Missing instruments from SampleTank 4 MAX

[limestone]

I don't know if this will help anyone, and perhaps my story is a one-off that only happened to me. First of all, I am a huge fan of IK software, I have purchased almost all of it, and I use IK products every time I am in my studio.

Several years ago when I purchased ST 4 Max, it was mailed to me through USPS on a USB drive. ST4 installed and ran perfectly. Over time, IK began to release their software to servers for users to download over the internet, including sound content. At some point, I had a pc crash and had to do a full re-install of ST4. The ability to d/l everything made the install a bit easier, plus I now had complete backups on a data drive.

The mistake I made was assuming that all ST4 MAX sound content was made available for download on IK servers. When I had finished the MAX re-install using downloaded files, ST would occasionally give me an error that a certain sound could not be found. This started me on a quest on this forum and also with support tickets to solve the cause of the missing sounds. The quest is documented on this forum, and the cause of the missing files was never solved.

Until...

many months later, after giving up, I was going through a storage drawer in my studio trying to locate something. I moved the ST4 Max box, and it suddenly occurred to me that the USB drive was in that box. I plugged the drive into my pc, and... you got it... the USB drive had a LOT of sound content on it. I copied the sound content folders to my p.c., and all my missing instrument "errors" disappeared. ALL instruments were present and available. I mentioned all this in a help ticket to Support, but hey, I worked a help desk in my younger days. Things get prioritized, and sometimes things get overlooked. I have no problems and no regrets using IK products! And I hope this might help someone with sound content issues.

[mhalloran]

This has been fixed with the latest version of the IK Product Manager. In addition, there is no longer a charge to re-download the old libraries. This is good because many of those installers on my USB drive no longer work with the current macOS.

It took many months of frustration but when it finally worked, all was good over Ventura and Sonoma on my 2023 M2 Mac Studio and my 2012 MacBook Pro over Catalina.

[bjlove]

Man, it wasn't "fixed" for me. I've been trying to do a clean install on an M2 Mini running Sonoma for almost a full week now and it's been a complete nightmare. The Product Manager crashed every time it tried to open the old installers - so all that content had to be copied manually. When it did work, it scattered files all over 3 drives - regardless of where I told it to put them. No wonder it can't find them. My migration from an Intel iMac was painless - millions of Logic Pro and Native Instruments files moved flawlessly just as I had intended; applications on the main drive, content on an external Samsung T7. A couple of clicks and walk away. A few hours later (well, more than a few) - DONE. Not so with the wonky IK Product Manager. After all the manual installs; after running Product Managers dozens of times; after all the installs, re-installs, re-re-installs of the Product Manager, the Authorization Manager, the applications, the sound content, I still have files missing. Nowhere near as many as the Product Manager thinks are missing, but I have no idea which ones or where they're supposed to be - it's incapable of providing that information, so it just downloads the whole 8 or 10 or 20 Gigs (again!) and forces you to reinstall the whole module. The SampleTank application seems to be working fine - but there's definitely some sample and instrument content missing. There are also 3 modules at the end of the list that are greyed out and locked - Syntronik Pro-V, Syntronik Synth X, and SampleTron. If I select any of them, the Product Manager opens. All of them show Installed. The stand alone SampleTron app works just fine. But SampleTank either can't find the content (which I KNOW is where all the other content is) or can't find the authorization.

I've opened a support ticket 3 days ago - so far no response. I use IK's Hammond B-3X and MODO Bass almost daily, but I really haven't used SampleTank much lately. I first installed it about 15 years ago, updated it regularly for about 10 years, then just let it go. The recent sale on the MAX upgrade - plus some Jam Points - convinced me to give it another try. Since I just got a new Mac, I figured a clean install might be in order. Big mistake. I'm gonna give it another week. If it's not all installed by then, I'm gonna do my best to delete every file from IK on my machines, reinstall B-3X and MODO Bass, and forget SampleTank ever existed.