"The VST2 plugin could not be found" - Troubleshooting and Tips for macOS Users.

Kor2Kots

Pleasssseeee someone help! I am dumbfounded as to how this is happening in 2025. I figured this discussion can be used for anyone who knows of tips or tricks to resolve the current situation for mac users.

For a brief context of my situation, I had a 2017 iMac for years and just switched over to the new M4 iMac. On Ableton Live I previously used all VST2 plugins for Kontact, Reakter, Massive, Maschine, and many other Native Instruments plugins. After re-downloading everything to Ableton, I only have the VST3 versions and AU versions. Well everything should be fine right? VST2 to VST3 migration shouldn't cause any preset information or automation information to be lost right?? Of course the developers would have considered the huge community of mac users who spend quite a bit of their money on Native Instrument products right??? It's 2025 right??????

Ok sorry that's a bit excessive. It's just really frustrating opening every project to "The VST2 plugin could not be found". It makes me really scared to think I wouldn't be able to get all of my saved work back :(

So someone please help!!! I found the following on another help discussion:

"If you have older projects on macOS that you created using VST2 plugins they will likely not work on a M1 based mac at all. The VST2 plugin instance needs to be deleted and replaced with the VST3 version of the plugin and any automation needs to be remapped or re-recorded. Of course many people want to know what preset or sound was loaded so launching your DAW in Rosetta mode allows you to reload VST2 versions, backup your settings and switch it all out so when you open in native Apple Silicon mode, things should now be updated with VST3 versions and no longer throw those "migration" or missing plugin errors."

Do I really have to re write all of my automation? Is that really the only solution right now? I understand opening it in Rosetta mode, but can someone go into more detail on how to reload VST2 versions, how to backup your settings, and how to "switch it all out"?

Any help would be truly appreciated! And if anyone knows if and when NI is going to fix this issue, please let me know as well! (If this is actually a mac issue not a NI issue, I will apologize to NI and go pop off on an Apple forum lol)

6xes

the issue you may be facing is likely the chipset that the Vst was created under…

for example if your a 2017 imac was likely running a intel chipset, thus your VST's required for the M-series chipset is different… but as you know, Rosetta mode can assist in that area… the issue is that your hostDAW would need to be running in rosetta mode,

the issue as it often is… is whether a DAW and the corresponding VST's all work together in Rosetta, whats more is you face the possibility of random crashes with Rosetta,

transitioning to silicon based mac's & holding onto old intel based plugins is always going to be problematic when stability is concerned

i dont know how things work with the m4mac's

but heres a video you might find useful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFyQsCe4nbM

Sunborn

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/41350/the-vst2-plugin-could-not-be-found-troubleshooting-and-tips-for-macos-users

This is an Ableton issue, not a Native Instruments one.

There is an "auto replace" functionality available for the automatic migration from vst2 to vst3, but Ableton haven't implemented that feature yet.

Vocalpoint

Agreed with @Sunborn. Ableton is the issue here as it does NOT support plugin migration.

All you can do is manually handguide all these old sessions to their new counterparts with VST3.

Know that you will need to know the exact patches and all the other minutia to recreate each session.

Pro Tip: This is where homework comes in handy. Moving from a 2017-era machine - 8 years into the future does require just a tiny bit of pre-prep and study before pulling the trigger.

VP

Kor2Kots

Wow thank you guys so much for letting me know about this! I understand the huge jump from 2017 but am still shocked that a VST2 transfer to VST3 transfer wouldn't be an option yet. I hereby apologize to NI! Thanks!

Kor2Kots

Quick update: I reached out to Ableton support and did some more research on my own. This is, in fact, a NI issue, not an Ableton nor an Apple issue. What it comes down to is NI has streamlined the majority of its plugins for native compatibility with Apple silicon, however, anything before the 6 series, Kontakt 5, Guitar Rig 5, etc, was not and will not be updated to Apple silicon compatibility. Honestly, I can understand this. Kontakt 5 was released in 2011. It's just unlucky for me that I used Kontakt and Reaktor 5 for like EVERYTHING. So now I need to spend a ton of time going into Rosetta mode to screenshot the parameters and re-write them into the new version of Kontakt. If anyone knows a quicker way to do this, please let me know!

:'(

Vocalpoint

"So now I need to spend a ton of time going into Rosetta mode to screenshot the parameters and re-write them into the new version of Kontakt. If anyone knows a quicker way to do this, please let me know!"

Unfortunately, there is no quicker way. Not when moving 8 years into the future.

And I need to challenge this statement:

"This is, in fact, a NI issue, not an Ableton nor an Apple issue"

This is 100% in fact - an Apple issue. They choose not to support VST2 with the arrival of the M1 and Apple Silicon. Not the other way around.

And because of this - ALL VST2's (from all vendors) - are only supported in Rosetta mode. For all other plug-ins that are natively compatible with M1 processors, like Kontakt, only VST3 is supported.

It was your move from your 2017 era chipset to the M1 that effectively killed your VST2 action instantly.

NI has been supporting Apple Silicon practically since the day it came out.

VP

victorp.sg

Steinberg discontinued maintenance and stopped distributing its VST 2 Software Development Kit (SDK) in 2013, and as such, there was no VST 2 SDK written in ARM64 for Apple silicon. In January 2022, Steinberg announced it was discontinuing support for VST 2 entirely—the final nail in the coffin.

VST 3 was released in 2008 by Steinberg, and its SDK is still being maintained, updated and fully supported.