Our friends at The Cargo Cult have informed us that Pro Tools 12.5 causes loss of automation data with Spanner and Slapper plug-ins. They have also made us aware that this bug can also be an issue with other third party plug-ins. 

Pro Tools Automation Bug With Slapper and Spanner

Using Pro Tools 12.5.x to open a session which was last saved using certain different versions of Slapper or Spanner. When the session is opened, some automated parameters will switch to "disabled for automation", causing all automation for that parameter to be lost. There will be no warning to the problem occurring.

Example Scenarios

• Passing a session back and forth between 2 systems, each with different versions of the plug-ins, and at least one of them on Pro Tools 12.5. Each time it will lose more parameters.
• Upgrading your plugin to current, then opening a session in Pro Tools 12.5. 
• Opening an old session in Pro Tools 12.5 which was last saved with older versions of the plugin

Upgrade Spanner & Slapper To Most Recent Versions

The only known risk cases are:

• Spanner:  2.1.x (or lower)  vs  2.5.x (e.g. sessions can use 2.5.0 thru 2.5.4 without issue)
• Slapper:   1.1.x (or lower)  vs  1.5.x (e.g. sessions can use 1.5.0 thru 1.5.4 without issue)

Other Versions Of Pro Tools

• Pro Tools 12.4 and lower are immune
• Pro Tools 12.6 may be OK
• Pro Tools 12.5.x is the danger

Slapper & Spanner Recommendations

1. Avoid Pro Tools 12.5.x if possible
2. If you must use it, ensure everyone is on recent versions of all plug-ins.
3. If in doubt, save sessions in Pro Tools 12.4 (or lower) before opening in Pro Tools 12.5
4. Check your automation enables for any sessions saved in Pro Tools 12.5

Automation Problems With Other Third Party Plug-ins

There are also reports of this issue happening with other plugins when simply moving between Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools 12.5 - so please let us know if you have had similar automation problems with other third party products.