Advanced Guide: Native Access installation problems and how to fix them manually

Sunborn

IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide is for experienced users only and only for Windows!

Hello dear members :-)

I decided to make this guide in order to help, at least the experienced users, fix Native Access installation issues, until our dear developers find (finally) a way to deal with them. This guide is for two Reaktor ensembles (Scanner XT & Super 8) and it is rather simple. Please be aware that, in other applications things might be much more complicated! So, lets start.

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The Background

Earlier today, i purchased 3 instruments, Polyplex, Scanner XT & Super 8.

So, I opened Native Access and start downloading and install.

The first instrument, Polyplex, has successfully installed. The problem started with the 2 other. I must say here, that this, was the first time ever that i had installation issues with Native Access, so please dear admins @Matt_NI, @Kaiwan_NI consider this as a serious bug (and a source of frustration for the inexperienced users), which has to be solved quickly, because the nature of this problem makes no sense. You will understand what i mean, later in this guide.

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The Problem

At first, after installation, Native Access says "Successfully installed". But the 2 instruments was still there, in the "Available" section of Native Access!

I did a refresh first, then i restarted Native Access, but nothing changed. So i started to investigate.

First i checked my Library folder, and the 2 instruments were there (so, at least a part of them was installed).

Then i opened Reaktor to see what is going on, and the 2 instruments were missing from the list.

So, i went back to the Library and i clicked the ensemble icon to open it manually.

And, surprise, surprise, it shows it as "Demo" (and my nerves started to tickling)!

Meanwhile those 2 instruments in my account were at a "Not Registered" mode.

So, i opened Native Access and added their serial numbers manually. Each time, Native Access replied, "Successfully registered"! Then i refreshed the page and the instruments finally went to the "Registered" section.

Yet, alas... no... the 2 instruments were still available for download, still missing from Reaktor and when manually opened, were still in Demo.

So, i had to go deeper...

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The Solution

First thing i did, was to check the Registry and the Native Instruments common folder at: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments

Nothing was there... (Note: my Windows are always running in Administrator mode, so the "Run as Admin" command is not the case here). So, i had to create them manually!

This is the way:

PART 1 - Program Files

Step 1: You need to open Native Access again, and start download. But this time you need to do it by follow one of the 2 options below, otherwise Native Access will delete your .iso files after installation. And we need those .iso files!:

• Make your Downloads folder "read-only".
• If for some reason this does not work, you need to have your downloads folder open and be prepared to quickly copy and paste (in another folder) your .iso, exactly at the time between completed download and end of installation. The larger the application, the more time you will have. For small sized apps, you need to be really fast!

Step 2: Now we have the .iso, next step is to extract its contents. To do this you need an application like WinRar (or other similar). Do not use PowerISO because it is useful only for the first extraction. I use WinRar because i can do all the steps with it. 7zip might do the job too, but i don't use it, so i don't know for sure.

So, right-click on the .iso file and click at "Extract here" or "Extract to folder". You will see a folder with those 2 files (plus 1 hidden):

Note: This applies in our example, other cases may have more files! Do not worry, for our next step we only need the file with the NI image, the Setup PC.

Step 3: Now we use WinRar again, to extract the main installation file, the (app_name) Setup PC. We proceed in the same way as in Step 2. In this case, best is to choose "Extract to folder". Now we have a new folder who looks like this:

Step 4: We open the "Data" folder and we ignore everything there, except the folder named "OFFLINE". We open it. There we need only the folder (in this case), or the folders, named with capital letters and numbers. We ignore anything else.

We open this folder. Inside there are more folders and we need them all!

Step 5: Now it is time to figure out where all this material goes. It is not difficult to find out, you only need to check an already installed application as an example.

Open a second Explorer Window and go to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments. Make a new folder named as the application (in our case, Super 8). Open it and create a new folder named "PAResources". Then make 3 more folders inside. Name them as:

"_DatabaseResources", "database" and "image".

Inside those, you have to copy some of the extracted content, like this (always in our example! on other apps, folders might be many more and named differently, but with patience, any intelligent person can figure it out):

1- Rename folder "7F2B9BDB" (again, in our example) to "shortname" and folder "968554A4" to "colour" then move them to the other Explorer window and put them both inside the "_DatabaseResources" folder.

2- Rename folder "C3E8EB3D" to "PAL" then move it to the other Explorer window and put it inside the "database" folder.

3- Rename folder "8085D24C" to "Super 8" then move it to the other Explorer window and put it inside the "image" folder.

Once more i have to emphasize: The above names and folders are specifically for our example only (which is Reaktor's ensemble Super 8). Other apps will have very different names and folders. However the same rules apply to all.

4- Now we have one last folder. Inside is an .xml file with the name of the app. Move (or copy and paste) this file to: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Service Center

Part 2 - The Registry

Now we need the Windows Registry Editor, though if you have a more advanced registry application, it will be better.

Step 1: Open your Registry Edit app. For the Windows editor, if you don't know where to find it, open Windows Run, write "regedit" (without the quotes) and click "OK". Then go to key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Native Instruments\

Step 2: Right-click on it and select New-->Key. Name it with the name of the app (in our case, Super 8). Inside this key you need to create 3 new values. Select "String Value".

Step 3: Give to each value, a specific name, like this.

• Value 1: ContentDir

Double click it and write the path to your content. Unless you changed your location, it is at: C:\Users\Public\Documents\Native Instruments\app name (Super 8 in our case)

• Value 2: ContentVersion

Double click it and write the app's version (it's a number, it is good to know the exact version but, if you are not sure, just write 1.0.0 and the app should fix this when it opens).

• Value 3: SNO

Go to your Native Instruments account and copy the correct serial number. Then double click the entry and paste it there.

Close everything. We are finished the process.

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Final Steps

Open your Native Access. Everything should be fine now (in my case, they are). :-)

Close Native Access and open the application to verify that everything is working as they should.

That's it. Happy user! 😉

Conclusion: The whole process took me, 10 minutes to figure the problem, 20-30 to solve it, and... almost 4 hours to finish this damn guide! I hope that it will help some of you, but as i mentioned before, this is a guide for experienced users only. There is no simple solution until Native Instruments fix those issues and simplify the installation process. It makes no sense to install a program, to see it in your disc, N.A. says it is installed, but yet it is not. It is only partially installed, at least in my case!

Disclaimer: I will not provide further explains to inexperienced users. If you know how to do those steps, do them. Otherwise do not.

Last, but not least, I wish to all of you joyful holidays and a fruitful New Year, with more wisdom and with whatever the heart of each of you longs for... 🙏

Sunborn

Technical note to developers: The number of the hidden .jwt files inside the hidden ras3 folder matched the number of my NI installs, so this is not the root of the problem.