I have overall bad user experience with the Download Assistant and I am very unhappy with it.
Instead of complaining I made a list of points that hopefully someone will consider to improve the utility and make users life a bit easier.
I am indicating the problem and the expected behavior
The Steinberg Download Assistant is supposed to assist you downloading your products.
Pros:
all the products are in the same place
Cons:
The Assistant doesn’t really know the products you own even if asks you to access your account and being authorized online
→ The tool should tell you your licensed products and have a display mode to tell them apart (ex. bold?)
There is no option to select how many concurrent downloads you want
→ The user should be able to decide how many concurrent downloads he wants to improve bandwidth usage
To download the full Cubase version you need to click 30+ times download in the list of components to queue them all
→ It should be possible to select multiple items and add them to the download queue
If for any reason you want to stop an item that is downloading the next one in queue immediately will start, forcing you to “chase” all your items to stop them
→ There should be a global button(s) to pause /stop/ resume ALL the downloads
At least in the case of Cubase download resume is not supported
→ Since many downloads have a big file size the resume should be supported
If the user closes the Assistant (and the download folder doesn’t change) there is no way to know if the files are already downloaded. However if the user clicks on a item that has already been downloaded the “Download” button becomes “Install” meaning that the software is able to recognize a package is already there
→ The Assistant should perform the check at startup and indicate that a software is already downloaded and present on the disk in the same way it does when the user manually clicks on “Download” and the file is already completed on disk
There is some potential in this tool but at the moment I feel to use it only if i strictly do not have alternatives, hope in future it changes.
Yup, these are ALL valid issues which a download utility from 20+ years ago could fulfil - I know, I’ve been FTP’ing for over 30 years and some of the (better) utilities we had back then did all of these things, including checking existing downloads and download fragments! The fact that the GUI doesn’t update to reflect the current status until a button is subsequently clicked is developer 101.
As to whether someone at Steinberg is actually listening, I’m afraid to say that Steinberg - like their Teutonic brethren Native Instruments - are full of hubris in this regard and see Customer Service / Customer Support solely as a necessary evil and a cost they can ill afford; ergo, no one monitors the forums - we’re simply here to sort matters out on our own and relieve any internal pressure and delay contact for a while.
Alternatively, we just wait and wait and wait until they condescend to do something relevant. Either way, don’t expect any assistance because it won’t be forthcoming.
Let’s face it, the larger these s/w behemoths become, the more they hold paying users to ransom and the only meaningful technique we have as customers is to vote with our feet. For a long while I refrained from upgrading after v5 … but eventually opted to go for v10 … and have been screwed left, right and centre ever since (as I expected) with the dire quality of the support Steinberg consistently deliver (or fail to deliver!).
This download assistant was the worst user experience I’ve had for a long time. I don’t know what Steinberg is after here. When I download software 2021 I expect an easy install. I don’t even expect a download assistant at all. This felt more like I was gonna hack the CIA or something. Steinberg should ask themselves how Ableton, FL, Logic sustains a viable business without punishing the users who actually purchase their products.
Just a friendly reminder that if you want these request to be pushed a bit up and taken in consideration you should click the Vote button at the top of the post so that Steinberg can notice the thread and eventually take action.
Well that was a total waste of time.
Trying to find missing vstsound files and thought their “Download Assistant” would help.
What a useless piece of software.
Uninstalled.
On the verge of switching to Ableton. Whoever designed this website/software/hardware needs their head looking at.
Make the download assistant to work properly.!!
When opening it, all already installed items are marked with “Install”,
suggesting that it has not been installed yet.
It should say: Installed
I suggest you to take a look on Toontrack’s Program Manager for example!
B.t.w. link icons to facebook, twitter etc. are superfluous
I cannot imagine someone will use them
I have it on good authority that installed products and available updates will be made clear in a “future update” of the SDA. Of course, the “future” can be an awfully long way away🤔
It would be nice if it had an available update section like native access from NI ! I think it is the most annoying thing I have to deal with shame on you steinberg
+1 !!!
And it’s also difficult to see what version you have installed for needed update.
All the time i need to check directly to my instruments. This is so confused.
Sometime i realize that i haven’t updated for a year and more some instruments…
If many user are like me using “dated” instruments, it means less feedback for the updated product…
