Installing Native instruments on an external SSD drive

kajito

Hi,

I recently switched from Windows 11 to macOS Sequoia 15.2. My new Mac Mini has the base configuration with 256GB of storage. I also have an external 2TB SSD that I want to use for storing large files. I've already copied my home folder and application folder to the external drive, and activated it. However, the Native Instruments files are still being downloaded to the internal Library/Application Support/Native Instruments folder from Native Access. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Jojo123

Hello,

Not sure I understand your post. I see some issues arising for you. To start, why are you copying the Applications folder to the external drive, also the Home folder. You're not supposed to do that. On a Mac and especially with NI content its best to let NA install things where it needs to by default. THe exception is the content Libraries which you can point NA to so it installs on such as an external SSD.

Make sure that SSD is formatted APFS before you use it. If its an ExFat formatted drive you'll get issues.

You dont say what products you've purchased, but many people including myself have the Komplete UCE which takes a whopping 1.4TB (approx) of space. You are going to be grinding to a serious halt if you're aiming to even install the smaller Kompletes. 256GB system drive is very small by todays standards when you consider the duties it has to do. Especially for DAW software and crucially it needs (temporarily) a lot of space when it installs bigger libraries, sometimes more than double and thats even if you install to an external..

I would'nt download anymore content until you get your External sorted out, like I said, check the formatt first then get NA set up to install the libraries to your external.

kajito

Hi,

I'm using the KOMPLETE 14 ULTIMATE Upgrade with a 2TB external SSD formatted to APFS, and I’ve found a solution that works well—see the video below. However, I now realize I should have chosen at least 512GB of internal storage. While some NI files are stored on the internal drive (though I’m unsure if I can move them), most of the content libraries were transferred to the external drive. Currently, I’ve used 102GB, leaving me with 140GB available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFuOcsi_eFY

Jojo123

Sorry I cant see your video. Glad you've found a solution.

Ultimate is not small. Whats done is done as far as your system drive size. What you'll have to do is be judicious in how you operate things. It means you'll have to be extra vigilant when you install the bigger libraries. Im not sure what is included in Ultimate but there's bound to be some huge libraries and I would try those first, one by one, and dont put anything else on your drive to keep as much space free as possible, altho all that said, it sounds like you've got things installed already. Thats good.

I wouldn't recommend moving anything that NI puts on your internal and fortunately they are by far, smaller than the content libraries that can go to external.

One more thing, you didn't say how much RAM. Not sure if the base config is now 16GB or still on the abysmal 8. Here's the thing you could come up against. When you run power hungry products if you dont have sufficient RAM, it means the OS will swap out to your system drive causing extra write cycles. As it is your drive only has the small window to work with. Again, you want to keep as much of that free as possible.

kajito

1GB. Thanks for your feedback.

kajito

sorry meant to say 16GB.