Trouble saving custom presets

Software Instruments Augmented SERIES
#1

I upgraded to a new MacBook and updated to a newer version of GarageBand, updated my various Arturia packs (October 2025) - everything working fine, but today I wanted to work on some custom presets, and things are not going well.
Briefly: when I create a new preset, or alter an existing one, the “modified” indicator (the asterisk in the box containing the name of the preset) is shown fine. But
(a) when I select “Save preset”, it is not reset, which makes me wonder whether anything is saved
(b) when I select “Save Preset As…”, and select a new name, the asterisk disappears
(c) trying to open a preset I saved earlier shows only the presets I created on my old machine (these were clearly transferred fine), but there is no sign of any newly saved presets
(d) when I try “Save Preset As…” and enter the name of a newly saved (but invisible) preset, I get the error message “You are trying to update an existing preset. Operation not permitted.”

This would seem to suggest that
(a) updating an existing preset (“Save Preset”) is not working. I am not sure where Arturia saves its user presets, and searching for files containing the name of one of my old custom presets does not produce any hits;
(b) saving a new preset does do something, as (i) the altered indicator is reset and more importantly, (ii) trying to save another preset as the same name is prevented because the preset already exists.

My questions: where is Arturia saving my new custom presets, why is it not updating the existing ones, and how can I make the “Save” and “Save As…” operations behave as expected?

Thanks!

K

#2

Update: I have found the folder where Arturia keeps presets, and I discovered that the old presets (the ones I can see in the user preset list from within Augmented Strings, load, and use) are shown as being of kind “Unix Executable File” (but not having a file extension), while the new ones are shown as being of kind “document” (also without file extension).
So: Saving As seems to produce a generic document, which is subsequently (and unsurprisingly) not recognised.
Why would presets not be saved correctly?

#3

Hi @koenfucius. Welcome back.
Factory presets can’t be written over. So edited factory presets need to be saved using Save As. User Presets can both.
Are you saying this is not the case?

Preset files are saved as type .fil. Preset names (File names) only show the name without the extension.
Are you saying this is not the case?

A preset can’t be saved using the same name, if it’s located in the same bank as another preset having that name.
It should be saved if it’s saved to another user bank. Are you saying this is not the case?

The above seem to work here.

#4

Hello LBH - thanks for the quick reply!

Factory presets can’t be written over. So edited factory presets need to be saved using Save As. User Presets can both.
Are you saying this is not the case?

Yes, that is exactly the problem. I was not trying to overwrite factory presets, but saving it as a custom preset.

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This is what I see in Finder - K Violin 2 and K Violin 3 are old custom presets that were copied across from the old machine as I commissioned the new one, and appear as “Unix Executable File”; K Violin 4 and K Violin 5 were saved yesterday and today, and they clearly appear different: they show as a generic document. However, I tried to see what file extension they have with Get Info, and both seem to be extensionless, so I am a bit baffled as to how they can be of a different kind (but I am a Mac novice, so I know very little of its operation). So, in answer to your question:

Preset files are saved as type .fil. Preset names (File names) only show the name without the extension.
Are you saying this is not the case?

Yep - no file extension that I can see.

A preset can’t be saved using the same name, if it’s located in the same bank as another preset having that name.
It should be saved if it’s saved to another user bank. Are you saying this is not the case?

Yes, trying to save as an existing custom preset is how I discovered that something was being saved, only in a shape that made it invisible to the browser.

The fundamental problem seems to be that Augmented Strings is saving in generic document format. When I try to edit an old custom preset, saving then doesn’t work (it simply does nothing, and the original does not get overwritten); when I try to save a newly created preset, it is saved as a document.

I am baffled… so any insight most welcome!

Thanks again

K

#5

You are welcome.

I’m on Windows. I don’t use MAC.

But a preset should not save as a executable file, i would say. I assume that’s similar to a Program in Windows. I will assume your preset should show as document files, at least if you use the standard install paths.

I have no idea where you have got those Unix Executable files from. Do you?
They should not show in the preset browser.

Is/ was the files Unix on the old computer?
How did you move the presets from the old computer to the new? I think perhaps something have gone wrong in this proces. But i don’t understand why you should have issues saving presets.

I only guess. Perhaps a MAC user can help more.

#6

Thanks for the continued interest in this bizarre situation.
I would believe you, because what you say makes perfect logical sense.
But it is at odds with what I see: the problem is not with the old presets (which present as unix executable—and no, I also don’t know what that means or whether it’s like a windows .exe file :joy:), but with the new ones (documents).
In the preset browser, I can only see the old presets in the user bank. They are not shown as files, just a list with the name—I presume it’s the same in Windows.

The entire old machine’s apps and data were transferred automagically, and I guess if something went wrong in that process, it would affect the existing presets from the old machine.

For some reason, the Augmented Strings package writes the preset in a different format than the old ones, and cannot read them back. It can also not update existing user presets, because it wants to write it in a furnace that is different.

I’ve lodged a support request - hopefully they can get to the bottom of this mystery…

#7

It make no sense to me.
A preset should not be an exe file and should not work as a preset.

The preset files on your old computer should not be exe files.

I hope this will help you.

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