Why does it take FOREVER to download instruments and content in Native Access 2?

toddc · 2025-03-22T18:22:08+00:00

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I have Comcast Business as my Internet service provider. It's a long way from Google Fiber in terms of speed and reliability. But still, I usually get somewhere in the range of 100 to 150 Mbps download AND upload speeds (which can frequently reach nearly 200 Mbps). And yet, it takes eight (!) hours to download a single 8GB Kontakt instrument, for instance. Because my external Thunderbolt 4 NVMe drive crapped out the other night, I am having to reinstall my entire Komplete Ultimate package. At this rate, it is literally going to take two weeks to download everything. It's ridiculous.

Incidentally, I don't have this problem downloading content from any other Internet source. Is there a setting in Native Access 2 that I have overlooked that throttles my download speed? Or does Native Instruments need to pay for a few more cloud servers to improve the download speeds?

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toddc

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/217722#Comment_217722

No, but NI does have "authority" over its own servers and what I assume is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to ensure that downloads are delivered at reasonable speeds worldwide. However, given my experience with the unbelievably stupid amount of time it takes to download even a gigabyte of data through Native Access, I can only surmise that NI has been so gutted by their Private Equity masters that the company's "CDN" consists of a Pentium II Windows 98 computer with files stored on a 5400 RPM drive sitting in a utility closet somewhere in rural Germanuy. The performance is that pathetic. Maybe even worse.

Since I use my M4 Max MacBook Pro as my main music computer and tend to move from location to location, I usually don't bother with wired Internet connections anymore. But just for kicks, I purchased a Gigabit Ethernet adapter for the MacBook Pro and a CAT8 cable and plugged directly into my Comcast Business modem. My download speed on this wired connection is over 900 Mbps. And guess what, all you genius apologists for NI? Downloads through Native Access were no faster! CLEARLY the problem is on NI's end.

I don't know what's worse. The pathetic excuses for NI's shoddy download performance or the dismal performance itself. At least the download speeds can be improved. Sheer idiocy is more challenging to overcome.

toddc

Oh, come on. While 150 Mbps is not as fast as my previous 600 Mbps Google Fiber speeds, 150 Mbps is fast enough to download an 8GB file in 7 minutes. It shouldn't take 7 hours.

Both my cable modem and router are Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), which supports speeds up to 10 Gbps. So, that is not the bottleneck.

And I'm in Silicon Valley which has some of the fastest Internet connections in the US.

While I appreciate the reply, you frankly don't know what you are talking about. Perhaps you are well-intentioned, but you come across as a sh!tposter when telling someone you don't even know that their 150 Mbps Internet connection is "so 2010." 🙄

toddc

LOL. You get "tolerable" download speeds with a 10Gbps connection? You realize that means you can download an 8GB file in 6 seconds, right? You could download the entire Komplete Ultimate collection in minutes, not hours. I would call that more than tolerable speed. FYI, 10Gbps is 50 times faster than the average download speed of roughly 200Mbps in the United States. Are you sure you don't mean 10Mbps?

toddc

Great, more dumb, hypersensitive, aggrieved shitposting. Jesus, did I mistakenly log into Gearspace? I HAVE "canceled the downloads and tried them again later" countless times. If you had taken the time to read my post, you would understand that it is only Native Access 2 that cannot download large files in a reasonable amount of time. I don't need to visit my neighbor's house to confirm this.

PK The DJ

IMO it's a bit off to be making your first post here, then responding to someone who's trying to help by claiming that he doesn't know what he's talking about. 😯

He asked you a question which you didn't answer. The reasons mentioned as to why the download may be slow are all 100% valid.

You're aware how long it should take, so why leave it connected if you're not getting a reasonable download time? Cancel it and try again later. Try from another location i.e. a neighbour's house (especially if they use another ISP). A simple search of the forum will reveal that people have had success using a VPN to reroute their connection.

Mert_NI

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/43688/why-does-it-take-forever-to-download-instruments-and-content-in-native-access-2

Hello toddc, have you tried the steps in this Knowledge Base Article below:

My Native Access Downloads Are Taking Too Long

I hope this helps☺️

Mert_NI

Hello toddc, does the issue persist?

I hope this helps☺️

PK The DJ

I HAVE "canceled the downloads and tried them again later"

Well then you should have mentioned that in your first post. People are making suggestions trying to help you. We can't know what you've tried unless you mention it.

DunedinDragon

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/218891#Comment_218891

Except that if it's truly on the NI end of things it would affect us ALL the same, and it doesn't.

LostInFoundation

Funny how some guys always decide to ignore the parts that don’t fit with their “it’s your fault” theories (like constantly ignoring the “all other stuff download normally”).

It’s always the same guys (you are so lucky to have almost all of them in your thread) and they always name the same Universal Laws (“it’s not happening for me so it’s your fault”)…

Have a look around here in the forum and you will see they are constantly doing that. Of course unless something is affecting them…in that case, it is surely something not working correctly (the same “it’s not happening to others” doesn’t apply in those cases, of course…)

Btw: they are not trying to help you, just to prove how wrong you are.

My suggestion: ignore them and don’t fall in their game. Don’t call them by names, don’t argue with them, otherwise they will even have a way to point at you as “the bad guy”.

Rather than wasting your time on “it’s on you, it’s your system, you are living in the caves era” try to work the issue with Mert_NI, who is probably here to really try to help you.

PoorFellow

@toddc ,

Your frustration is understandable , however you need to respond and act in a civil manner even if you do not agree with the responses that you are receiving here.

People responding here are very experienced with both N.I. software and hardware and with computers. They have however no power over the functionality of the N.I servers. If you think that the suggestions that people here gives you does not help and that it is the N.I. server that serves you that is the problem then your are best advised directly contacting N.I. Native Access and Installation Support in a civil manner and then work with them to improve your experience. Being an experience computer user yourself then you already know that support might need your patient cooperation before they will arrive at the conclusion that it is the N.I. server that is the problem. But with your patient help and cooperation then hopefully you will get there if the server is the problem and then hopefully the problem will be rectified.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/43688/why-does-it-take-forever-to-download-instruments-and-content-in-native-access-2

Are you using wi-fi or hard-wired Ethernet? And I probably do not need to tell you that 150MBPS is not exactly fast these days.

The reality of the situation is - yes - NI downloads are regulated. Yes - NI downloads perform much differently in different parts of the world. Example - I am in Canada with a 1.5 GBPS download capability, and all downloads are fast as can be any time of day or night.

Your location may not be near a NI network node. You could be fighting against a billion bytes per second on a shared wire because you neighbour is streaming 4 4K streams to his house. Could be your actual internet routing to an accessible NI node - is simply congested and subject to all sorts of nonsense out of your (and even your ISPs) control.

There are many reasons why a download can be slow - none of them specifically easy to troubleshoot.

But I can tell you 150MBps is doing you no favors here in 2025. This speed is just barely better than the old 100mbps Ethernet standards of 15 years ago. I remember transferring 8GB across my own network back in the day taking hours. Technically speaking - this should not be a surprise.

DunedinDragon

As amazing as it might seem, NI has no authority over what your internet service provider gives you in terms of speed. However your typical download speed is limited by what your WiFi or LAN speed is in your house which is further limited by the speed of your computer to process the downloads..none of which are under the control of NI.

Depending on the size of your download that can be significant. I get tolerable download speeds with 10gbps internet service and WiFi 6/6e/7 internal LAN and all stored to high speed SSD drives, but I'm normally installing individual libraries not huge collections of libraries. But I can't say it's much different than other vendors I work with. It really depends on the complexity of the libraries and where they're coming from. Actually I'm quite astonished at how quickly library and product updates complete.

But service quality varies considerably with carriers as well depending on how they allocate their bandwidth and prioritization. I've been on Spectrum for years now, but I was on Comcast back in the day which was never as dependable.

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