All those like me stressed out with library tabs disappearing , going out of order , Kontakt crashes when launching and database corruption i would like to share some info after several months of trial and errors and trying this and that.

Let me start by saying i have Kontakt 5.4.2 running on MAC 10.8.5 with 24 Mac ram and 3 SSD drives @ 1TB each. I also have komplete Kontrol

I own around 270 libraries in total and it's been impossible to get them installed and get them running as i wanted . I don't like the database option . Sorry. I don't like the quick load either .
I simply wanted my library tabs showing different wallpapers, organized in order of reference and preference etc etc being able to browse through each library tab with different instruments loaded. The visual reminder really helps me remember what the library consists of before i even open it. Since i produce different genres it was imperative for me to have all my libraries organized this way. Hence the reason why the database option doesn't work for me cause you end up with multiple subfolders into sub folders and easily get lost and missing out on some nki's .

In this case i've decided to shrink down my library to 190 by having some libraries in sub folders. I tried as much as possible to choose the ones which don't have multiple instruments and sub folders as i feel it's not easy to remember where your stuff is like that.

PROBLEM : once you've reached 200 tabs and starter adding more rest assured problems start . randomly and without any logic it might crash or in the next load up simply won't load and says that Kontakt unexpectedly quit. this will happen for sure and you'll be going round in circles by re-installing Kontakt and adding the libraries over and over again until you start to give up.

SOLUTION : There is NO way of going around the 200 limit as far as i know. IF there is kindly let me know as i've tried everything. If there's anyone who has over 200 Please PM me as you might give me some insight. Dealing with crashes has been dealt with in many other topics in this forum so i won't repeat but you don't need to re-install Kontakt AT ALL !!

SOLUTION TO INDEXING LIBRARY TABS in order and remaining in order as long as you're in the 200 limit . it's important to download and install a plist Edit pro app . i was reading my plist before with text edit . NOT THE SAME at all .

What i'm going to explain can be applied to each and every plist. As an example i've chosen drum lab and attached how it would probably look once you open it with Plist edit pro. As you see there's a user list index. That is your index in the library tab and normally By default it is 0 when you add library . That's why the lib tabs end up in a chaotic order upon relaunch because most of them use the 0 index and after you shut down Kontakt tried to index by remembering order. Hence why it was suggested to leave some time before opening after you close down Kontakt but i've learnt that it's too random and in most cases it still doesn't work . The worst thing you can do is drag around library tabs up and down the scroll bar. Besides being very slow this seems to cause some sort of corruption i've learnt.

In my another attachment which i'll add now you can see i've changed index to 120 . There it will be the 120th library tab to come up. before i have studio drummer at 119 at so on and so forth. So add all your library tabs. Don't worry about order for now and close Kontakt. You then have a job to open each plist file and index them as you want. For the record i keep an excel sheet with all my libraries - not only Kontakt and organise everything accordingly. I suggest you keep logs of your ids and SNPID of each library. Everyone has his preference and workflow. I've also created fake NCIT files to separate groups of libraries. for ex- Pianos, transitions, pianos, orchestral and so forth . These should also be indexed accordingly.

Another safety precaution i take besides logging everything is by colour coding my USER native -instruments plist in yellow. This makes it easy if something had to change as you'll know immediately as the plist would turn back to white. I also colour code the xml files in the service centre to distinguish between new tabs and other stuff. Unf you cannot colour code the mac user preferences plists ;-(

That's it once done all your lib tabs are in order and remain so on every launch . guaranteed.

 

attachment of plist screen shot with index

 

Is there a 'Kontakt Libraries '101' tutorial or a 'Kontakt Libraries for Dummies' guide somewhere??

 

not that i know of

 

After your posting last week I decided to test the limit to see what kind of performance issues arise. For the past week I have had 352 libraries in the libs tab, and although it's very sluggish whenever I instantiate a new Kontakt insert - even before loading an actual instrument - so far it has been pretty stable otherwise. I don't intend to leave them all there, as it's impractical for all kinds of reasons, but it seems, so far anyway, that the 200-libs limit (I've heard 250) is somewhat flexible. (iMac i7 3.5 GHz, 16Gb, OSX 10.9.4)

I like your idea of editing the user list index to force them into a specific order, though with v5.4.2 I don't seem to see much arbitrary change in order any more. But who knows with the next update. In any case I have one question about that process: are the user index numbers limited to under 200 (or whatever the limit is), or just the overall number of libraries? It would be good to be able to spread the numbers out to allow future additions to fit where you want them, with each different content type having a reserved block of numbers. e.g.: full orchestral libs from 1-50, strings from 51-100, winds from 101-150, etc. Obviously with that kind of arrangement you'd pass 200 pretty fast, but if your overall number doesn't exceed 200, does that matter?

 

Me personally, I make multi library tabs by company. Like I'll make a nicnt and wallpaper for a company, like Spitfire say, and organize all the samples and instruments into sub folders. Then batch resave them. Then it's like I compounded 20 libraries into one! Then when I open instruments under the Spitfire library tab, it has the libraries in folders still for easy browsing. Took me a long time to figure that out too!

 

Thanks . to be honest i'm not sure if there's a limit on index. i doubt it. thing is i can't test it as after 200 library tabs on 10.8.5 it crashes. you're the first person who has stated that you managed to have 352 libraries in the lbs tab. My question is what is the difference between our systems. i'm guessing because i'm using a mac tower 8 core - 24GB ram -2.4GHZ - 10.8.5 whilst you seem to have a more recent comp. we seem to be using same kontakt version so the only difference is on the mac from what i can see. interesting .

 

I just came across this thread. It's very informative and potentially so useful. Right now I've been having a lot of frustrating issues with K5 . I've posted a couple of threads about this, and I solved the crashing problem I was experiencing. I agree with this op's philosophy / preferences, regarding having library banners. It's by far the easiest way to manage many libraries. I know some people recommend the file-based and quick load system , but my eyesight is poor, and those banners are superior by far for my purposes. I can see them much clearer than those tiny, unfriendly text-based file lists .


However, I followed the op's advice, despite his attachments now being missing ( it's an old thread ), and unfortunately it doesn't seem to work for me with K5 5.5.2 . I still find that despite editing and ordering the User List Index, the damn order of libraries still won't stay put. Frankly, this is the most infuriating part of Kontakt for me. I'm a " pro" ,and rely on a well ordered, themed, and easy to find library system to achieve maximum efficiency.

Until recently my K5 libraries were very stable, but one day they went chaotically wrong, and have never really recovered. I still haven't figured out why it's got like this. Following the op's advice, I found I could keep things in order for a while, but if I quit Kontakt and reopen, frequently the order went out again. In fact even after editing the User List, I found that reopening it with plist Pro the numbers had randomly changed yet again. I thought this would not occur. It's baffling and incredibly annoying. It doesn't help that on occasions Kontakt won't reopen properly. Instead, it eventually opens the preference interface after bouncing up and down for a while; after I've got rid of that window , it then opens. Why is Kontakt's preference window opening like this, when I've done nothing to corrupt it ??

Perhaps I'm missing something. After editing the User list, is there a way of locking it? I'm basically saving it, but that doesn't seem to work, because after a while it gets jumbled again. Also, I'm still within the cutoff 200 library limit, though originally I was exceeding that.

Is it a problem with K5 5.5.2 I wonder? Right now, Kontakt is really becoming a serious pain in the butt. It never used to be like this…..

 

Last edited: Aug 19, 2016

You could try making the file Read-Only.

http://osxdaily.com/2011/02/21/change-file-permissions-mac/

 

The only way to lock your files is using the Terminal.
Lock plist file in /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/

sudo chflags uchg /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.native-instruments.Koto.plist



Unlock plist file in /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/

sudo chflags nouchg /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.native-instruments.Koto.plist

 

Thank you. I did try that but they seem to ( randomly ) unlock again. ….. :-s

 

Also, there is one small problem with this practice. What if you wish to add a library and have to number it somewhere, say, in the middle of ,say, a list of 180? Let's assume you want to number it 53, because it's part of a themed group of, say, synths. Then, everything after 53 will have to be shifted up one number, and this offset will have to be done every time one adds a new library.

What a shame there's no ( Mac ) app to manage the orders of libraries quickly and with out all this incredibly time-consuming effort.…. I for one would happily pay for it.

 

Last edited: Aug 15, 2016

Pinkman, for yours and anyone else's reference, I have spent many days recently trying to resolve this. Once upon a time my libraries all stayed in order. Very occasionally one or two would randomly rearrange, but 98% stayed put. Now they're all over the place, all of the time.

I came across this thread, and thought it might be the solution. I spent all of yesterday and this morning entering user index numbers in plistPro, as described above. All was going well, but suddenly I edited a library, closed K5 and reopened, as I've been doing to test the order, and the whole lot has gone out again. I'm exhausted and really ,really pissed. Basically I give up on this whole thing until an app comes along. I will definitely pay for it. Life is way too short for this kind of fruitless noodling.

 

If it helps, there should be a setting to enlarge the font size under options.
On Windows you can choose between Normal and Small.

 

Thanks, yes, there is. I've always used that, but for me it still doesn't make up for the visual aid of having a pictorial banner. I just don't like the text-based folder nesting etc.

Over four years without a problem, then this. I just saw another thread on here about the same issue. I'm not the only one with the same frustration . Surely at some point the Mac users will get a library organiser…..

I just cannot invest any more time into this. At least I have the libraries in the window, if not in any coherent order.

 

I have to say the same thing again. This works 100%. When the files is locked a small lock comes on the file on the bottom left hand corner.
Stop wasting your time....
The only way to lock your files is using the Terminal.
Lock plist file in /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/

sudo chflags uchg /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.native-instruments.Koto.plist

Unlock plist file in /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/

sudo chflags nouchg /Users/xxxxx/Library/Preferences/com.native-instruments.Koto.plist

 

wow 350+ libraries! I have noticed quicker instantiation when I do not keep the database for my "non" library files, as I have so many libraries (and i have NOT included building the database for samples ever, that would probably take a week)... and just have my stuff organized on a finder/folder level.... because I have been told the database takes up a fair amount of ram, and once I got rid of it, Kontakt boots a lot quicker....

@Introninja the resident Kontakt guru here would know more about the veracity of my claims on that.... but there is probably no way around it when dealing with Library tabs....

All I know is that it seems most problems people run into (at least from an OSX side), is when people start adding custom .nicts etc... just seems to screw up whatever .xml or .plist or whatnot Kontakt uses internally to keep it's stuff together... (sorry for the lack of proper vernacular on this...)... so unless you REALLY REALLY feel like messing with that kind of stuff, I just wouldn't. And I have been using Kontakt since V1, and it has always been rock solid....

 

When you add your own libs it must be done one at a time, closing and reopening Kontakt to ensure no SNPID or Klib conflict. If there is there are five things that need to be done to add the problematic library:
1 close Kontakt
2 go to the service centre and remove the relevant xml file
3a open regedit and go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Native Instruments" and delete the relevant "SNPID" entry
3b open regedit and go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Native Instruments/Content" and delete the relevant "Klib" entry
4 in regedit go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER/SOFTWARE/Native Instruments" and delete the relevant entry.

Generally if a lib does not show some of the above entries may not exist.

Open Kontakt to ensure the lib has gone.
The SNPID or Klib will need to be changed for this lib to show.

There is an entry created in the service centre for every attempted lib addition, if successful just one but if multiple attempts are made the xml files are numbered incrementally.

There are three programs that I have come across that would prove useful for lib management if editing the windows registry leaves you with cold feet:
1 KLM.3.0-DoubleY
2 KontaktLibOrganizer
3 LIBDROPPER

 

Thanks for the very interesting answer. It sounds right, what you're saying, but I cannot understand how I've managed to get through about five years with no issues, then suddenly it all goes,um, tits up.

I can't help suspecting that NI are unhelpful and make this deliberately difficult, because of all the cracking and hacking going on.

This isn't Hadron Collider code , here . Somewhere someone can come up with an elegant app to fix this. Not me , but I'd pay for a working app.

 

Last edited: Aug 16, 2016

Thank you , Sir, but for me, this is all Windows based, right? I saw the dreaded regedit….. lol