How to disable third-party plugins quickly in 3ds Max to troubleshoot software problems

2023-10-08

Technical Support

Occasionally, some third-party plugins may cause 3ds Max to behave unpredictably.

This behavior may occur even when the plugins are not used in the scene; being present in the 3ds Max \Plugins folder is enough to cause an issue.

The following is a quick technique to disable non-native 3ds Max plugins for the purpose of troubleshooting:

Go to the root directory of the 3ds Max folder: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max <version>
Locate the Plugins folder.
Rename the Plugins folder to Plugins_BAK.
Create a New Folder in the root 3ds Max folder.
Rename this New Folder to Plugins.
Within the 3ds Max root folder, there should now be 2 folders:
- Plugins_BAK. This folder contains and protects all original plugins.
- Plugins. This is an empty folder.
Restart 3ds Max and see if the problem(s) still persist.

Note: To return to the original plugin configuration:

Delete the empty plugin folder.
Rename the folder "Plugins_BAK" to "Plugins."
If the issue is found to be related to a third-party plug-in, contact the maker of the plug-in to notify them of issue.
If necessary, remove that particular plug-in's files from the Plugins folder and see if the issue persists.

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