Native Access - Q3 Update

Hi all,

Since we did a mid Q2 update post announcing our plans to better support Native Access and address the myriad of issues that have been appearing lately, I wanted to briefly create an update post to let you all know how we're progressing on this commitment.

First Release

Native Access shipped 3.12.0 at the start of July. This is a smaller release than what we've been doing lately, with the intent to reshape how we ship versions of Native Access moving forward. We're going lighter, and more focused. This time around, our focus was on some crucial and critical issues that have been appearing lately.

• Users have reported being blocked from entering Native Access at the Loading Products screen. We have tested this with a few community members who had reported this, and we feel confident that the new patch should fix this issue. If not, please comment that 3.12.0 did not resolve this issue and we'll continue to look into it. We are aware that sometimes it takes a while to load though, and we're looking into it.
• There have been many cases of users seeing an incomplete product list, or products being in DEMO mode when they shouldn't be. We identified the issue and are confident that this should be resolved in 3.12.0.
• Thank you to the user who created a post about the Uninstall on Windows 10 issue, where uninstallations would leave files behind and put a product in a broken state. 3.12.0 should solve this issue as well.
• The bug where Logic Pro crashes when trying to launch Native Access from within Kontakt had been patched a while ago, but for posterity's sake we’re putting it in this release notes for increased visibility as well.

There's a few minor bugs we've spotted too that we're patching, but for full information please check our release notes.

Second Release

Today we’re excited to present a long-desired feature we call Locate All. This will finally allow you to migrate all of your content products from system A to system B within seconds. We should note however that this does not work for expansion products yet, as they are not able to be Located yet. You will be able to find the Locate Product Content feature in the new Maintenance menu, where we will slowly be moving some other global management features in for more exposure down the line.

We also acknowledge that while we fixed the builder issue causing problems for MacOS 11 users back with 3.12.0, we did note that it suddenly began affecting Windows users. We patched it for the bulk of affected users with 3.12.1, but a handful of users were still seeing the issue happen. Thanks to the debugging support of one of our lovely community members, we were able to fully resolve it, and fix it for 3.13.0. If you were affected, please uninstall Native Access and the NTK Daemon, and reinstall from here.

However, please note that this release is not going to be available for users on MacOS 11. Our build systems and underlying tech already do not support the operating system anymore (Apple doesn't either). As such, we're officially cutting support for MacOS 11. Users on MacOS 11 will no longer have updates of Native Access available to them, and some products/product updates will not appear in your Native Access until you upgrade.

Downloads

We've found an opportunity to bypass some network or firewall limitations that might be blocking users from being able to download a product by introducing Proxy Support. We’re looking to ship this feature with 3.14.0, coming around mid August. Users who are constantly blocked from downloading our products should then at least no longer be consistently blocked, and not need to use less ideal measures to get access to their products.

Other Initiatives

We're making a ton of improvements. We're shipping lighter and more focused, with the intent to make for more stable releases as opposed to the ones we've been seeing since 3.8.0. As such, we're keeping our eyes peeled on how each release performs and getting better at the process.

We've been listening closely to your feedback about how Native Access operates, specifically around auto updates. We've ultimately come to the conclusion that for the short term we will not adapt our update flow. This is because our top priority is to patch issues at the moment, fixing bugs and improving the likelihood of successful deployments. Until we find Native Access in a more stable state, we're not making any changes here.

We will however revisit this decision in 2025. We agree with you that we're too strict about how we handle updates, and are looking into adopting a better way to still encourage Native Access updates, but without being too forceful about it. Once we have a clearer idea of how we'd like to proceed here, we'll be sure to update you and gather feedback.

In addition to this, we've recently rolled out a patch to prevent users from getting stuck in the position where you update an already installed instrument only for your Kontakt version to suddenly be considered too old to run it. We're refining this flow further throughout the quarter and making more lightweight fixes as we go. One area we're touching is Product Updates, where if we determine that your attempt to update a Kontakt Instrument will result in your Kontakt version being out of date, we will not allow you to update that instrument without also installing/updating to a compatible version of Kontakt. The goal here is to give you the agency to make that decision whenever you're willing to take the time to update.

Lastly, last year we were very slow to roll out to MacOS 14 (Sonoma). This year, we're doing the extreme opposite, and making moves to support MacOS 15 as close to out of the gate as possible. As I've mentioned before, Native Access needs to be the first in line to support new operating systems, so that you can reliably use Native Access to install products as they roll out support down the line. 

Sadly, this will also be my last official post as PM of Native Access. I'll be passing on the torch to capable hands in the coming weeks, so that the future of this tool remains in good hands. Thank you all for your constant feedback and passion, it's been a true privilege! I'll be in the comments for a week responding to your messages!

Hayo, PM of Native Access