Can I point MPluginManager to Already Installed MSF and MD Addons?

[Steve Bolivar]

My laptop had to be repaired and they wiped the C drive, but they did leave the D drive as it was with all the Melda Addons installed. When I install and run MPluginManager it does not see the already installed Addons even if I set the correct location under Addon Settings. I have everything still there but MPluginManager doesn't show anything installed under the MSoundFactory & MDrummer Addons tab. Should I just leave it this way or reinstall all the Addons? Thanks for any advice on this.

[jan-sandahl]

I had a similar case recently and was told I had to re-download all the stuff again. Somewhat annoying. Hoping that will change.

[Steve Bolivar]

Ok. Thanks for the info.

[martin-meldaproduction]

Unfortunately, this is not easily possible at the moment, as the installation of, for example, the MSoundFactory addon consists not only of a) the samples (which are large in size) but also b) the instrument itself, including its images, presets, etc.

In your case, you have a) the samples, which can be helpful, but you do not have the instrument files itself. Therefore, it won’t be sufficient, and reinstalling the instrument is the best solution.

If you have lost a) but still have b) (which I think is the more common scenario), it can potentially be fixed using MPluginManager, provided we add a small feature for this case.

For MDrummer, this may be implemented as well - I’ll check in more detail. In any case, we are preparing plugin ⇄ MPluginManager features that should help resolve these issues in most cases.

[Steve Bolivar]

When redownloading and installing does MPluginManager check that existing files in the specified "download to" location are current? During the redownload and install, it only downloaded files from the Analog Empire series. I assume all the existing MPRODUCT and MD5 files are current and didn't need to be downloaded again.
After installing do I need to keep the files in the "download to" folder. Right now it's at 137GB and 48 files?
Thanks

[martin-meldaproduction]

When redownloading and installing does MPluginManager check that existing files in the specified "download to" location are current? During the redownload and install, it only downloaded files from the Analog Empire series. I assume all the existing MPRODUCT and MD5 files are current and didn't need to be downloaded again.
After installing do I need to keep the files in the "download to" folder. Right now it's at 137GB and 48 files?
Thanks

Yes, MPluginManager checks the “Download to” folder during addon installation for existing addon downloads and verifies them. For example, if you have already completely downloaded the MeldwayGrand addon, it verifies the MeldwayGrand.mproduct file against its MD5 checksum. If the file is valid, it installs it directly.

If you have only partially downloaded the file (e.g., 45% of MeldwayGrand.mproduct), only the remaining 55% will be downloaded to complete the installation. Nothing is re-downloaded unless the file is found to be corrupted.

[Steve Bolivar]

After installing do I need to keep the files in the "download to" folder. Right now it's at 137GB and 48 files?
Thanks

[martin-meldaproduction]

Yes, you can delete it. The "Download to" location is set by default to your main Downloads folder, which is usually considered a temporary folder. We create a subfolder, MeldaProduction, for better organization. On Windows, the default download folder is, for example:

C:\Users\<yourusername>\Downloads\MeldaProduction

After all your addons are installed, you can safely delete its installation packages. These are all files with the extensions .md5, .mproduct, and .mdrummerpack. Alternatively, you can delete the entire folder above except for the PKG subfolder, which is used for plugin installation.

If you delete the PKG folder (which is what the "Delete installation packages" button does), MPluginManager will need to re-download the missing packages if you repair the installation. This is not a big issue.

As I write this, we are considering adding a button to delete addon installation files that are no longer needed after installation, to simplify the process for users who wants to save disc space.