Moving VST Content to another hard drive

[Mastersky97]

I am currently using a 240 GB SSD to hold Cubase, and Ive kept the storage pretty low for awhile. That is, until the Absolute collection went on sale and I couldn't pass that up. After installing all the VSTs, I saw that my SSD is now 90% full.

Cubase put all the content in the AppData/Roaming folder, which I realize I put there, but now I am wondering if I can transfer the content folders to my 2TB HDD, and have Cubase read from the HDD instead. Or is my only recourse being uninstalling those VSTs and reinstalling and changing the path directory?

[raino]

viewtopic.php?f=226&t=71342&start=25#p703393

[AudioSuperSite]

I am currently using a 240 GB SSD to hold Cubase, and Ive kept the storage pretty low for awhile. That is, until the Absolute collection went on sale and I couldn't pass that up. After installing all the VSTs, I saw that my SSD is now 90% full.

Cubase put all the content in the AppData/Roaming folder, which I realize I put there, but now I am wondering if I can transfer the content folders to my 2TB HDD, and have Cubase read from the HDD instead. Or is my only recourse being uninstalling those VSTs and reinstalling and changing the path directory?

Can this helps you ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB_coW-1hoA

[raino]

There is a tool that now comes with Cubase to relocate content called the Steinberg Library Manager.

Use that.

[raino]

https://steinberg.help/library_manager/ ... ger_en.pdf

[fiddler2007]

I made a folder called VSTsound on another hard-disk partition, in my case F:\VSTsound.

Then moved all the large ***.vstsound i found in C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Content, also those from the subfolders like Halion, Groove Agent etct, and eventual other possible places (do a search?) on C, all in to same directory to the new folder F:/VSTsound.

In the NEW folder i created shortcuts for all those collected ***.vstsound files. Then i moved the shortcuts back to C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Content.
Never had an issue since. If you still have problems, you could create a subfolder in there, with names like C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Steinberg\Content\Groove Agent\VSTsound, and just put a copy of all the shortcuts there too if you like.

You could try to use the Steinberg library manager, but IMO it makes too many errors deleting the wrong files. F

(PS i want to sell my Cubase 9.5 pro retail, or a full Cubase 10 PRO retail, i have both) And if someone makes a right offer, i can include licenses for Halion 5 and or Simon Phillips Studio Drums on the eLicenser. PM me then, paypal and buyers warranty is possible)

[usafirefly]

Yeah, I had to use the Steinberg Library Manager to MOVE everything it will move to another hard drive. I went Feb 2019 UPDATED Steinberg Library and was able to move practically everything! Freed up untold space on SSD.

I all works!

[allisterbradley]

I just used Library Manager to move everything it was capable of moving, and then manually moved (replacing with shortcuts as mentioned above) the older libraries that aren't compatible with Library Manager.

The missing piece here, for me - my ContentManager.xml file has not changed at all. How can Library Manager move the contents without updating the ContentManager.xml property file, which lists the absolute location of all the content?

The end result, is that I start Cubase, and I'm forced to manually locate EVERY entry. Alternatively, I could edit the ContentManager.xml to change the listed locations of the content. But I imagine it shouldn't be this hard. UPDATE - I edited the ContentManager.xml to replace the old file path with the new file path, and it did not solve my problem. Cubase still cannot locate any of my VST content at startup.

Any thoughts?

[allisterbradley]

Sigh. I found so many ContentManager.xml files in the various subdirectories of AppData\Roaming\Steinberg, edited all of them to point to the new location, and this didn't help cubase locate the .vstsound files.

So I went ahead and manually located every library on my next Cubase startup. Some configuration file is still pointing to the original location on my C: drive, and so Cubase ended up creating shortcuts to all of the "missing" VST libraries.

So, long answer short, you'll definitely want to create those shortcuts and put them in the original location, even if you use Library Manager to move the contents to another location.

[raino]

Sigh. I found so many ContentManager.xml files in the various subdirectories of AppData\Roaming\Steinberg, edited all of them to point to the new location, and this didn't help cubase locate the .vstsound files.

So I went ahead and manually located every library on my next Cubase startup. Some configuration file is still pointing to the original location on my C: drive, and so Cubase ended up creating shortcuts to all of the "missing" VST libraries.

So, long answer short, you'll definitely want to create those shortcuts and put them in the original location, even if you use Library Manager to move the contents to another location.

That's interesting. Library Manager found both the shortcuts and the moved content which the shortcuts were pointing to. It told me it had found duplicate content and offered to delete one set - I had it delete the shortcuts. Finally feel that my Steinberg Libraries are cleanly installed without resorting to 'tricks'.

[allisterbradley]

Yeah, I'd love to have that feeling that I'm free of the "tricks" and workarounds as well. But for now, that got me where I needed to be.

[usafirefly]

Use the most updated version of Steinberg Library and it moves practically everything into a drive you want and frees up a lot of space!

[allisterbradley]

@usafirefly, it should, but it doesn’t. I have some older instruments which uses different mechanisms for locating content. Only the newest instruments will work flawlessly with Library Manager. I worked through it with tech support, and the shortcuts are the most effective method.

[loopmode]

I'm a friend of symlinks when it comes to this. I keep my files on another drive/location, but I keep the software using them agnostic of this fact.
I can run innstallers using default settings, I don't need to adjust configs in any programs or XML files etc.

- I install stuff regularly at first and see if it makes sense to move it afterwards
- I then move the stuff to a special location on a large and fast drive
- I remove the original location and replace it by a symbolic link to the new location

On Windows, you do this by using an elevated cmd and the "mklink /j" command. E.g "mkdir /j C:\location D:\some\other\location"
It's useful to have one central place to keep symlinked contents, and to name the folders there resembling the location they represent, so that you can stay in good control over the setup in the long term.

[David W]

With the recent releases of Padshop 2 and Retrologue 2.2.20, the latest versions of all Steinberg's primary range of VSTis fully support Library Manager. Certainly the latest builds of HALion 6, HALion Sonic 3, HALion Sonic SE 3, Groove Agent 5, Padshop 2, Retrologue 2 and The Grand 3 support Library Manager.

I am not sure about the standalone VSTs for Dark Planet, HALion Symphonic Orchestra, Hypnotic Dance and Triebwerk - I use this content via HALion Sonic SE (or if I'm already using it, HALion or HALion Sonic) rather than the dedicated VST. I believe not using the dedicated VSTs is the recommended approach for new projects.


So far as the instruments bundled with Cubase go, Groove Agent SE 5 supports Library Manager. I don't know about the rest (LoopMash, Mystic, Prologue and Spector), as I don't use them, though these don't have large content sets in any event.