Re: IZotope Ozone 9 Advanced IZotope Neutron 3 Advanced Download
Jalisa Landgren
After trying to update several of my iZotope plugins through Product Portal, they all now crash validation when trying to use them in Logic Pro, and they all report the same reason for why they crashed validation, which is as follows (using Imager 2 as an example):
The only way that I have gotten any of these plugins to work is by hunting down links to individually download each plugin and avoid Product Portal completely. The major downside of this is that these individual downloads are always of much older versions
Are you also not able to manually download the latest version of Ozone 10 though your iZotope account?
According to BradyOKeefe the problem is with plugins downloaded through the iZotope Product Portal app.
I've tried manually downloading just now, and that also fails validation and crashes. I'm disappointed that you didn't get a response from them about this issue, as I just bought Ozone yesterday and will definitely be getting a refund if this is something they're not even attempting to fix.
I've been going back and forth with iZotope customer support. In their defense, they've been way more hands-on with this problem than when I've reached out to them in the past - so I retract the slight bashing in my original post.
To some of the posts above - I've tried downloading the plugins through Product Portal as well as using the direct downloads from iZotope.com. What I've concluded is that it doesn't matter where the plugins are downloaded from, as the downloading/installation is not related to the issue. The issue seems to be stemming from leftover / redundant authorization files that are seemingly still in my Mac library (could be wrong).
This isn't actually a fix to the issue, because when I logged back into my main Mac account and tried again, the problem came back. So the issue must be a problem within the [Username]>Library filesystem.
So long story short, the problem isn't fixed, but it was very reassuring to see the little check marks show up next to the problematic plugins after so many failed attempts, even though I wouldn't be able to use them there.
I'm hoping the next message I receive from Support will be able to build on this small accomplishment and I'll share the results.
Yeah it seems like they must be aware of the issue and their inability to fix it. So I'm a little frustrated that they haven't just sent me an older version of Neutron 4 and Vocal Synth so I could at least use those plugs while the problem is being handled. Running older versions of basically everything else at this point, which work but have their own bugs and aren't even Silicon native (I'm on an M1).
Update:
I went through 2 more back & forth emails with iZotope Customer Support. After looking more closely at the validation error/crash reports, the only thing that stuck out to them as unusual was something related to me using the Sound ID Reference plugin / standalone application (Which is a plugin / app that calibrates & flattens the frequency response of headphones and/or speakers - its great).
Their next email was basically them throwing in the towel and giving up on fixing the problem, saying they don't know how to fix the issue and there is likely some kind of corruption within my main Mac User account. They suggested I just use the second User account where the plugins are able to load, recognizing this is not an "ideal solution" (massive understatement) but its all they are able to come up with. Then they gave me a 30% off coupon and sent me on my merry way ?.
I usually like to give the benefit of the doubt to programmers / software engineers in these kinds of situations, as I know nothing about how to build plugins and keep them working smoothly for millions of different users using different systems.
But --- it seems absurd that I have hundreds of 3rd party plugins from dozens of different companies, some of which are literally just some guy making free plugins in his basement that he hasn't updated in 5 years, and yet all of those plugins are able to validate, work as expected and be updated with no issues. Then there's iZotope (combined with Native Instruments) who probably employs hundreds of the best plugin developers in the world, charges a premium price for their plugins, and yet tells me to accept that I can't use some of their plugins because of a problem with their software design.
I'm not sure how to proceed, as I don't know how to properly diagnose the problem or make sense of the whole User Account aspect of the problem. It's good to know there is some way of getting around the issue, so all it will take is finding a way of using that knowledge to fix the issue in the main user account. This will take the knowledge of someone more informed than myself to fix, but it seems that we are on our own in fixing this, so thats all I've got.
If I could suggest anything to help, it would be for anyone who is also having this same issue to contact customer support and report this issue. If enough people reach out about the same problem, they may be more inclined to actually use their resources and fix their problem.
I am having the same exact validation failures with Ozone 10 Advanced after the recent update. I, too, have reached out to iZotope/Native Instruments tech support but they have no solution. In their last email to me, I was told some of their plugins do not work in Final Cut Pro, but they said they should work in Logic (Audio Unit) and Reason (VST3), but such is not the case.
Sometimes I have, for reasons unknown, been successful in getting plugins to validate again by uninstalling everything, including the portal, and starting fresh. But such extreme measures had a history of breaking validation again later, either after another plugin update or by simply moving a non-validating plugin temporarily out of the plugin directory during testing and then putting it back. I have not had success bypassing the Portal and using individual installers, as they still fail validation. I, too, got the exact same Auvatool validation failure report as BradyOKeefe, and I emailed that to iZotope tech support along with a validation report for RX 10, which does pass validation, as a comparison to a plugin that works.
This ongoing validation issue that, for me, began with macOS Ventura, has crippled my music production efforts, as I had used several iZotope plugins in my workflow. What has become painfully clear over the past year is that iZotope, now Native Instruments, is not making an effort to fix this issue through programming of the affected plugins. Either they do not understand what changed in Ventura or perhaps they lost their competent coder. The fact that RX 10 and several other of their plugins continue to validate versus Ozone 10 and other plugins that no longer validate is telling.
Why they won't address these validation issues is beyond my comprehension. I have all but given up asking tech support, as they show no signs of wanting to fix the failures on their end. To me, it looks like the problem is in the plugin coding itself. This is an iZotope coding problem, not a user-fixable problem.
Although I have been a loyal iZotope customer since their inception with the release of RX, this weekend, I seriously began looking for a replacement to the Ozone plugin suite, such as Sonible Studio Bundle. I. would much prefer to keep using Ozone, but if iZotope/NI is not going to resolve these longstanding validating issues, I personally don't have much choice anymore.
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