. Very frustrating as my Final Cut Pro 7 on the same machine has no problems like that at all !

Come on Avid, where's the solution to this tiny but time consuming problem?

Same problem, hangs on "Initializing Audio". Also on a 2009 MacBook Pro (5,2), 8GB memory, 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT 512 MB. I thought it was my heard drive, so I upgraded to an OWC 240GB SSD. It boots a little faster, but same problem with hanging on "Initializing Audio". It also hangs on reading project settings. This happens with 10.8.5, 10.9.1, and 10.9.2.

Hi 

I have the same problem. Media Composer is taking a very long time to start up on my computer. Initializing audio takes about a minute and then reading project and user settings also about 1 minute each. During these moments I can see the system's audio is being muted on and off repeatedly.

I now discoverded that when my computer is playing music, from itunes for example, start up time of Media Composer is normal like it should be!? 

Of course now I can always play music during the boot process of Media Composer. But does anyone have any idea how I could fix the slow start up time in a better way?

I have a clean instal of OSX and MC without other software installed. And no third party audio interface connected.

thanks

Tom

I am wondering if this could be the side effect of all the HDCP software/hardware processes being deployed to protect music copyrights...

Then it would be a possitive side effect. Did anyone manage to fix this slow start up problem or tried what I suggested?

Antonio Manriquez:

Same problem, hangs on "Initializing Audio". Also on a 2009 MacBook Pro (5,2), 8GB memory, 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA Geforce 9600M GT 512 MB. I thought it was my heard drive, so I upgraded to an OWC 240GB SSD. It boots a little faster, but same problem with hanging on "Initializing Audio". It also hangs on reading project settings. This happens with 10.8.5, 10.9.1, and 10.9.2.

I was having the same problem on a PC with MC 7.0.2 (it would take 5+ minutes to boot MC), and projects would take another 2-3 minutes to open (and it would display reading user settings, but really it was just trying to open a bin).  The cause was the new AMA Management.

Apparently (at least on PC), the AMA Management Database is a series of folders (1 for each CLIP you link, each folder containing a .pmr and.mdb file) on your C (system) drive.  So if you have 1,000 AMA clips in all your projects, that's 1,000 folders, and 2,000 database files!!!  And it loads all of these databases at startup (immediately after "Initializing Audio").

To fix:
I loaded MC (and waited for it), opened the console and typed "manageama off".  It should return a message saying "AMA Management Disabled."  This just means new AMA linked clips will not show up in the Media Tool, but will work as they did in MC6.5 and older.  You must do this each time you open Media Composer if you need to link new AMA clips.  It won't scan anymore at startup, but it will still add to the database unless you type in the command each time you start MC.

You can tell the difference in AMA Linking if management is on or off.  When management is on, it displays a progress bar much like the traditional Import bar.  When management is off, the clips will populate in the bin with no progress bar.

You can find more on this in the Knowledge Base:
http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/how_to/How-to-disable-AMA-Managed-Media-to-increase-performance?popup=true&NewLang=en&DocType=1080

Antonio Manriquez:

It also hangs on reading project settings.

Even if this thread might be a little bit old maybe it helps someone ...

I see long startup times of AMC and hangs while loading user settings when a controller interface (avid color) is not connected but is set up in the settings. So check if something in the settings is looking for something that isn't there(, if you can remember or guess it).