MAC OS X 10.8.5
Kontakt 5.2

Every time I start Kontakt 5.2 (standalone or VST) the Library tabs rearrange themselves. It used to happen to a mild degree every now and then, but now it's drastic and pretty much every time I start it.

I drag them to rearrange - which is a huge time waster - to the my preferred "groupings", but it rearranges again. It's a very recent issue and I've been running Kontakt for over a year with minimal issues regarding Library tabs.

I've done a hard uninstall of Kontakt, installed from 5.1 and upgraded to 5.2; removed every preference/xml in both Libraries and had them created anew; re-written my com.native-instruments.Content.plist file and checked for duplicate k2lib#'s; etc.

I'm out of ideas and it's frustrating becasue It makes it a nightmare to navigate my tabs.
I know, I know - I could use the Quickload feature, but I vastly prefer the Library tabs.

The only KML tool I know of is doubleY's v3.0 which is for Windows only.

I should clarify, it's not on every System restart, it's every time I start Kontakt.

Any ideas?

 

This has been happening to me for a little over a year also. Usually rearranges the order by date I added them but only certain libraries. I feel like certain libraries cause the problem but no clue which ones.

 

I agree. I think the culprits in my case are:

• Ra (EWQL)
• Stormdrum (EWQL)
• Garritan Personal Orchestra (NI)
• Vocal Forge (Zero-G)
• Symphonic Choirs (EWQL)
• London Solo Strings (Big Fish Audio)
• Platinum Symphonic Brass (EWQL)
• Chris Hein Horns Vol.1 (Best Service)

At least those are the ones that always reappear in my Library after I remove them and restart Kontakt, and they always show up grayed-out as failing to locate the Directory and un-activated. If I remove them, then re-add, they become activated and functional, but only until I restart Kontakt. Then they are either grayed out or un-Activated but locating the Directory.

Also, Symphonic Choirs is always in DEMO mode (when it used to not be) and Vocal Forge always gives a "patch not properly registered etc...." message.



[EDIT]: Keep in mind they all used to work fine.

 

I too prefer to locate instruments through the libraries - I find the visual content a welcome relief from standard NI nerd font, and it helps locate things faster. I have had the same experience of arbitrary rearrangement, though only occasionally. I suspect it's worse with v5.2 - I'm still on 5.1. Even when it's not rearranging itself though, the Libraries rack is frustratingly slow to arrange, especially when you have dozens (or hundreds) of libraries - you can only drag one at a time and at a snail's pace.

I can't help with the rearrangement specifically, but one thing that's helped speed me up is combining libraries. You can't do it with many legit libs that are packed in tomes, but if you're like me and you've created a .ninct file and a wallpaper for every new lib, the scroll gets pretty long pretty fast. I've begun combining collections into single libs - all the Orange TreeSamples, for instance, or all the acoustic guitars, or a collection of oddball percussion or early instruments. As long as there's a folder called Instruments, all the instruments in it will be available from the Library tab, even (conveniently) within subfolders. And everything within the folder labeled Documentation will be available from that pulldown - including manuals, other pdfs, readmes, even mp3s and video files. Organizing things this way had dramatically reduced the length of the Libraries list, and the scroll time when moving things around.

 

Yeah, I could rearrange my Libraries into more instrument specific groups and reduce the amount of tabs, but I like seeing them in there as it reminds me better which Libraries I have. Seeing as I have about 150, it helps to see the visuals I've created, since I have custom designed all my libraries.

It's only recently become an issue.

FOr sure those libraries I've listed are somehow involved. When I delete all instances of their .plist files (in both Mac Library folders [in the User/Library/Prefs folder .plist files are created for them without the "com.native-instruments" prefix]), the .xml files, delete the sibling entry from the Content .plist AND also manually remove it from Kontakt, still after a couple of Kontakt restarts, they reappear, unactivated and greyed out, even though there is nothing instructing them to load.

This is usually when they libraries rearrange themselves. Also, anytime the Database is rebuilt or rescanned on software startup.

There HAS to be another file somewhere governing their inclusion

 

I was having the same problem but found the solution, guys! Do this,....arrange your tab/library (whatever you called it)...then shut down Kontakt and give it a couple of minutes at least, or more. Now open it again. What actually happened was, Kontakt didnt actually shut down completely.....if you open task manager, you'll see Kontakt is still running under processed tab. So, give it a few minutes before you open it again.

 

Well juboh, I'll give it a shot, but I'm pretty sure this behavior occurs even when I shut it down for a while then restart sometime later.

 

Sorting of the Libraryt tab is absolutely atrocious... NI should fix that, but of course, they wont.

 

I am glad that you mention that. Because it's a great relief. *yes*
I did the same some time ago. I have everything sorted by companies or musical instruments, each packed in one folder together with one single .nicnt.
That was an action that was worth it.

 

No dice.

 

Well as I'm slowly rebuilding and organizing my Library tabs I'm thinking the real culprit is the Permissions Reset application we use to enable the standalone of 5.2 to run.

Right now I've nuked all of Kontakt and Service Center (every damn folder, .plist and .xml file though I backed them all up first). I retrograded to 5.03 and am adding the Libraries there (no issues so far, knock wood) and then I'll update when it's done. Also, all previously unactivated Libs are now functioning.

What I think happens is when Permissions Reset is set to R/W/E it gives Kontakt permission to write, which we don't want because I suspect that's what's causing it to rearrange the tabs. When I do finish adding all the Libs and upgrade to 5.2, I'm going to reset permissions to Read and Execute only and see if that keeps the tabs properly sorted as I left them.

Just a guess, so wish me well on my odyssey.

P.S. @juboh: I have been keeping the Activity Monitor open just to make sure Kontakt closes completely before I restart to add the next Library (I'm doing them one at a time), and while I don't think this is the root of the problem I do think it helps. So nice call!

[EDIT]
It appears juboh was correct in that you have to let Kontakt's process(es) fully expire before restarting the app. Apparently, while it's shutting down it's remembering the new order. Not giving it the chance to fully quit keeps Kontakt from remembering your new library order and chaos ensues.

 

Hello,
I've just switch to Kontakt 5.2 + El Capitan and have the same problem. I have more than 400 librairies with nicnt & wallpaper files I've made.
I spent a lot of time to drag an drop librairies to order them by instruments. I was on Snow Leo + Kontakt 5.3.1 before and never had problems during 4 years. Now It's the mess everytime I start Kontakt.
I tried :
- what juboh said : just wait after stopping Kontakt > I still have the mess.
- what SerendiPetey : change permissions for all librairies plist (in user/librairy/preference) to R/R/E. > After start and stop Kontakt, all permissions returned to W/W/E. How is this possible? Kontakt changes permissions on my librairies plist files... without my permission!
I really don't understand and this drives me mad.
Any ideas... ?

 

I can't believe the biggest company of all hasn't fixed this yet. It pisses me off too to rearrange stuff all over, though my settings seems to have finally stuck. And how is it possible they haven't added a tool to add all your kontakt libraries at once? ridiculous..I love NI but cmon man...

 

Salve scusate ma non parlo inglese.....anche a me stá succedendo la stessa cosa....ad ogni avvio di Kontakt mi ritrovo tutta la lista delle mie librerie mescolate e senza una logica....ho fatto vari tentativi e cancellando il file ''com.native-instruments.Content.plist'' dalle Preferences e ad ogni avvio di Kontakt le mie librerie sono come le ho ordinate....purtroppo quando spengo e riavvio il mio iMac mi ritrovo con lo stesso problema....ho provato a cancellare il seguente file allo spegnimento del iMac e al riavvio dello stesso e anche del Kontakt mi chiede la password e per il momento sembra che la lista sia come l'ho lasciata......spero che sia un punto di partenza per trovare una soluzione efficace e duratura perché non credo che sia questa la soluzione corretta.....Saluti e grazie per condividere le vostre esperienze