Latest NI Native Access update fixes many legacy libraries

[mhschmieder]

The long-awaited update to NI Native Access has been released, and it fixes a lot of known problems with legacy libraries, that have failed to authorize for many years and thus had become unusable.

In my own case, I was down to just one that still failed (Akki Plugs Virtual Bouzouki), and it cost me about 100 hours altogether over the course of three years, until NI themselves finally figured out there was a problem it shared with some other older libraries and thus they collected data and slated this as a priority for the next NA update.

The Native Access self-update itself isn't so smooth; I got an error that it couldn't find it, so I recommend clicking on the link to go to the website to download it directly vs. depending on NA's self-update feature. Everything was fine after that. This isn't the first time the self-update has crashed; it probably happens when some major structural change is made to Native Access.

Oh, you may also find that it thinks a bunch of stuff needs updating that doesn't. If you click Update All, it'll run through everything -- not just the stuff on the Updates Available list -- and then all is well. I recommend doing this even if you're confident everything is up to date, as it may be necessary for long-term stability of the Native Access database on your computer.

In my case, it mostly identified Sonokinetic stuff, which was already updated somewhat recently via their own special installer app.

[HCMarkus]

The long-awaited update to NI Native Access has been released, and it fixes a lot of known problems with legacy libraries, that have failed to authorize for many years and thus had become unusable.

In my own case, I was down to just one that still failed (Akki Plugs Virtual Bouzouki), and it cost me about 100 hours altogether over the course of three years, until NI themselves finally figured out there was a problem it shared with some other older libraries and thus they collected data and slated this as a priority for the next NA update.

The Native Access self-update itself isn't so smooth; I got an error that it couldn't find it, so I recommend clicking on the link to go to the website to download it directly vs. depending on NA's self-update feature. Everything was fine after that. This isn't the first time the self-update has crashed; it probably happens when some major structural change is made to Native Access.

Oh, you may also find that it thinks a bunch of stuff needs updating that doesn't. If you click Update All, it'll run through everything -- not just the stuff on the Updates Available list -- and then all is well. I recommend doing this even if you're confident everything is up to date, as it may be necessary for long-term stability of the Native Access database on your computer.

In my case, it mostly identified Sonokinetic stuff, which was already updated somewhat recently via their own special installer app.

What was the release date MH? I just went thru all my NI stuff a couple of days back, maybe last Friday, and am wondering if I should revisit...

[mhschmieder]

I don't know the release date, as it might have been a week since I had previously launched it, but it self-identifies as 20 April 2020 (this could be when it entered final testing vs. the actual release to the public) and the version is 1.12.1.129.

[HCMarkus]

I don't know the release date, as it might have been a week since I had previously launched it, but it self-identifies as 20 April 2020 (this could be when it entered final testing vs. the actual release to the public) and the version is 1.12.1.129.

Thank You! Pretty sure I updated after that date, and all is working, so I ain't gonna' worry about it.

[mikehalloran]

the version is 1.12.1.129.

That's the version on my devices. I'm remembering it updated a couple of weeks ago... I think.

Not noticing a difference. There's an upgrade it wants to run on Reaktor 5 that keeps failing — but only on my Catalina machine. I don't recall how to tell NA to forget about that since I have nothing that requires 5 and not 6 but I'll look it up and it won't be an issue.

[mhschmieder]

It's a major rewrite and is VERY different from what they first proposed, which was to shut out all old products (such as B4 II).

After dozens of pages at vi-control.net forum, they heard their end user pushback and changed course, instead soliciting a list of legacy libraries and apps that people still use heavily.

In the process, they also addressed poorly-supported small-developer libraries that hadn't been updated in a decade and had at some point "broken" the authorization scheme.

Unless you were using a product that was failing Native Access validation, or are using one that was originally going to get locked out by the current update (e.g. B4 II as I recall), it should be an invisible update from your point of view.

[mikehalloran]

Unless you were using a product that was failing Native Access validation, or are using one that was originally going to get locked out by the current update (e.g. B4 II as I recall), it should be an invisible update from your point of view.

Ahhh... got it,