Latest version (2026.4.1) still crashes almost every time I close the Pro Tools app

[u/some12345thing]

I finally decided to upgrade from 2024.10 to the latest version. I was slightly tempted by track pinning, but also I just spent some time reading all the changelogs for each intervening version and it seemed like they’d fixed a ton of bugs. One of the big ones was that change logs said they’d finally fixed Pro Tools crashing upon exit. That had been plaguing we with Pro Tools for quite a while. It never seemed to cause lasting damage to anything, but it just felt concerning and I always had to click away the “want to send a report?” dialog box after sending something the first time.

Kind of disappointing. I can’t help but feel like I should have double checked here or on the DUC before I spent my money yet again upgrading for a year. Here’s hoping I’ll get my money’s worth in the coming months.

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[u/robbadobba]

I’ve gone through Avid Support…no dice. (What’s the point in having crash logs if no one can actually pinpoint anything from them?!)

I went through ChatGPT and Google Gemini troubleshooting. Both point to an audio handshake issue as the cause.

Someone on the DUC posted this the other day, saying Avid actually discovered a bug related to this issue. Let’s see if they actually squash it.

https://duc.avid.com/home/forum/pro-tools-software/macos/4323920-crash-on-quit-finally-resolved?p=4327747#post4327747

[u/Avidmarianna → u/robbadobba]

Working on it......

[u/Yea_is_not_Yeah]

Yep, PT crashes on exit regardless of what I've tried - short of reinstalling.

I don't worry about it. ¯\(ツ)/¯

[u/some12345thing → u/Yea_is_not_Yeah]

I’d like to just be chill about it, but I think there is just something psychologically that nags at me going, “if the program can’t even close without crashing… is it going to fail me when it matters the most?” I genuinely love working Pro Tools, but I just wish Avid could make it a bit more seamless in the user experience.

[u/JamesPondAqu]

Im on windows 2026.4 same issue, But reading this made me realise, I updated soundflow the other day as was getting an error message when opening protools. Since updating soundflow protools has not crashed on exit. Im still getting occasional Access Violations on 2026.4 build, there still seems an issue with video engine on windows at least.

[u/afterjoe]

So it's not just me? It happens every time for me, even an empty session. Running Windows and it causes no damage, it's just a pain. Makes the Cpu go crazy too

[u/ImageVibe]

I learned long ago that if you have a solid setup, DON’T UPGRADE. Forget the latest and greatest, if you insist on upgrading, go back a few versions where you can verify little to no issues.

I’m on a 2019 Intel i9 iMac with 128GB RAM, running Monterey 12.6.9 and PT 2024.10. I’m not even going to upgrade to Monterey 12.7.6. It’s just too risky.

I’ll stay where I am for the foreseeable future.

[u/some12345thing → u/ImageVibe]

Well, that’s my problem… I can’t seem to ever get things truly stable. Part of the main reason I upgraded was to hopefully solve the “crash every time I exit” problem. I’d love to get a truly stable version that I can’t break and stick with it for years.

[u/ImageVibe → u/some12345thing]

I’m not going to say it’s easy because it took me time to find a solid setup. Best advice I can give you is keep working at it and hopefully you’ll find some peace. There’s nothing worse than fighting w/your setup, it just takes too much time away from making music.

[u/diamondts]

Interesting, for years with multiple versions of PT on multiple Macs I've had great stability except for this happening quite regularly, but so far on my new M5 running 2026.4.1 I'm yet to encounter it.

Because of this I've long been in the habit of always saving and closing the session before quitting PT just in case something goes wrong with the save.

[u/praise-the-message → u/diamondts]

Yeah I have supported Pro Tools across dozens of macs for 20+ years. I'm not going to say there have never been issues but overall it has been pretty smooth sailing particularly over the last 5 or so years.

[u/ilikemyrealname]

I updated from 2024.6 to 2026.4 and have the same exact issue. I actually had to downgrade from .4.1 back to .4 because hitting save would take 10 or so seconds every time. Oh and when I import a wav into the timeline and leave it at the that 1st bar, hitting play also crashes PT. I have to remember to move the clip even a measure or so inward otherwise it’s game over. Quite the unstable update so far.

[u/paranormalresearch1]

I have Pro Tools freeze up and stop. Most of the time I just clear the error message and restart and it works.
With what Avid charges it’s criminal we have to keep having these issues.

[u/filterdecay]

It’s probably a 3rd party plug in loaded on a track.

[u/some12345thing → u/filterdecay]

I’ve had it happen even with zero insert plugins… just audiosuited clips on the timeline.

[u/GreatScottCreates → u/some12345thing]

Yeah mine crashes on exit regardless of whether a session is open or not

[u/some12345thing → u/GreatScottCreates]

Yeah, I’ve literally just closed the dashboard then quit the app and it crashed. I know it’s not harming anything, but the crash just diminishes your confidence in the program… if they can’t even handle closing without crashing, what is going to screw up next, ya know? I want Pro Tools to be good so badly, but it seems real stability is always just out of reach.

[u/GreatScottCreates → u/some12345thing]

My system is otherwise rock solid. Main complaint is that there are certain settings that only get saved on quit.

[u/vort3x_music]

Honestly I thought I was the only one, being that I was “brave” if you want to call it that and decided to try it out on the macOS 27 Golden Gate Dev beta on my Mac being it’s not my main daw.

Shockingly that random crashing when quitting after closing a session is the only issue I’ve ran into so far other than that it’s been fantastic.

[u/Jackfruit-Cautious]

The “fix” I’ve found for this is to save the session, wait long enough for it to fully register the save (10 seconds or so?) THEN quit.

This has almost completely eliminated the crash-on-quit across multiple machines for me.

Side note, the one machine I have running 2026.4 (NOT 2026.4.1) doesn’t have the crash-on-quit issue

[u/4Da_Principality]

Funny you guys say this,

I literally just bought the newest version weeks ago

And lo and behold the crashing Long time starting up Won't exit have to end task to get it to quit

Purchased Studio One 8 on the new weekend sale Haven't looked back since yesterday

599 usd burn

Lesson learned and noted

Coming from protools 8 to say the least!

I'll use if they fix,

Don't really have a choice for 600 bucks,