How to overcome refusal to acknolwedge installation folder?

Universon · 2025-04-22T18:08:04+00:00

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Hi,

I've been battling this issue for the longest time, sometimes victorious (randomly, I don't know how), but i've just downloaded 8 Expensive Plug-Ins, adding to the list of other Plug-In's and Expansions i'm unable to install still (Groth has been steadily refusing for a year I think). Here it says that the Folder into which i've installed EVERYTHING ELSE is Invalid… anyone have the faintest idea what's up with this? This is the drive I host ALL my audio files from or for NI on…. and i'm sat here completely unable to Install registered products to a folder that works for others, and has done for ages…. i've tried to trouble shoot, but the generic response from NI regarding this just doesn't seem to do anything or suggest anything viable or useful…

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Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44627/how-to-overcome-refusal-to-acknolwedge-installation-folder

For this to make any sense - you need to post up a screencap of your Preferences→File Locations within Native Access

Have to be honest - cannot imagine how/why you would ever want a folder location like this:

Vocalpoint

For this to make any sense - you need to post up a screencap of your Preferences→File Locations within Native Access.

Have to be honest - cannot imagine how/why you would ever want a folder location like this:

This appears to be a folder that starts with (and contains) underscores?

Universon

Yeah, that's the folder - The underscores are there exclusively to push it to the top of the directory structure

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/44627/how-to-overcome-refusal-to-acknolwedge-installation-folder

You do not tell OS and I can not make out path completely from your screenshot of path.

But you profile says Windows11 and as far as I can see then your path name starts with an underscore.

Using special characters such as _ and # others in path name is asking for trouble. So I'd suggest that you never use anything other than letters and numbers and spaces and maybe if need be the - dash and nothing else. That gives the highest chance of not inducing unknown and unforeseen problems due to path names.

So my first and immediate suggestion is : drop the special characters in the path names and try again.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/223078#Comment_223078

That may work for you - but it may not work for Native Access. Or any other application (like Kontakt etc) that needs to read a filename in a path with an underscore.

If you want this to actually solve this issue - consider dumping the underscores. Pretty sure everything will suddenly start working quickly.

mykejb

Why should an underscore be a problem? It's a perfectly legal filename character in Windows so unless NI have coded to specifically ignore it (which would be extremely bad practice) it shouldn't make a difference. Besides that, the OP has said all the other products install there correctly.

Universon

oh this is going to be a long bout of manual re-pointing :)

Will leave it a few days til some work is complete then let you know how I get on.

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/223085#Comment_223085

Well - I did ask the OP to post his actual File Locations preferences so we can definitely see exactly where NA is expecting to find libraries.

But until he does that - we know pretty much nothing.

One thing that is clear - NA is erroring out WITH an invalid location - for a very valid reason - underscore or no underscore.

What that reason is - remains to be determined.

Universon

I wasn't aware I hadn't shown that in the previous image….
From memory I don't recall them all as being the same directory previously, but since the last time anything was changed i've installed quite a few Plug-Ins etc… including a bunch from Native Instruemnts, Spitfire Audio, Westwood, SoundIron, Stezov and more….

Vocalpoint

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/223093#Comment_223093

While "psuedo" valid - these locations may cause many issues that I can see.

You are effectively jamming all your executables, downloads and all your libraries - into the same location. Even more troublesome - its your Documents folder - one that may be exposed to unwanted OneDrive syncing (Windows) and other potential breakdowns.

A better plan - lays things out a bit more logically - here are my locations:

Downloads: Pointed to a well-defined (standard) location

Application Location - should always be on the system drive - installed where all other exes, dlls etc are installed for a typical system. I never alter this one. In your case - you are forcing Windows and every other app to deal with that "underscored" directory structure - which will eventually be problematic for something at some point.

Content Location: Ideally - this should be a specific (custom) location - designed for content and nothing but content.

If you are jamming everything in that single location - no telling what is going on - except we already know that NA does not like it for reasons unknown.

Would also be helpful if you can tell us exactly what you are doing - when these "invalid location" messages are coming up - are you "repointing" them or what?

And if so - what are you telling NA to look at - and where?

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/223093#Comment_223093

Thank you. Despite what some might say and keep saying then it's a very bad idea to use special characters in path names. It will most often work until suddenly it gives problems and you are left clueless why since it can not be the path names that everyone (including yourself ?) is convinced is OK to use. I am not here to discuss my advice with others and I can not even promise that it will solve the problem (since we do not yet know what is the problem for sure) , but I know for sure that using special characters in path names can induce more types of problems for some apps (even brand name apps).

P.S.

I overlooked that , your Applications ought to go to default location on the system drive.

(VocalPoint is right , your path settings in general does not look good)

mykejb

I've just checked using an underscore as the start of the path and also as part of the filename for libraries and it works perfectly as you'd expect. You can also use a space at the start of the path and that works too, although it looks a little confusing in Explorer so possibly not the best thing to do 🤣

PK The DJ

I agree that forbidden (not "special") characters should not be used, but an underscore is not a forbidden character.

If you know your computer history, you might remember that it never used to be possible to have a space in a name. What was the character that people used instead? An underscore.

Also, if Windows really has a problem with a character, it would not allow the file or folder to be created.

red_nick

Anything that isn't a letter or number is a special character.

Maybe try starting with a 0 instead, that's what I do with my music folder for DJing

Vocalpoint

All we know right now is that 99 out of a 100 of us - are (presumably) not using underscores and are (presumably) not having issues.

The OP is using an underscore - and is having issues. And has stated he has had them for the better part of a year. I can only assume the underscore has been there this whole time as well.

Regardless of the validity of the underscore - that is the only thing that is noticeably different.

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