Yup. Doing library by library.

 

That's what I thought, but having reflected I think it's cos a lot of 8Dio libraries are already in .ncw format for the most part. Just downloaded all Aria Sounds libraries to test as they are all in .wav format. Compressed them from about 80GB to approx 36GB, so i'm starting to be convinced that significant space savings can be made across all libraries.

 

I was trying to avoid posting another Thread. I have a massive load of libraries on my Mac there stored in the default location. I want to move them to an external SSD (trying to manage HD space on my mac) how would I go about this to keep from messing anything up? I installed most of these libraries via the KLU tools and things like the Play Series via installers.

Thanks in advance for the help and advice. I'm running MacOS Monterey 12.5 M1

 

Can't you symlink or mount the SSD as your old library folder?

 

I'm not even sure what any of that you just said is to be honest lol.

 

Well then I would make an effort to learn.

 

I did, which is how I found this post. looking for guidance to point me in the correct direction....

 

Well outside of googling what @xorome mentioned, I personally would do it the more laborious way myself, in dragging stuff to the other drive, and then using KLU to add libraries myself... that's what I have done myself.... for libraries and whatnot that do not require klu to reference/install etc, it should be easy as it's six and one half dozen the other pointing your finder to a particular folder...

but with KLU installed libraries, when I move them from one drive to another, and yeah, it can be a little bit of pita the way I do it, I uninstall from KLU and add it again from the new location myself... and I have hundreds of KLU installed libraries, and hundreds if not thousands of Kontakt patches/libs from over the years and different systems that have both migrated systems and drives...

 

I have many hard drives & libraries scattered throughout them. All in a specific structure... To condense all of them into a single place I make a master Kontakt Libraries folder & place it in my user documents folder. Within the master Kontakt Libraries folder I have 9 more folders - Wind, Brass, Clavier, Strings, Percussion, Hybrid, Synthesizers, Vocal, FX. Within each of those categorical folders I have company/creator folders - Audiobro, Spitfire Audio, Keepforest ect ect… Now I simply make symlinks to each library throughout the many hard drives and drop the symlinks in the corresponding folder within the master Kontakt library folder in my documents folder… Whenever I add another library I simply have Bobdule's Kontakt Library Tools scan the top level of my master Kontakt libraries folder and it registers all symlinks spread throughout my hard drives...

Having the Master Kontakt library folder with the symlink setup allows me to not worry about moving libraries around other hard drives without batch resaving, because Kontakt thinks the libraries are still in the same location.

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2024

Is there a good clean way to batch uninstall these on MacOS? Batch adding is nice, but I would like to see it work with any user with sufficient privileges info being store in Keychain. Instead of asking for a systemwide one. If you want to quickly add libraries when you do not have to use any of the ninct utilities of KLU; that little Add Library for MacOS v3 utility makes quick work of it, too.

 

you know what? I don't have a clear answer for that clone... as I have chosen to do it more the 'hard' way to insure everything is copacetic on a new system.. but I see or understand the need/desire for that.

I haven't even used batch adding myself yet, as I've just been pick and poking and adding over the last few months.. and then double checking each with Kontakt standalone.. (which again, I acknowledge is not a quick and dirty way to get it done, but the more thorough check and balance for me at least...).

I am not familiar with or have used the little Add Library for MacOS v3 utility myself with my snail approach.. is that one of the earlier Fred Blogg's utilities or someone else's prior to KLU? (I went from 5,1's running K5x to current with time off in between so missed a lot of the progress over that time with different means and methods).

But personally, when I have made a mistake in not removing something via KLU properly before moving or whatnot, it will kick out a dialog in the NICNT tool in KLU which will show 2 different locations etc, and have been able (iirc) to point it to the correct location, but I'm not sure if it's a ghost/bug/whatnot as sometimes it will reappear in scanning (? I think, don't hold me to that)... so I "try" and do it just the slower way as I'm trying to make it stable and not crapshow, and probably taking extra precautions or steps that aren't necessary in that activity...

Generally, like when I was mass re-building new versions of older libraries or new releases, I would have one system doing that (downloading and whatnot as 'work' system not online).. then sneaker net the drive over, sweep it to appropriate drive for my intent, add it one at a time, and so forth...

but now realizing that there are certain libs that I use more often then others and want on specific drives then original location, am gonna have to do a little admin housekeeping on that...

So my slow and steady approach is not the best for all, especially if it had to be quite expeditious... But I will attest that that method and adhering to Fred Blogg's KLU's faq's/thread etc has worked flawlessly so far without problems.

I will look into the "add library for macOS v3 Utility", as could serve some good use for me, as I have a ton of stuff that I don't find "agreeable" with current NI Kontakt v7 file structuring and with their newer database and disability of locking certain drive locations in etc and whatnot.. and it has been frustrating..

 

I'm a big fan of DRAG AND DROP, so uninstalling moving, and reinstalling will be the way I go then. Gots to do the same thing with my Omni libraries, I may just delete omni all together though. I like Kontakt and Reason the most.

 

Symlinks are the way. My libraries are scattered across many drives, but Kontakt thinks they're all in the same/original folders.
I haven't found anything better than Link Shell Extension.

Just open 2 explorer windows, move a bunch of folders to the new location, right-click drag to the original location and choose Symbolic Link from the context menu.

 

That's cool, but doesn't really help for a macOS user as imagined using KLU 2.

 

You sure about that? I used the same library organization process I mentioned in reply #29 of this thread when I was on Mac.

 

Oh, I wasn't arguing the symlink idea, just the methodology explained as it was for windows etc... so my bad, I definitely could have phrased that better.



(edit add: what is your preferred method of making symlinks/symlinking these days? As I haven't done much of that with more modern macOS, did more back in my mavericks/Sierra etc days... and haven't had to with new system yet.... and since I haven't done deep research, all I know is that my previous means would not work now iirc...)

 

@sisyphus I'm 100% on Windows now. But I believe I used Symlinker when I was on Mac.

 

Ah, thank you @Moogerfooger , that was the one I used to use as well... I think I found out a few months ago with my new m chipped Mac and Sonoma etc that it no longer is a viable option unfortunately... and since I haven't needed to perform any symlinks lately, my research outside of making a terminal script stopped there as I failed at finding a current 'easier' software solution (if a new one exists, which should, but quick searching didn't find...)... but I will cross that bridge at some point, and terminal scripting and running/performing patches in terminal is kinda getting second nature at this point with heightened macOS security protocol/lockdowns and shouldn't be that big a deal...

Appreciate your time and heads up... be well.

 

most of the time, I do not even need to create symbolic links on MacOS. I just use an Alias. Go to the target folder you want, hit command + up arrow to go up one directory. Right click the folder that is your target, do Make Alias and then drag that alias into the folder you are trying to link somewhere else.

I do not think I have a single symlink used for anything. 0 of them.

If you right click the alias file you create and do get info, you will see "Where" and "Original", and you can also Select New Original.

 

Last edited: Aug 20, 2024