VST folder empty and VST3 folder missing... why?

LaurenceOwen

Hi all,

First time poster, long time NI instrument user here.

I recently upgraded from an Intel Mac Pro to a new Mac Studio with an M2 Max chip. I'm trying to reinstall all my libraries, but I've hit a problem. Native Access doesn't seem to be creating a VST3 folder in my Library>Audio>Plugins folder. Also, the VST folder in Plugins remains empty after every installation. Historically, all my plugins have appeared in these automatically generated folders, but not now.

Consequently, I can open installed libraries in the standalone apps of Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol, but not within the plugins my DAW.

Confusingly, I am getting three different error messages (see photos). Opening the standalone app does not fix the problem.

Can anyone advise?

Jeremy_NI

No news from you for a while. We’re closing this thread now. If you still need assistance on that topic, please get in touch here: http://bit.ly/NIsupport_KKontrol

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/30992/vst-folder-empty-and-vst3-folder-missing-why

Did you do the most basic N.I. & Mac user things to do ? (very important including double check) : ALL NI apps including NTKDaemon must have full disk access. : How to Enable Full Disk Access on macOS and disks must be of correct format : Notes on Network Drives and Disk Formats

Else what is the Mac OS version ? (your profile suggests Sonoma 14.4) and whats the Native Access version ? And Kontakt version ?

Also you can try resetting the File Management path settings in Native Access and then set the Content and Download folder to your preferred again and then see if that helps if re-installing Kontakt .

Also to try is to remove Kontakt 7 (if using 7?) and then try installing it from a download : KONTAKT 7.9.0 PC & Mac

you could also try an earlier version of N.A. to see if that makes any difference : NATIVE ACCESS 3.8.0 (in case of a download problem then try log in to Google)

Otherwise I have very limited knowledge of Mac but Mac expert Jeremy_NI will not be here before Monday or later.

You can also try contacting N.I. Native Access and Installation Support

At the page N.I. Native Access and Installation Support be sure to scroll down to page bottom to see if there is a log-in request , if there is then log-in , at next page again scroll down and small blue chat box ought occur within 15 seconds. Then write in chat box and when getting suggestions then select did not help when it didn't , that ought to bring you on to either chat with human or open a ticket. (You need to use a browser with Cookie , Security and Extensions settings that will allow for log-in on the page for the page to work)

There has been introduced chat support for Native Access assistance (at least daytime on normal work days) :

Please refer to the page : How to get in touch with our Customer Care

Vocalpoint

Also wanted to add - while I am not familiar with how MacOS handles the actual VST3 directory - this directory is standard and managed by the OS in Windows.

NI does not create it nor does it have any say in the matter. It is either there or the installs will fail.

No plugins that I know of have anything to do VST folder management.

VP

BIF

To @Vocalpoint's point (hehe)…

"NI does not create it (the VST3 folder) nor does it have any say in the matter. It is either there or the installs will fail. "

But sometimes us users might end up deleting or renaming it because we were trying to find a dodgy VST3 plugin that was causing something to crash. And if we didn't return everything back to normal, then all of a sudden we're getting messages like the OP.

Also, and I must say this again, there ARE other VST3 folders that can get created. It's not standard and it might even go against best practices of Microsoft or Steinberg. But I've seen them and I saw them again on my system last weekend while I was removing all VST2 folders from Cubase, Live, and Komplete Kontrol.

But for 99.999999% of cases, the VST3 folder is this one:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

If you suspect you have a bad plugin that's crashing your DAW/Host, then you can rename that folder to something else like "VST3_Bad"…but make sure you create an empty version of C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, or else you could end up with unpredictable results or an outright crash.

Then you can begin moving your VST3 plugins from VST3_BAD to VST3 one at a time to see which one causes the crash again.

But never leave yourself without a \VST3 folder in that location.

Jeremy_NI

@LaurenceOwen Do you still need help? Some nice people offered their help here but you didn't get back.

Ojustaboo

On Mac, the standard place for VST’s etc are

VST are in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST

VST3 are in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3

AU are in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

AAX plug-ins are in /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/

Jeremy_NI

No news from you for a while. We’re closing this thread now. If you still need assistance on that topic, please get in touch here: http://bit.ly/NIsupport_KKontrol