Hello guys,
Have you ever tried to backup your entire Kontakt Libraries folder ?
I just did. Well it's not as simple as I expected!

So I have all my libraries in a same folder named "Kontakt Sound Banks".
I copy this folder on an external hard drive.
To test it out, I try re-importing these libraries on another computer ("Add Library"). My goal is to have one backup easily useable that I can just copy all at once in case my main drive fails.
And there, some libraries import properly, but others, such as the Cinematique Instruments Ukulele Trio (but not only), load up with a faulty interface, like this:


The sounds do kind of work, but the interface is un-useable like this (it's supposed to look like this: http://cdn.rekkerd.org/img/201503/cinematiqueinstruments_ukulele_3_thumb.jpg )

Can you help get to the result I'm trying to achieve ?
Thank you

 

You also need to copy over the pictures folder. The location depends on what system you are using. For me on Windows 7 x64 it is at Program Files>Common Files>Native Instruments>Kontakt 5

 

Yeah as written above.
Your basically missing the library resources. Most libraries either have resources encoded into.nkr or stored in the root folder in resources folder.
However certain libraries, mostly ones with installers etc install pictures and sometimes library resources etc in the factory folder ie the location written above etc.
Also be aware if you delete original location etc in favour of external you can also get a few registry problems.
Example, quickload & links with nki/samples etc can become broken and they might need re-linking to new locations.
Can cause a few other small problems also but nothing you can't fix

 

8Dio libraries that have installers also create a 'pictures' directory here:
C:\Users\username\Documents\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5\pictures

If you want to save everything you've added to Quickload:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Native Instruments\Kontakt 5\QuickLoad

It's usually a good idea to backup your snaphsots as some libraries only consist of one instrument and multiple snapshots:
C:\Users\username\Documents\Native Instruments\User Content\Kontakt

The best way to backup multiple libraries is to export the registry hive: "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments" and import it on a new machine or OS install. The directory structure has to be exactly the same as when you exported down to the drive letter and it's best to export when after a fresh install with only Kontakt libraries installed so you don't have all the other NI program keys in the way. Importing this .reg file will recreate the necessary keys for all your libraries.

 

So guys!
Thank you very much for these first leads.
Apparently I should have specified that I am on Mac.
I tried copying the Kontakt 5 folder that was in my Documents and Libraries folders as well. But that didn't change anything.

I also contacted Cinematique Instruments for their opinion, this is their reply:

Yes, you have surely moved the folders in a wrong way. Just reconstruct like it is in the
original folder and the it should (?!) run, if not, please let me know.
Joe
​

But I just copied the folders without moving hierarchy. The only thing is, since it's now on a different drive than the one they were installed on, obviously the drive's name is not the same. But once inside the bank folder, the hierarchy hasn't changed.

I don't care about saving custom or quickload stuff, I just need the original banks as it they were installed.
Any other clues ?

 

Last edited: Mar 4, 2017

If your using different computers why not just reinstall library etc?
Shouldn't matter on different computers unless you don't have original library backed up or have you batch resaved etc?
Not 100% how it would work on OSX as they normally got dedicated folders etc.
However is still the same problem. Your missing the library resources. Also double check format of patch like whether NKI\NKM etc but probably not relevant.
Normally during installation etc if you don't specify a location library NI folders etc on OSX think it installed by default at Macintosh HD > Users > Shared.
If it similar on OSX etc the missing resources are going to be contained either in .nkr itself, resource folder in root folder or at default locations if you haven't specified a custom location.
If it only a case of a few libraries and you not backed them up then either find missing resources or redownload library etc. Could be more simple. However I guess another way to find missing resources would be to search for missing pngs\tga which would tell you if they contained in a folder etc. If u using unlocked or something like that and can access script just find .png name etc & search drives.
That might tell you if they contained in folders somewhere on drive & if they aren't then they are encoded into the nkr itself.

 

Hello again,
Thanks for your explanations of how Kontakt manages libraries Kloud. Thanks to everyone else who sent me input as well.

I just wanted to post the solution that worked for me (on Mac):
Since copying the entire folder from one computer to another was causing interface issues for some of the banks (even when copying other folders like Documents/Native Instruments/Kontakt 5, Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Kontakt 5 etc...), as last resort I tried making a disk image of my entire original Kontakt Sound Banks folder (the folder in which I initially installed all of them).
Mounting this disk image on a different computer, I was then able to re-import the libraries one by one into Kontakt, from that disk image, this time with no problem at all. I was even able to change the name of the folder on that disk image, it was still working. Go figure. Why does Kontakt make a difference between copying the whole folder, or making a disk image out of it, I have no idea. But in my case, this being for a backup, it will suffice.

Voilà

 

Last edited: Mar 20, 2017

The data two folders you copied over (~/Documents/Native Instruments/Kontakt 5 and /Library/Application Support/Native Instruments/Kontakt 5) are the two places I would have suggested looking for these resources - these are the default locations for newer and older (respectively) installers, those that don't simply install resources in the actual library folder. It's quite likely the resources the lib is looking for are in one of those two places, but that the instrument is remembering the absolute file path, including the original volume name.

There doesn't seem to be a global method, or any quick method that I know of, to have the relocated lib look in the corresponding location on a new startup drive. Fortunately in many cases when you backup a lib the backup get used with the same startup drive, so the resource location isn't an issue.

When you do need to manually reset the resource path, open the instrument, click on the wrench to edit, click on the Instrument Options button, then click on the folder icons in the Instrument Wallpaper and Resource Container fields to direct the software where to look for these. It would be nice if Kontakt had a mass-editing function whereby you could select 100 instruments within a library and apply this same redirection globally.