So, what Mac are you going to get next? (Poll)

[EvilDragon]

Relocate does not reinstall, it's just pointing to another path...

 

[BezO]

Relocate does not reinstall, it's just pointing to another path...

OK, than I'm still not understanding.

Tracking says my iMac has arrived! Any chance you can provide a brief step by step on how to install just the software?

 

[ironbut]

Just like gpax, I do clean installs on every major os upgrade.
It used to be important (for Pro Tools in particular) but I'm not so sure it's that important anymore.

A pain to do for sure but it's like spring cleaning.
It isn't nearly as tough as it used to be but a little planning can make it much easier.

I go to the App Store and note all the ones that can be updated (Keep a notebook)
Go to your apps folder and list any that aren't in the update(able) list.
Start a TextEdit file for your apps.
Open those apps or locate any passwords and put those in your textedit list (with links)
Don't forget the ones for any controllers like Faderports etc.

Do the same thing for your plugins.

Transfer all the physical notes to something you can upload (I just put it all on a thumbdrive and also in iCloud.

When you get your new computer;

Got to the App Store and look for Your Purchases and install the apps you still want.
Then use your Apps TextEdit and download and install the other apps
I always skip the audio ones for last.
Depending on the number, save a whole day (or two) for downloading/authorizing your plugins.
I start with the ones with download managers like Native In., Plugin Alliance, iZotope, etc.
Than the ones that I have lots of plugins from like FabFilter, Slate Digital, Eventide, GRM,Valhalla, Soundtoys etc.

You'll end up with the versions that are correct for the OS, none of the crap that's left over from discarded apps/ demo plugins, crashes, preference files, duplicates of stuff after updates etc.

If you do a clean install this way, you'll have those TextEdit files which you can edit each time you add a new plugin or the manufacturer changes their authorization.

 

[BezO]

...I start with the ones with download managers like Native In...

How do you install the plugins/software without downloading samples, assuming you keep samples on an external drive?

 

[playz123]

How do you install the plugins/software without downloading samples, assuming you keep samples on an external drive?

My question as well, since I'm about to wipe my main Mac hard drive and start again from scratch. All my Kontakt libraries currently have their samples on external SSDs, so I too am wondering if things have improved in the last three years so that one no longer has to completely download and reinstall every Kontakt library from scratch. In brief, I too am hoping I only have to install the library software on my main drive and not the samples on the SSDs. How does one do that?

 

[ironbut]

As long as you don't erase those external drives, all you need to do is locate the libraries in Kontakt (or whatever sampler) when you open it.
In fact, I just did a clean install of my laptop and installed all the Native Instruments stuff and I still haven't even connected my Library drives to it.
I only use the MBP when I'm away from home and I usually just carry the HDD backup of my Library drives.

 

[ironbut]

 

[playz123]

As long as you don't erase those external drives, all you need to do is locate the libraries in Kontakt (or whatever sampler) when you open it.
In fact, I just did a clean install of my laptop and installed all the Native Instruments stuff and I still haven't even connected my Library drives to it.
I only use the MBP when I'm away from home and I usually just carry the HDD backup of my Library drives.

I understand the process when one isn't starting from scratch on a wiped hard drive, and yes, re-locating and repairing libraries is easy now with NA on existing systems. But if one installs NA for the first time on a new main HD then wants to install a library whose samples are already downloaded elsewhere, isn't NA going to want to download the entire library again, just as if one was installing a brand new library for the first time??? Are you saying that won't happen...only the software will be installed and not the samples. Perhaps I'm missing something here since I haven't done a rebuild for a long time, but every time I've installed a new library via NA, it's just gone ahead and downloaded and installed BOTH the software and the samples. Massively time consuming if I have to do that for every library I own.

Anyway, that video does not have anything to do with a fresh install of NA on a new system drive where initially only uninstalled libraries are shown in NA and no Kontakt libraries have yet been installed.

 

[ironbut]

I can't remember if there is a "install all" command in Native Access but I always just go one by one and install the software I want to install.
In other words, you'd install Kontakt and maybe Kontakt 5 (I did) but I didn't install the Kontakt Factory Library.
I have Komplete Ultimate so I had a bunch of instruments and plugins to install but it doesn't take that long (maybe an hour?).
If you open Native Access you'll see that there are different installers for everything.

 

[playz123]

I can't remember if there is a "install all" command in Native Access but I always just go one by one and install the software I want to install.
In other words, you'd install Kontakt and maybe Kontakt 5 (I did) but I didn't install the Kontakt Factory Library.
I have Komplete Ultimate so I had a bunch of instruments and plugins to install but it doesn't take that long (maybe an hour?).
If you open Native Access you'll see that there are different installers for everything.

Perhaps my question and those of another respondent aren't clear enough. I don't mind installing each library one at a time, and I do know about installing a new Kontakt library on my current system drive. I've done all that a 100 times. What we are asking about is installing libraries on a new operating system drive where NO libraries have been installed before....without having to also download and install the samples I already have for those libraries! Thanks so much for everything you've offered.

 

[Lindon]

Well as a developer for the Mac platform let me chime in with a bit of another perspective.

Sure its about "will my hardware run XXX version of the OS?" -- and yes you can stay on version XXX and not go to XXX.1 etc. but.....

Its also about XCode and the way Apple treat its development community.

Apple will (and often does) depreciate a version of XCode and no longer support or offer it to the development community - and XCode versions run on a more limited number(range) of MacOS.

So you might still run XXX but me I need a supported compiler so I have to upgrade my OS in order to keep my development environment supported. Apple dont care about this - you (as a developer) move with them or get left forever. So we all gripe and move.

The down side of that is we build on XXX.5 it *might* run on XXX it might not.

So if you are on XXX and are happy and are content that you wont be buying any new compiled source code (read application - read Logic...) then you are fine. But otherwise you'll need to "keep up" like all us whinny developers...

 

[gpax]

What we are asking about is installing libraries on a new operating system drive where NO libraries have been installed before....without having to also download and install the samples I already have for those libraries! Thanks so much for everything you've offered.

I guess I am not clear about what you are asking either, as my process above was that of setting up a brand new 2019 iMac. A new OS drive, void of any prior installations.

But to reiterate: I simply reinstalled and reauthorized the products (engines) from scratch, via either Native Access for NI products, or directly from other developers. This process on a new iMac was independent of any sample content being prompted to be reinstalled. Reconnecting with the various sample libraries I have on 6Tb of drives was straightforward, though a different process with each developer.

With respect to NI and Komplete, the one exception was a Maschine Expansion which I inadvertently clicked and downloaded again; perhaps someone can clarify if Kontakt prompts reinstalling the factory content, as I don’t recall.

Even then, I would have directed it to the same external location. Even then, that would be the minimum one might have to install, would it not? As most Kontakt libraries are third-party, there is nothing within Native Access that prompts reinstalling any sample content, hence, those paths and their associated content are simply non-existent when first setting up on a brand new drive. If you have to install sample content from those developers, chances are you are going to be doing it directly from the respective downloaders, using whatever options they have.

But as ironbut has detailed, already installed samples are simply waiting in their locations to be reunited with the software, including that just installed on a brand new OS drive. Then, assuming all your existing NKI files and instruments are in their proper locations adjacent to the the sample folders, those libraries, and specific to anything Kontakt-authorized, Native Access already has all your authorizations in one place, the reconnection process to those libraries being straightforward to get up and running again.

And, as I mentioned above, VSL, EW, Best Service, etc. were similar processes to reinstall and reauthorize the software, the various steps for e-licenser and/or iLok notwithstanding.

 

[BezO]

...But to reiterate: I simply reinstalled and reauthorized the products (engines) from scratch, via either Native Access for NI products, or directly from other developers. This process on a new iMac was independent of any sample content being prompted to be reinstalled...

I think this is where we have different experiences.

I've not re-installed on a new Mac, but I've deleted/uninstalled and reinstalled an NI library on my MBP, Session Horns Pro. From what I remember, there was no way around downloading the samples/content.

My iMac arrived last night. I guess it won't hurt to attempt a reinstall of one of the smaller libs and see what happens. Hopefully it goes how you're saying. If not, I'm looking at DAYS of installations.

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

Just like gpax, I do clean installs on every major os upgrade.

I don't, because it would take forever.

But I have used Migration Assistant lots of times, and it works very well.

 

[playz123]

I think this is where we have different experiences.

I've not re-installed on a new Mac, but I've deleted/uninstalled and reinstalled an NI library on my MBP, Session Horns Pro. From what I remember, there was no way around downloading the samples/content.

My iMac arrived last night. I guess it won't hurt to attempt a reinstall of one of the smaller libs and see what happens. Hopefully it goes how you're saying. If not, I'm looking at DAYS of installations.

Please let us know what you discover since I'll be doing something similar in a few weeks. And yes, every time I've installed a new Kontakt library, BOTH the instruments etc AND the samples are downloaded. There's never been an option I've found to skip the samples (UNLESS the library was installed previously or one is doing a repair or reinstall in NA). Thus our question.

There was a thread on this subject that was posted a few years ago and the only work-around at the time involved using an older version of Kontakt 5. But I'm hoping things have changed since those days. Surely this is not an uncommon process these days with people buying new computers or wiping o/s hard drives completely and the starting again?

 

[playz123]

I don't, because it would take forever.

But I have used Migration Assistant lots of times, and it works very well.

Understood, but after a number of years, I still feel it's wise to do a completely fresh install because with migration and simply updating an o/s etc. one just continues to carry files forward that may no longer be relevant or needed. No question a fresh install is time consuming though. Last time I did this it took well over a week of very long days, and for awhile later, I was still reinstalling things I missed.

 

[playz123]

But to reiterate: I simply reinstalled and reauthorized the products (engines) from scratch, via either Native Access for NI products, or directly from other developers. This process on a new iMac was independent of any sample content being prompted to be reinstalled. Reconnecting with the various sample libraries I have on 6Tb of drives was straightforward, though a different process with each developer.

Sorry, but are you saying that there is a way (with a first install of NA on a new o/s hard drive where no Kontakt libraries have been installed before) to click on something and just download the instruments etc. for a library, yet NOT have to download the samples as well, so later you can then link the library to the samples (which exist on external drives and were downloaded previously)?? If so, how do you do that?? How do you tell NA you just want to download the instruments and data, but not the samples when no files for that library exist anywhere on the o/s drive??

 

[ironbut]

I may understand the difference in what we're talking about.

Back when I first installed Komplete Ultimate, I got the little drive that they sent in on and copied that to my hard drive.
At that time, I just had one big drive for my mac.
When I did a clean install, I'd have to hook up that little NI drive and reinstall everything.
Later, when I started using Kontakt for real and started adding 3rd party libraries, I needed more disk space and I added a drive.
At that time, I moved all my NI Libraries to the new drive (in fact it still sits nested in a Users>Shared folder just like it was on my original hard drive).
I just relocated all the libraries in Kontakt and never looked back.
If I hadn't moved all the libraries that were included with Komplete, than I would have to reinstall them every time I do a clean install.
Hope that's it!

 

[Nick Batzdorf]

Understood, but after a number of years, I still feel it's wise to do a completely fresh install because with migration and simply updating an o/s etc. one just continues to carry files forward that may no longer be relevant or needed.

That's only a problem if our computer isn't stable after updating - unless you just want to clean out garbage, which is fine, but then there are easier ways to do that (such as using OmniDiskSweeper or a similar utility).

No question a fresh install is time consuming though. Last time I did this it took well over a week of very long days, and for awhile later, I was still reinstalling things I missed.

That's why I'm lazy!

 

[playz123]

I may understand the difference in what we're talking about.

Back when I first installed Komplete Ultimate, I got the little drive that they sent in on and copied that to my hard drive.
At that time, I just had one big drive for my mac.
When I did a clean install, I'd have to hook up that little NI drive and reinstall everything.
Later, when I started using Kontakt for real and started adding 3rd party libraries, I needed more disk space and I added a drive.
At that time, I moved all my NI Libraries to the new drive (in fact it still sits nested in a Users>Shared folder just like it was on my original hard drive).
I just relocated all the libraries in Kontakt and never looked back.
If I hadn't moved all the libraries that were included with Komplete, than I would have to reinstall them every time I do a clean install.
Hope that's it!

Yes...BIG difference there! Not the same at all as downloading and installing directly and completely from the NI site. Cheers.