Installer button disabled - no space but loads of space available

I cannot install Waves plugins as the installer button is disabled and I cannot get it to enable. It say there is no space but there is lots of space available.

I have tried uninstalling, reinstalling, tried the offline installer etc but nothing works

Please help!

Hi @Michelle, hope you are staying safe.

This is a local issue that should be troubleshooted by our fantastic tech support team.
Please contact them here.

Thanks!

For the record, I have the same issue. Awaiting a response from support.

I Have the same issue. I have just bought Abbey Road Studio 3 and H- Delay. And I am waiting to try the demo of the H-Comp. But the Install button in WC is greyed out and the text beneath says that the plugin require 4 gb of space and I have zero. Not true in the slightest, I have 97 gb. Waves need to adress this quickly. The guy in technical has offered up various solutions, but with no success. Every time I go to add to my collection, I always have a problem. Not happy at all. I’ve spent virtually a complete day on this, and have too many other other problems going on to be dealing with this. I’m stressed out tbh.

Hi @andykinch - please reach out to our support team, preferably by phone to troubleshoot and resolve this as quickly and stress-free as possible,
I am sure they can assist.

Thanks

TLDR: My solution was to rebuild the WMI repository. It took about 60 seconds (after several hours of searching and experimenting).

I called Waves tech support, who suspected it was either a permissions issue or the Windows WMI was broken. We unsuccessfully went down the permissions path together, including re-installing under a newly-created administrator account. I also tried the offline installer package. His next suggestion involved backing up and restoring Windows, at which point I bowed out. My PC has 4 hard drives, RAID, etc., and since Waves Central was the only software I had any issues with - I was’t ready to risk screwing things up. It’s possible we would have ended up here together, but
 here’s what finally worked for me.

WARNING: This was my solution to my problem. Since Windows source files are involved, it’s possible (though not likely) you employing my solution could make your problem worse.

I eventually found the Waves Central log file, which included an error revealing the issue:
C:\Users<USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Waves Audio\Waves Central\Logs\Waves-Central.log

WinNodeDisk::getFreeSpaceGBSync Failed
Command failed: “%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem\wmic.exe” logicaldisk where DeviceID=‘C:’ get FreeSpace
logicaldisk - Alias not found.

Apparently, in order to determine the available space, Waves runs a command that using a built-in windows tool called WMIC. Specifically, they check the “C:” drive using LOGICALDISK, which is simply an alias for “Select * from Win32_LogicalDisk”.

I opened an elevated command prompt to see if I could run it myself.

This didn’t work:
wmic logicaldisk where DeviceID=‘C:’ get FreeSpace

This did work:
wmic path Win32_LogicalDisk where DeviceID=‘C:’ get FreeSpace

I looked at my list of aliases (“wmic /?”) to see that LOGICALDISK wasn’t there. In fact, the list of aliases was alphabetical, and I had nothing above the letter F.

  • sfc /scannow reported no issues
  • trying several rebuild/reset winmgmt commands did nothing

I eventually rebuilt the WMI repository following these steps:

  1. Stop the winmgmt service using an elevated command line: “net stop winmgmt”
  2. Rename or move the “C:\Windows\System32\wbem\Repository” folder (a file permission change may be needed)
  3. Restart winmgmt service: “net start winmgmt”
  4. After “waiting a bit” (abt 3 mins for me, though I’m not sure it was necessary), reboot the PC

After rebooting, a newly created repository folder was present (including the missing aliases), and Wave Central was able to properly determine the available space.

Note: I have no idea how my alias list became truncated, and I have no idea how long it was like that. My suspicion is that it had been like that for quite a while, but never caused me grief because it isn’t used by installer packages much anymore. WMIC was deprecated by Windows in 2012 (being replaced by , and it isn’t used by installer packages much anymore (having been replaced by PowerShell’s Get-WmiObject and later Get-CimInstance).

2 Likes

cotton9: This worked for me too. Thanks!

@cotton9 Thanks for sharing your solution with us.

As you mentioned, I just wanted to ping it for the rest, who will encounter it.

We are aware of this issue and working on a permanent implementation of the fix.

In the meantime, we hardly suggest anyone who encounters this issue to contact our Support team, to solve it efficiently and without taking risks.

It’s now January 2022. Has there been a fix implemented? I am trying to install Lofi Space and it’s telling me that it needs 4GB and even changing the install location default to another drive doesn’t work.

1 Like

thanks bro ! Its working

Hi I have the same issue, I tried to do what @cotton9 said but some command doesn’ t work, what should I do now, how do I fix this?

Same issue here. I had it the 1st time about 2 years ago and Waves support helped me and now O have it again, it’s a really annoying issue, why can’t Waves fix it?!

Has anyone had the same problem on a mac and has some advice on how to solve it?

Hi @dp18musik,

Welcome to the Waves Forum.

*Waves Plugins and applications are supported and tested on operating systems installed on the built-in system hard drive. Operating systems installed on external hard drives are not tested and may not be fully functional with our software.

If you are launching your OS and Waves Central from the original local HD of the computer and still obtain the mentioned message please Contact Technical Support directly to further investigate the reported behavior.

1 Like

I can’t believe it’s nearly the end of 2023 and this problem still hasn’t been fixed after 4 years
I just spent $250 on an annual subscription and can’t install it.

It may not be fixable as it may the result of the ever tightening computer security we’ve been facing over the years. Developers have to jump through so many hoops now and they are limited to where they can store their files.

If that is the case, the blame lays heavily on the hackers and phishers, and those creating ransomware. Without these people we’d have no need for all these security measures messing with our systems.

Has nothing to do with hackers or computer security, even in the slightest. It’s 100% about lazy software development and poor support, and if someone is going to charge for software, it must work regardless of the environment.

After hours and hours of troubleshooting, I found out the problem - and the fact that Waves refuses to answer this on the forums after years is just disgraceful. I even chatted with them using “Chat with us about anything!” button and they said “Sorry, you have to send in a ticket for this.” 4 days of lost recording time later, and I still have not been answered.

THE SOLUTION:
When you install a plugin through Waves Central, it asks you to choose a path for the sound samples, which leads the user to believe they are choosing an installation path for the plugin. What Waves and Waves Central doesn’t tell the user is that this is not the case. The sound samples go to this path, but Waves does not give you a choice to where the program portion of the installation is going. It forces you, and does not tell you (hence why nobody has figured out that the disk space quote is about C:) that it is installing program files on C:/Windows/Users/{username}/Waves - whether you want it to or not. And if C: does not have enough space, this “not enough disk space” problem will happen. They don’t tell you that the program is measuring and reporting the space on your C: drive even if you have chosen a different drive to install your “plugin”.

I deleted some old files from my C: drive and it fixed the problem. Why this is so hard for Waves to tell anyone publicly on their forums is beyond me, especially when they don’t answer tickets very well.

The correct solutions for this problem are:

  1. Respect your customers rights to decide where programs are installed.
  2. Be smarter about telling users details in error messages, like which disk is being reported on a “not enough disk space” error message.

Hi @waves3,

Welcome to the Waves Forum.

Waves Central will only install to local HD of the computer, this cannot be changed currently.
This is mentioned in the Solution of this thread just above your original post.

“Waves Plugins and applications are supported and tested on operating systems installed on the built-in system hard drive. Operating systems installed on external hard drives are not tested and may not be fully functional with our software.”

That being said, I am glad to read you are U&R and that you managed to solve the issue, I will also make sure to pass on your feedback and suggestions to the relevant personal.

Hi I just subscribed to Waves Ultimate but the install button is also greyed out due to insufficient disk space when I infact have enough. I’m using an MacBook M1 is there anyone who could please help , I’ve been trying to find a solution for 2 days

Hi @Pleasureproductions663,

Welcome to the Waves Forum.

If you followed all information in the solution and still experience the same issue Id advise to Contact Technical Support, they will be even able to remote in to your computer for a quicker troubleshooting process.