Relocating Hauptwerk Folders (Mac Guide)

Important Notice

This tip is not officially supported by Hauptwerk. If you are unfamiliar with the use of the Terminal, there is a risk of inadvertently disrupting your Hauptwerk setup.

Proceed at your own risk. No responsibility is taken for any issues that may occur as a result of following this guide.

This guide is intended for macOS users; however, the general approach may be adaptable to Windows environments as well.

When you install Hauptwerk, it doesn’t give you much flexibility in where it stores its files. Even with a custom install, you can only pick where to put three main folders:

• User Data
• Sample Set Components
• Internal Working Data

One big frustration is that the AutomaticBackups folder always goes into the Hauptwerk folder inside your user directory – and there’s no setting to change that. If your main drive crashes, you will lose your backups too. Putting them on an external drive or in the cloud may be safer – but Hauptwerk won’t let you do that directly.

Let’s break Hauptwerk’s folder structure down:

• HauptwerkUserData: Stores your Hauptwerk and organ settings. In addition, it includes folders like:
  • CustomOrganDatabases
  • CustomOrganDefinitions
  • OrganCombinations
  • OrganDatabases
• HauptwerkSampleSetsAndComponents: This is where Hauptwerk keeps things like:
  • ImpulseResponseReverbs
  • LicensingPackages
  • OrganDefinitions
  • OrganInstallationPackages
  • Temperaments
  • The first “TemporaryFiles” folder
• HauptwerkInternalWorkingData: This folder has:
  • Cache folders for each of your configurations (0–3)
  • Automatically generated documentation
  • Another “TemporaryFiles” folder

There are several scenarios in which you may wish to relocate individual folders to a different location.

• You might want to save space on your main drive by moving large folders elsewhere.
• If you have multiple computers using Hauptwerk, you might want to share files such as impulse response files, temperaments, license packages etc.
• Most importantly: you might want your backups stored somewhere safer, like a cloud drive or external disk – but Hauptwerk won’t let you choose a different location for that folder.

Yes! macOS can create so-called symbolic links that can help.

Think of a symbolic link as a shortcut or pointer that tells your system, “This folder is actually over there.” Hauptwerk thinks the folder is in its usual spot – but in reality, it’s been moved somewhere else.

There are three kinds of links on macOS:

• Alias: A Finder-friendly shortcut. Unfortunately, this does not work.
• Hard Link: Too limited. Doesn’t work for folders or across drives.
• Symbolic Link (symlink): Perfect! Works behind the scenes and can link to folders anywhere – even on other drives or in the cloud.

Note: You can’t create symlinks using Finder alone. You’ll need to use Terminal or a small app.

Option 1: Using macOS Terminal (for advanced users)

1. Quit Hauptwerk!
2. Relocate the folder to a new drive or location.
3. Open macOS Terminal and type:

   ln -s /path/to/folder /path/to/symlink
   

   Replace the paths with the actual folder locations.
   Example: Suppose you intend to relocate the AutomaticBackups folder from /Users/[user]/Hauptwerk/AutomaticBackups to /MyExternalHD/AutomaticBackups.
   This is the necessary command:

   ln -s /MyExternalHD/AutomaticBackups /Users/[user]/Hauptwerk/AutomaticBackups

4. Done!

Option 2: Using a Simple App (easier!)

You can download a free tool for macOS called SymbolicLinker here. This tool adds an option to your right-click menu so you can easily create symbolic links without using the macOS Terminal.

Attention! SymbolicLinker creates the symbolic link in the same folder as the original, and appends ” symlink” to the file name. Therefore, the file must be renamed after relocating it to its original location.

1. Quit Hauptwerk!
2. Relocate the folder to a new drive or location.
3. Create a symbolic link by right-clicking on the relocated folder.
4. Move the symbolic link to the original location. Verify that the name of the symbolic link matches the name of the original folder!
5. Done!

Hauptwerk should now start up normally.