What’s the “official” procedure for moving Dorico on a new macOS System Drive when sounds are already stored on a separate drive?
I slogged though this a couple of days ago, but got so confused I started over with a fresh install of Dorico sounds on the System Drive.
When Dorico can’t find sounds, I want it to give me the chance to locate them. If I recall correctly, it didn’t do that.
For example, when I installed Spectrasonics instruments on the new drive and launched them for the first time, they said something like “STEAM folder not found. Would you like to locate it?” I clicked “yes” and it gave me an “Open” dialog box which I used to navigate to the folder on my Sound Libraries drive. Easy!
Also: I found the Steinberg Library manager confusing. If I recall correctly, when it transferred the sounds to the new drive, it changed the folder structure from what it was in Library > Application Support > Steinberg > Content. I think it mingled Dorico Sounds with Cubase 10 Pro sounds already in that folder.
I suppose this would make sense if each app can use the other’s sounds (I don’t know if that’s the case, and I don’t really use Cubase), but it’s very confusing to see it change the folder structure. If it had provided a warning, explaining what it was doing and why, it would be fine. But it didn’t.
I got so confused that I deleted everything from the Libraries drive and started over.
I couldn’t find any documentation on this procedure (installing on a new drive when sounds are on a separate drive) after several searches. Maybe I missed something, but if I didn’t, please add it.
Before moving to this new drive, I was pointing Dorico to the Sound Libraries drive using an alias for the Content folder. Is it OK to do that?
You can move Dorico itself simply by dragging the application bundle from the Applications folder to another folder on the same or another volume. It will continue to read its settings from /Library and ~/Library, but the package itself can be located anywhere you like.
Steinberg Library Manager is the approved method for moving sounds from one location to another. Provided Steinberg Library Manager knows where the sounds are, Dorico will be able to find them.
In a case like mine where the System Drive will be replaced, would I also need to copy those Library folders too?
What if you move sounds to another drive using Library Manager while working on the old drive and then later install Dorico on a new drive. In that case, Library Manager wouldn’t know where the sounds are, and there’s no way to tell it; it has to automatically detect the original install - correct?
When you replace the System Drive, you first move (using the Library Manager) all the libraries from that drive to another drive.
The Library Manager is a separate app to Dorico and also needs to be moved.
If the Library Manager itself loses the “connection” to libraries, then it is easy to correct that. Simply navigate to a folder where the corresponding *.vstsound file are and double click one of them, that then registers it automatically again (as well as all other items from that folder). So the most difficult part is to find all locations with vstsound files in it, the rest is a breeze.
And there is no harm to double click on already registered vstsound files either.
You only need to concern yourself with the folder inside ~/Library/Application Support/Steinberg/, as that’s where all your user data resides. There are a couple of other minor settings files in ~/Library/Preferences but they don’t contain any crucial data.