Ik Product Manager Not Installing
Tina Larzelere
For which product? Plug-ins usually have a standard location/folder and moving them may result in problems for future updates. Sound libraries, however can be moved and when done properly will allow for subsequent installations to follow suite.
When you install a new SDX library, you can set the location for it during the installation.
If you wish to move it post installation, you can simply move it in the Finder/Explorer and either:
Wow this sucks Bro I really hate hate hate that your product manager. It does NOT show any dropdowns to change products path after moving things to new SSD drives. Ive been all around this terrible terrible product manager, and tried re directing things in the stand alone apps themselves. Some limited success but I want everyone here to know toon track has a terrbile problem with their lame product manager. It is 1/2 baked. Some things can be fixed in the apps by redirecting, rarely, other can be redirected under Installation info, and usually, moving things to a new location or computer results in the RIDICULOUS need to reinstall, for me, 57 librarys! YOUR INSTALLATION MANAGER SUCKS! Redesign the damn thing to make it EASY for users to redirect to new SSDs and redesign your product to not lose its mind when moving libraries around. SUCKS!
I am using the Product Manager on a Windows 10 Home 64bit PC to install my products but keeps on repeating the same mistake of not properly installing the files in the Location Paths I need. I have erased and reinstalled two times with no luck.
Q. Is there a way to change the install locations in the Product Manager?. If so, could you please show me how to do this for the Product Manager does not have a Preferences Tab nor a way to change my file locations.
This question pertains to IK Multimedia products on the Mac, but maybe somebody knows the answer. If not, it seems like something that IK desktop users may not know about but which they probably should!
Background: I was doing some updating using the IK Product Manager, downloading the new "Lost String Quartet" sounds for Sampletron 2, and when I clicked on the Download button nothing seemed to be happening. I did a search on my HD and found the "SampleTron_2_The_Lost_String_Quartet_Sound_Content.dmg" installer was in the directory mentioned above (ie., the IK Product Manager folder). I double-clicked on the installer and it installed the sounds. A bit clunky and inconvenient, but mission accomplished.
Managing storage on Mac and Windows was always by biggest headache. This type of behavior, the pain of managing concurrent versioning, license managing deamons and the expense of obtaining a complete set of tools at a reasonable (non-professional uses) pushed me to fixed function hardware (digital workstations) and now iPad which is like a DIY hardware unit that surpasses any digital workstation for a similar cost.
But it's worth emphasizing... delete any installers you find lying around. Same often goes for random compressed files... you probably uncompressed them into a folder along time ago.
Letting IOS remove the least recently used apps to allow you to keep adding more content is actually a pretty good way to go. iTunes always has a copy for you to re-install until the developer completely drops support and won't take anyones money or you update and they refuse to maintain the app.
Yes, I knew about the 180-day thing. They tell you that upfront. And recommend backing them up. So I backed up my sound file installers to external disk. But I had no idea these app, update, and sound content, installers were just being deposited in some buried folder on my HD anyway.. Usually the Product Manager does its thing and then tells you that your files have been "Installed correctly". But I just assumed the installer then went away after that, like it does with other companies. Or if they are left behind, they are in your Downloads folder, not buried where you would never think to look for them!
Oh, and I think the 180 day thing is only for the big "sound content" installers. I believe applications and updates can be downloaded any time as needed. Still, I agree the whole $10 "Sounds Reactivation Credit" fee thing is extremely LAME and I am not aware of any other company that has such a policy. (Although, Waves has their weird WUP thing!)
I too own almost everything they make, and through deals and group buys, etc. I've gotten it all for a very reasonable price. I love a lot of their products. Sampletron is fantastic! So is Syntronik, Modo Bass, Amplitube, Hammond B3X... So many great products. I'm not complaining, and I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone avoid their products.
I actually think this might be a bug in their Product Manager. If it is supposed to be some way of providing a back up for future installs, why, then, also tell you to back up your sound file content to an external drive, and have this whole 180 day thing? And does it really need to store EVERY SINGLE UPDATE! I've got Sampletank 4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.1.4, 4.1.5, and 4.1.7.. and T-RackS 5.4.0, 5.5.0, 5.5.1, 5.6.0, 5.8.0... EACH of them taking up like 2GB of space! And that's just two apps! If I did ever need these for a reinstall, I would only need the latest one.
And I only found out about this because of a faulty install with one of their sound file updates. I'm just glad to know about this. I also posted about this on IK's user form. I'm just waiting to get official word on this from IK.
I have a 2TB internal drive and own over 500 plugins from dozens of companies. Most of them have Product Managers nowadays that make installing, authorizing, and updating easy. Usually the installer is either deleted automatically, or it asks you if you want to keep it, or it is left in your Downloads folder, and I delete it manually. I've never seen anything like this where every installer is afterward stored deep in some nested folder like this!
The solution to this, due to having a relatively small internal SSD in my MBP, that I came up with when installing the ton of stuff I got during the group buy was to change the location of installer downloads to an external drive. On my MacBook I use an SD card for this. You can then choose where to install the content for each individual library within product manager. I store most of my ST4 collection on an external as I don't have enough space on my internal SSD. I do install stuff I know I'll use more frequently on the internal such as Sampletron.
Also ST4 can be very buggy when it comes to sample locations and the installers seem to put some of the older libraries in the wrong places which makes the plug-in crash. I had to go through the IK folders and put them in the right places manually, after which it all worked fine.If the samples aren't where it thinks they are, ST4 crashes Logic when you close the plug-in window.
Whenever I see any IKM thread on any forum, somebody will always post about how they avoid IKM, or they get annoyed about things like having to install all of T-Racks even if you only own one plug-in.
It's a real shame as once you get through the installation crap, a lot of their plug-ins sound really good. But by making the experience bad, you lose customers. It's especially stupid when on other forums, a lot of the people that make the most anti-IKM noise are basically complaining about their experience of installing a frikkin free plug-in and having to deal with multiple GB of dowlonads and every T-Racks product appearing in their plug-in folder not jus the one they thought they were getting. And then the online PR guy drops by with the "poor me" routine, pisses off the complainers even more and the cycle continues.
OK, so I did some deeper digging and it seems there is actually an IK Product Manager Manual (who the F knew, much less read it! .. but I digress). And it does actually mention this folder where the installers end up.
But what they are calling "software content" here is actually the INSTALLER. The actual samples (.pak files) get installed in Users/Shared/IK Multimedia. (And my folder here is over 300GB). And of course the stand alone applications get installed in the macOS Application folder, and the plugins (AU/VST) get installed in the standard location in the System/Library.
I believe the answer is that you really only need to keep or back up the installers that say "samples" or "sound content". The application software installers don't expire and can be installed, reinstalled, updated, and authorized any time from the Product Manager application.
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