I just want to clarify exactly what program/s we have to UNinstall from an MC 5.0.3.7r installation before installing MC 5.5.  My assumption would be that I should first uninstall the 5.0.3.7r update patch as per the "new patch instructions," and then uninstall MC 5 from the main uninstall program list.  What I'm still not clear about, however, is whether or not I need to uninstall all the OTHER Avid programs in the uninstall list.  I'm NOT talking about third party programs or things like AvidFX -- I'm talking about the other "Avid" programs, i.e:

• Avid Audio Drivers (x64)
• Avid EDL Manager
• Avid FilmScribe
• Avid Log Exchange
• Avid MediaLog

Do I need to uninstall all of these as well before doing the MC 5.5 install?  Are there newer versions of these (that go with 5.5.1) that I should download and install?  I searched through the download pages, and I didn't see any separate downloads for any of the apps I just listed.  Am I supposed to use the ones I already have installed (which I believe were from the main MC 5.0 installation), or do these programs get updated during the main MC 5.5.1 installation?

Thanks for any help with this -- I just want to make sure I understand exactly what I'm supposed to do so I can avoid any potential issues.

Larry

lalittle:

I'm talking about the other "Avid" programs, i.e:

• Avid Audio Drivers (x64)
• Avid EDL Manager
• Avid FilmScribe
• Avid Log Exchange
• Avid MediaLog

 

Do I need to uninstall all of these as well

Yes, the first thing that you should do is to uninstall those, then uninstall Media Composer, restart and delete the Avid folder

So you uninstall the "other" stuff first.  Is it basically a "last on, first off" situation?

Are you certain about deleting the main "Avid" folder?  I've never seen that instruction in any of the documentation I've read, and I don't remember seeing this on the forums either.

On that note, are these more specific uninstall questions answered anywhere in the official documentation?  All I can find are instructions to "uninstall Avid MC before installing the new version," which doesn't address these questions.  I can't find any reference to how we're supposed to handle all the other programs.

Thanks again,

Larry

lalittle:

So you install the "other" stuff first. 

You meant uninstall of course

lalittle:

Are you certain about deleting the main "Avid" folder?  I've never seen that instruction in any of the documentation I've read, and I don't remember seeing this on the forums either.

You just got my own workflow, have always worked well,  I also have seen it described in some KB note I think

mjolnarn:

lalittle:

So you install the "other" stuff first. 

You meant uninstall of course

Yes -- thank you.  I fixed it above.

Larry

Do not forget to deactivate your software license FIRST, BEFORE uninstalling. And back up the following folders first: Avid Projects, Avid Users, Avid Attic.

Larry Rubin:

Do not forget to deactivate your software license FIRST, BEFORE uninstalling. And back up the following folders first: Avid Projects, Avid Users, Avid Attic.

I'm still using a dongle, so I apparently don't need to do any special deactivating.

So is everyone in agreement about the uninstall order, i.e:

Uninstall the "other" Avid apps first, i.e.

• Avid Audio Drivers (x64)
• Avid EDL Manager
• Avid FilmScribe
• Avid Log Exchange
• Avid MediaLog

 Then uninstall MC.

Also, is there a consensus about deleting the "Avid" folder.

I'm also still not clear about whether or not I'm supposed to uninstall the patch before uninstalling the main MC program.  Again, I don't see any of these questions addressed in any of the documentation I've read.

Thanks for clarification on all this stuff,

Larry

Larry:

I am of the opinion that it doesn't matter whether you uninstall the main application first and the ancillary "other" applications second, or vice versa, as long as it all gets uninstalled. In my uninstalling/reinstalling experience upgrading from 5.0.3 to 5.5.1, it was not necessary to separately delete the "Avid" folder. I also believe that NOT doing that is the reason that all projects and user profiles came back untouched after the upgrade without the need to manually restore them from back up folders. And uninstalling the main application also uninstalls any patch file you may have added, so there's no need to separately uninstall the patch file first before uninstalling the main application. This is all based on my personal experience.

And if you have the 3rd party plug-ins bundle Avid production suite, those DO NOT have to be uninstalled when upgrading.

I agree with all of the points that Larry mentions above.

I am also still on a Dongle, so activating/deactivating is not a worry to me either.

Regards,

Douglas

And Larry, since you're dongle based, after installing MC 5.5 you will need to go to the utilities folder and run the dongle manager to update it for the new version.

Thanks for all the help everybody.  Everything seems to have worked fine.

The only "bump" in the process was when rebooting after the MC 5.5 installation; the boot up took a really long time for some reason.  It was just holding on a black screen, and I would have done a hard reset after the amount of time it was taking, but there was still hard drive activity, so I let it go, and it FINALLY finished the boot.  Avid also took an unusually long time to start the first time, but subsequent starts were normal, so I assume that starting the program for the very first time may involve some other processes that have to be finished.

I decided not to delete the Avid folder, and as stated above, everything was where it was supposed to be on the first boot, including my custom interface layout, which was actually a really nice surprise.

The bottom line is that it all went pretty smoothly thanks to the help I got here.

Thanks again,

Larry

lalittle:

The only "bump" in the process was when rebooting after the MC 5.5 installation; the boot up took a really long time for some reason.  It was just holding on a black screen, and I would have done a hard reset after the amount of time it was taking, but there was still hard drive activity, so I let it go, and it FINALLY finished the boot.  Avid also took an unusually long time to start the first time, but subsequent starts were normal, so I assume that starting the program for the very first time may involve some other processes that have to be finished.

Using my own earlier described workflow including new user and system settings I have never seen the probs that you are describing, I have propably made about 100 uninstalls and reinstalls on three systems only during this last year

mjolnarn:

lalittle:

The only "bump" in the process was when rebooting after the MC 5.5 installation; the boot up took a really long time for some reason.  It was just holding on a black screen, and I would have done a hard reset after the amount of time it was taking, but there was still hard drive activity, so I let it go, and it FINALLY finished the boot.  Avid also took an unusually long time to start the first time, but subsequent starts were normal, so I assume that starting the program for the very first time may involve some other processes that have to be finished.

Using my own earlier described workflow including new user and system settings I have never seen the probs that you are describing, I have propably made about 100 uninstalls and reinstalls on three systems only during this last year

 

I'm not sure if it was a fluke that just happened to take place this particular time, or if there was something about the specific order of events that led to this, or if was something else (i.e. maybe some issue with virus scanning or indexing, or with drivers being added/removed.)  Maybe it was just one of those "windows things" that happens once in a while, and it happened to land on this boot and had nothing to do with the Avid install.  I don't think I'll ever really know unless I upgrade Avid again, and this most likley won't happen for a while. 

All I know is that subsequent boots have not done this again, so the bottom line is that in the end, other than the single long bootup and somewhat longer first Avid startup, everything seemed to work okay with no errors or any other oddities.  I think the only course of action at this point is to just move on with this installation and chalk the behavior up to "one of those things."

Just out of curiosity, why have you done SO many uninstalls/reinstalls on just 3 systems in a single year?  That just seems like a LOT of reinstalls.

Thanks again for the help here,

Larry

lalittle:

...or if was something else (i.e. maybe some issue with virus scanning or indexing...

lalittle:

All I know is that subsequent boots have not done this again...

Both of which lead me to believe that this was an anti-virus/firewall software issue, as clearly the firewall has now "learned" Media Composer.

lalittle:

Just out of curiosity, why have you done SO many uninstalls/reinstalls on just 3 systems in a single year?  That just seems like a LOT of reinstalls.

Just a part of a test process Larry, I was doing some tests with this latest 5,5 ( .1 )

Came out rather good I think, the test group are satisfied from what I understand,  I believe that Avid also share that opinion, with the work that have been done to give us all a better editor than MC 5.0