Native Instruments discontinuing Authorizations

[spirit]

Did anyone receive emails to the account you have Native Instruments software registered to stating that you would no longer be able to authorize NI or libraries dependent on Ni on any system prior to 10.9? And some products even on 10.9 and after.
(I didn’t, even though I have multiple accounts).

Which means products they sold just 6 years ago and before will not be activatable on systems the products were specified for.

I have multiple systems with different projects and libraries that won’t be able to reauthorize in the very possible event of a cpu or hard drive failure. That is in addition to not being able to authorize products and libraries that haven’t been authorized yet.

Also even now I have not been able to get “Service Center” to “connect” to Authorize on Mac G5’s. And evidently “offline” activation was stopped by Native Instruments.
And disk cloning isn’t retaining authorizations, to which NI just says “...bad news.”

If someone knows how to get service center to authorize my backup G5 systems I would really welcome the help.

[stubbsonic]

Yes & No. As of May 31, Native Instruments is dropping support of a bunch of older versions of their software instruments, and, importantly, their Service Center.

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2020/ ... -products/

I have a 2012 MBP (my studio computer) and a 2009 MBP that I just resurrected for VI's. The 2009 machine can't install later than OS 10.11 (and even that required me to "lie about my age"-- i.e., change the date-- to install the OS).

It took a few attempts to get the right version of Service Center to install, and get my Reaktor 5 to install. I managed to get most of the installations I wanted done (but some of the libraries I couldn't get onto that machine).

This highlights what we like about the old paradigm: buying software, installing it yourself, and having a permanent ability to authorize it on your old system.

And it highlights what we hate about the new paradigm: You have to install yet-another-application to manage download/install/authorize-- and you are at their mercy if they pull the plug on support. Or, still worse (IMHO) you pay a monthly fee to use the software.

I have the utmost respect for craft and business that is software development. I get that it is difficult, expensive, and requires insane resources. I've reached an age where I am more than happy to pay a premium for software I want and need-- but I do expect that in return, I will always be able to reinstall and re-authorize on the last compatible OS of the version I purchased.

Getting everything I need installed onto a boot volume, and then doing a proper clone or disk image of that drive can sometimes work to protect that investment (i.e. investment into the software, and the additional clone drive).

[bayswater]

We're disappointed in companies that don't support their products indefinitely, but it's probably an unrealistic expectation. I once had the job of maintaining a load of old applications. At some point, I couldn't find anyone who knew the languages used, and once these apps stopped working because of some other hardware or system change, that was the end of the road.

At least NI is giving fair warning. An alternative that Redmatica and Panic have used: when abandoning software, create a final version that is authorized once, and then runs as a free app as long as your computer can run it.

[stubbsonic]

We're disappointed in companies that don't support their products indefinitely, but it's probably an unrealistic expectation.

I agree that to a point, it is not always realistic-- and people can differ about how many years they think they can squeeze out of hardware/software.

This may seem like a subtle difference; i.e., dropping support (which is done all the time, without much fuss), and preventing installation/authorization on a legacy hardware & OS. In this case, some of the software was pretty expensive, AND isn't that old.

The whole concept of a "service center" or "native access", i.e., bespoke software management from each developer, has its pros & cons. Here's my software, here's the software that installs/manages/updates/authorizes the software. Though I do like that it can help streamline the updating process. And when it works well, it's pretty painless.

I would have liked to see NI create a legacy-workaround-- some last gasp tool (perhaps a final version of the Service Center). They could say, "Please download the appropriate installers and updates for your software and back them up. We will no longer provide them after MM/DD/YYYY". I don't doubt that they could also create a means to help authorize the software with or without phoning home.

[cuttime]

I would have liked to see NI create a legacy-workaround-- some last gasp tool (perhaps a final version of the Service Center). They could say, "Please download the appropriate installers and updates for your software and back them up. We will no longer provide them after MM/DD/YYYY". I don't doubt that they could also create a means to help authorize the software with or without phoning home.

Would this not be helpful?

https://support.native-instruments.com/ ... nd-of-Life

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Thanks Cuttime. I was still on version 7 of the NI auto app. Downloaded ver 12 and everything appears to be fine with my NI stuff. I didn't want to go thru the BS over as I did at Korg Legacy again.

[mhschmieder]

Did you see my separate, earlier post, in the theoretical topics sub-forum, that goes into more details on the changes NI has made to Native Access? I had been following this for a year on GS as a reader, and on vi-control as a participant, and there was a LOT of push-back. NI listened, and made exceptions for legacy products people still use, after curating a list from a large number of users.

[mikehalloran]

Did you see my separate, earlier post, in the theoretical topics sub-forum, that goes into more details on the changes NI has made to Native Access? I had been following this for a year on GS as a reader, and on vi-control as a participant, and there was a LOT of push-back. NI listened, and made exceptions for legacy products people still use, after curating a list from a large number of users.

Native Access certainly had growing pains.

I have a minor issue with it wanting to update Reaktor 5 on my Catalina machine. I need to look up how to tell NA to stop trying.

[mhschmieder]

Yep, Reaktor 5 is one of the weird lingering nags. Many of the others have stopped "reminding" me to update or re-install though.

[mikehalloran]

Yep, Reaktor 5 is one of the weird lingering nags. Many of the others have stopped "reminding" me to update or re-install though.

I removed Reaktor 5 completely per these instructions and it has stopped nagging me for updates on my Catalina machine.

It's not nagging me on my Mojave iMac Pro so I've left it alone for now.