Waves Central has broken my FCPX

My letter to wave.com Support. Perhaps someone here can help?

I am very upset with Waves company destroying the products that I have bought and paid for.

I am running Mac OS X 10.14 on my iMac Pro and FCPX 10.4.8. I had purchased a number of Waves plugins, which I enjoyed using - until today.

I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that my license will allow an installation also on my MacBook Pro 13" (15,2), which is running Catalina. I discovered that my licenses, which are V10, are not compatible with Catalina, and Waves wants me to pay $129 just so that I can continue using what I already fully paid for!

So I go back to my iMac (Mojave) and launch the Waves App, which refuses to run unless I upgrade it to the latest version. So I do that, but the latest version, although installed with no apparent errors, is unable to launch! So I start FCPX, and now I get an infinite loop saying that my Waves plugins are unlicensed, and I can't even use FCPX without Waves, as the loop about the license missing is impossible to get out of.

I have to exercise great restraint in not expressing my feelings in a rather strong manner, but please:

1) Advise me on how to REMOVE any Demo Waves plugins that have expired
2) Advise me on how to ensure that my licensed and paid for Waves plugins will work
3) Clarify to me if my license should allow a 2nd installation on my MacBook Pro?

I NEED FCPX TO BE WORKING FOR MY JOB, so this is very urgent!

Paul Szilard

Please note:
- I have downloaded and installed the latest Waves Central, v11.0.55 | 2020
- It does NOT load. The progress bar freezes at approximately 80%, so I cannot uninstall any Waves components. Even after a reboot.

Got rid of Waves and able to run FCPX:
- Ran Plugin Manager by Digital Rebellion
- Searched for WAVE and then Reveal in Finder
- Deleted all Wave components, and emptied recycle bin
- Opened CleanMyMac X and deleted Waves Central
- Emptied the bin

FCPX now starts without any Waves plugins, and I can kiss good bye to my purchases from Waves!

Ouch. Hope you did nothing else in CleanMyMac. It's the ruin of many systems and is basically malware for pro apps systems. If you find your performance has suddenly dropped off markedly this might be a cause.

So not cool!
Hate paying for things that break down.
Was going to suggest Command Post for getting ride of the Plugin
But re/read and just saw you found “Plugin Manager by Digital Rebellion”
At lest there is an end if not a happy end.

Not sure if you are confusing CleanMyMac X with Mac Keeper?

Mac Keeper IS a malware and should be avoided at all costs, whereas CleanMyMac from Macpaw, in my experience, is a solid and useful product. I've been using it on almost my customers' Macs without a single problem.

Feel free to comment if your experience or information is pointing to the contrary.

I regard Waves as RANSOM WARE. They are holding my already purchased V10 plugins to ransom, so that I am unable to use my $300+ purchases, unless I pay an additional $126. On top of that, I am prevented from running the older, working Waves Central control program, as it immediately after starting updates to a new version, which FAILS TO LOAD. This means that I am UNABLE to access any of my Waves purchases!

Thank God I had Plugin Manager, otherwise I would be locked out of FCPX!!! WTF guys?

PROGRESS (work around)
I looked at the Waves community forum and found that others have reported issues with starting Waves Central - the controlling app for all their tools. Waves have acknowledged the problem and suggested to unplug every USB external drives, and that they are working on a fix...

I just did that (after reinstalling Waves Central for the nth time), and lo and behold, the current version of Waves came up and gave me back my V10 plugins! Hurrah!

I gave up on Waves long ago because of such issues... Couldn't pay me enough to use them...

They’re about equally vile.

My note to the WAVES Forum ( LINK ):

I think having to pay to just use what I have ALREADY paid for is tantamount to ransomware! I am aware that the developer has costs in making their apps convert to 64 bit and Catalina compatible, but this should be part of their overhead/operating cost, and not an excuse to gauge their user base just to pay for using what they have already bought!!! I would have thought that V11 should be free and that would buy user respect and commitment and further purchases, instead of driving users away!

In contrast, I have a significant dollar investment in Fujifilm X system, but Fuji provides FREE of charge the firmware updates, which have included even new functionality, not just fixes. As a result, I have now 3 camera bodies and 21 lenses! I don't think I will be buying any further Waves plugins at this rate, as I find their lack of supporting the user base unacceptable.

FURTHERMORE, if Waves is aware that the current Waves Central v11.0.55 does NOT work if the user has USB drives plugged in, then they should IMMEDIATELY withdraw that version until they have fixed the problem, instead of leaving the users in the pooh without a notice. If I was CEO of Waves, I would sack my development manager on the spot!!! The current lack of support is verging on the criminal.

And my post in response to Waves admitting that they are "aware" of the problem and "working very hard to fix it":

Not acceptable! You should IMMEDIATELY withdraw Waves Central v11.0.55 and roll back to a working previous version, until you have this fixed. At the VERY LEAST, you should add a message to v11 to say “Please disconnect USB Drives before staring this App!”.

We, the users, can understand that programming problems can arise, but cannot understand why Waves does remedy the situation as I have outlined. Waves is succeeding in driving user confidence into the basement!