Clean up a duplicate folder of 3rd party instrument after updating?

Martin Schmid

Hi.. a 3rd party kontakt instrument I have (Impact Soundworks Shreddage 3 Stratus) had an update I installed recently. In order to clear out the old presets, and have the new ones show up, I had to delete the .db3 file as documented here: https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/34318/#Comment_34318

This fixed the issue for the instrument as shown in the attached image (labeled "fixed").

However, there is this other "Instrument" (shown as a folder icon) that I have no idea what it is.. is it safe to remove? why does it now exist.. ? how would i remove it? it was there before 'fixing' as above, but new since installing the update mentioned above.

Thx.

ShelLuser

That seems like a botched install to me, I conclude as much from the "nki file not found" error; even 3rd party instruments provide at the very least an NKI file.

Before removing it I'd check out the folder in a file manager to see what's really in there.

I imagine that it could also be an issue of this folder getting added to Kontakt's database settings even though it has no place there. I have no experience with Kontakt 7 so far, but my assumption / theory is that the folder now shows up anyway even though the main Kontakt browser can't do anything with it.

But what other NKI files might be in there?

I have several 3rd party Kontakt instruments which won't show up in the browser, not even if you add their folders to the database, but they still contain useful instruments.

Hope this can give you some ideas.

Martin Schmid

Thanks @ShelLuser -

re: "check out the folder in a file manager to see what's really in there." - I had no idea where 'there' is.. it shows the path as <LIBRARY>.. I didn't know what that means.

I did find that I could right click on one of the items, and it had a "Show in Finder" option... which it shows, and clearly exists... and the file system knows how to find it... so it's odd that Kontakt 7 sees it, but fails to load it..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52pWu_K3Avg

ShelLuser

I had no idea where 'there' is.. it shows the path as <LIBRARY>.. I didn't know what that means.

Ah yes, my bad. Forgot about that part. Fire up Native Access and go to its settings / preferences. There you'll find a "file management" tab, click it and look for the "content location". Assuming you're using NA2 you'll also have a "browse" button there which should fire up your standard filemanager.

That should allow you to look for this mysterious folder.

Another option is to check the Kontakt settings or options. This may be a bit harder: look for a database tab; it should list all the entries where Kontakt is searching for instruments (and contents) to use. Try to see if you can find the product name in there. It's probably easier through Native Access though.

Hope this can help!

Also... in the end you can always simply try. So once you found the folder using your filemanager don't immediately remove it but try to rename it. Or move it into another location (do this while Kontakt isn't running! nor Komplete Kontrol for that manner). Then see what happens when you fire up Kontakt again. That's probably the safest way.