Been using Arturia VSTi's from V.R. & R2R for years. Suddenly they no longer work using the symlink install method.

What happens: I install using V.R. symlink option. I point to an external drive as my resource destination folder. Once install has completed, I load in Cubase, Nuendo, ect ect. Plugin loads as blank instrument. Same goes for opening in standalone. Program runs but nothing shows on screen, blank. I only install VST3 & I've checked to see everything has installed to the proper directories & everything looks good.

What I've tried: I've done everything from deleting all installs, cleaning up registry, checking for leftover folders. I've even installed legit Arturia Sound Central to change default resource path to the external drive I would like to use. The only thing that works is installing to main C: drive with resources in ProgramData/Arturia with no symlinks..... I have no fucking clue why symlinks will not work.

Any help fixing this would be very much appreciated. I really don't want 50Gb of samples on my main drive & would like to have them on external again. Cheers!!

PS/ The external storage I would like to use as my resources folder is a folder mountpoint, not a drive letter. I wonder if that might be causing some problems? Either way. A damn symlink is a symlink & that shit shouldn't matter.

 

Here is a tutorial I wrote out when I was having trouble with Arturia products a while back.. hopefully you'll find some of it relevant!

I have come across a few people lately who have been having problems with Arturia products either not fully loading or crashing straight away. A few days ago it happened to me too where nothing I did would allow me to re-install a working copy of any Arturia synth or Piano.

Note :- these problems do not seem to affect 3X3 or 4X3 filters (Pigments may or may not be) BUT could be made worse by having them installed.

Solution:-

0) Go to Sister site for any Arturia Goodies you need first

1) Uninstall ALL Arturia products (Preferably with REVO Uninstaller)

2) Uninstall Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 (64bit only)

3) Manually delete ANY arturia file left behind (including VST, and from program data/program files folders)*

4) Using something like CCleaner clear up ANY remaining crap in the registry relating to Arturia

5) Reboot

6) Fully install whatever you choose

7) Stay offline when updating your DAW

This solution worked for me, hopefully for you too!


Also these folders:-

In addition. The most common places you'll find Arturia stuff is below.

C:\Program files\Arturia
C:\Program files\Common Files
C:\program files(86)\Arturia
C:\program files(86)\Common Files
C:\ProgramData\Arturia
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Audio & Video\Arturia
C:\Users\$Your Name%\My Documents


----------------

Hope some of that helps!

 

@Sylenth.Will.Fall Greatly appreciate the quick response. I use BCUninstaller for deep uninstalls, but will look into REVO. 2 days of trying to get Arturia junk to work has been very annoying. Hopefully your tutorial will work on my end too. Cheers!!

PS/ It looks like I dont have Visual C++ 2017 specifically installed. I do have 2015-2022 installed though. But I know it's needed for a few other applications. Should I uninstall it & reinstall?

UPDATE: Welp. Unfortunately none of the above worked for me. Tried deleting the database file for pigments & I noticed upon trying to load the plugin a new one is created, but then deletes itself. Feel like I'm getting closer to making it work again but still no worky... FML

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

I need to think about that one..

If it were me I would keep the 2015/22 and install the 2017 too.. IF there is a conflict it will warn you.. or if it says the file you are installing is older than the previous, then leave well alone.. I think though having the two shouldn't conflict.

And you are very welcome.. let's just hope this works.. I know it worked for me when I was having awful problems with it.



On reflection.. leave out that step.. the 2015/22 will almost certainly contain the same info as the 2017 specifically so yep keep the one you have..


edit:-

Did you also remove any instances trying to call up the software from startup?

oh and also delete your prefetch folder..

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2023

I'm now wondering if there are any different folders I don't know about because of a later version of wind0ws you're using..


Ok how about this:-

1) Install the full shebang on to your drive just to see it all working again... THEN, make a copy of the 50gb of instruments you want to put on the other drive and goto shortcuts and see if you can merely change the directories?/ then delete from the main drive?

That could fix any problems the registry has of finding the content

 

Appreciate you chiming in again. I already have tried installing on regular C drive (which works) then moving arturia folder to external drive & creating a symlink for the entire Arturia folder which then doesnt work.

 

You're welcome..

After you moved the arturia folder, did you remember to go in to the registry to point it to the new position?

 

I dont think so. Hopefully this is the step I'm missing... I have to step away from the PC for awhile but will report back to you in a few hours or less. Thank you again for your help!!!!

 

Tell you what. I went down this path a year ago. Had the releases working for approximately 2 years and then the next one didn't work. What I did was a deep uninstall making sure any reference of Arturia was completely gone from the machine. I then downloaded all the demos from the Arturia website for each software (every. single. one.). Then I installed the most recent releases and VIOLA! I can't say that I understand why this worked, but it did.
Not sure if this helps, and hopefully the advice about changing the registry helps you, but maybe try this as a last resort making sure to install the demos to the drives you intend to install the releases.

 

@thebeatsareill this is my last option next to a full windows reinstall. The only thing that’s prevented me from doing this is it takes almost 2 hours to do lol. But yes, I agree…. Thanks for the help brother.

 

@Sylenth.Will.Fall @thebeatsareill Wow. I'm kinda speechless. Nothing can get symlinks to work. Even legit installs... I'm fairly new to Windows, so I'm a fish outta water at this point. I dont expect you guys to waste anymore time with helping me. But if you have any other suggestions besides nuking Windows. Please feel free to chime in. Thanks.

 

Have you tried system restore (Revert back to the last time it worked?)

and

When you went into the registry, did you go to


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Wow6432Node in case there was anything arturia there?


one last thing.. I did say up there ^^ but it might have got missed in the melee

C:\Windows\ delete the whole 'prefetch' folder as this gets rebuilt next time you reboot the machine with the up to date information. delete it from the recycle bin too.

Next time you reboot will take slightly longer as it gets rebuilt but that's perfectly normal.

 

@Sylenth.Will.Fall Thank you. At least I have something else to look forward to trying tomorrow. I've been at this all night & need to go to bed. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!!!!!

 

I had this issue last year or the year before, for some reason I couldn't get any Arturia release to work. At some point, I fixed it after fiddling with folders so much that probably there was no trace of any Arturia folders in my system. One thing that happens frequently is the symlink sending your files to hell, or just blocking the installation from ocurring. Symlinks are very fiddly, a decent solution is to use hard links instead (mklink /J on Windows), this way you can directly "patch" a folder into another and "fool" the system into believing it's installing on "C:\Program Files\Arturia" (example) while that folder is actually stored, let's say, on G:\Arturia.

So, my suggestion is:
- Clean up all Arturia folders, and especially look for empty symlinks (I had one here from a VR install that wasn't pointing anywhere and would fail installations immediately)
- Make a hard link from the default Arturia folder and point it to where you want the files to be. If the installer wants "C:\Program Files\Arturia", create the "Arturia" folder under "C:\Program Files" and then create a hard link to another "Arturia" folder where you want the files to be stored instead
- Install the programs without checking the symlink option

Edit: Needless to say, you can also try moving the Arturia folder somewhere else and doing a hard link to see if it works. Deleting a hard link (that looks just like a shortcut folder) will not affect the real folder where the files are stored. But doing it from scratch might be the right way to make sure that there's no room to mess up.

Edit 2: Just noticed you're using mount points, so I'm not sure if any of what I said really works in that case. I have never used mount points in my system. If you can do it manually without relying on the installer to do it for you, that might yield a different result.

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2023

You're welcome.. Sleep well my friend!

I've had more thinking time..

1) Install everything to the C drive as we know it all works fine there..
2) Move the 50gb content to the right drive (note the exact location)
3) Head back in to the registry
4) Do a search for 'Arturia' and anything you find pointing to c:\program files\Arturia' (relating ONLY to the content)l alter to your new position

 

Last edited: Apr 29, 2023

@Sylenth.Will.Fall - One last try before bed brought a happy accident. All of my external hard drives are mounted as folders. Not drive letters. I decided to add a drive letter to one of them & install there. THIS WORKED. So, the thing I need to find out going forward is how to get Arturia to install to drives mounted as folders using the symlink install... Im really going to bed now. Please chime in if you have anymore suyggestions. & thank u for your patience w/my ignorance regarding all things Windows

 

I followed your instructions and got this:

 

This is the first time I have even heard of such a thing as mounting a drive as a folder? And I have worked 20 years as IT support. What the hell? How have you done that? LOL

 

I thougth the other way around, and I didn't know, but it's possible since win 10:
Mount a drive in a folder

In my opinion, you don't need to uninstall.
Instead, use the
Visual C++ Redistributable Runtimes All-in-One
Run the batch as admin, if something is already installed, it will skip.

 

I read the documentation and I can't understand why OP is not doing it manually if they can mount using diskpart. If "C:\ExtDrive1" points to an external hard drive, it is already doing a symlink, so the other option here is to create a junction (which I called hard links, but hard links are about single files - just a shitty recurring mistake I do even though I described it correctly) and install it normally without creating a symlink with the installer. If Arturia wants to install in "C:\Program Files\Arturia", then on CMD (admin):

mkdir "C:\Program Files\Arturia"
mklink /J "C:\Program Files\Arturia" "C:\ExtDrive1\Arturia"

And then installing the programs without checking any boxes will funnel the files to the right place without too much access to the installer to try it for you.