HELP! Libraries are not recognized (schematic symbols)

[Rene_Poschl]

@Just_Me

When i installed KiCAD it somehow created libraries somewhere, filled in those paths, and later found the libraries.

Yes KiCad comes with its own set of libraries. YOU AS THE USER ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO TOUCH THEM. This is why they are placed in read only directories protected by your operating system. (This is made clear in every tutorial i ever wrote about the topic of KiCads libraries)

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You are supposed to make your own libraries living in their own file structure (see the graphics in the tutorial!)

@Just_Me

in fact all i did is move my libraries to where KiCAD seemed to think they ought to be. KiCAD or its installer did it all. Same thing for users.

If you move files after KiCad already has them in the lib table then of course KiCad will lose the knowledge of them. I stress it again:
KiCad has no special library location. There is no file system directory that is searched for library files to be used. You MUST add every library to the library table by use of the library managers for them to be available to you

@Just_Me

And i still don’t understand how to easily change that library location. You indicated to use the “library manager.” I maintain there is no library manager. You later say that “library manager” is actually “manage symbol library” dialog.

I now know why a lot of people state “never go in customer support”.

Should i always write “use the footprint library manager or symbol library manager depending on which asset type you want to work on”? I mean a bit of logical thinking is to be expected!

@Just_Me

but documentation – written for a user not a developer – is crucial to helping bring new users to the product.

I am not a developer! I am a user. I might however be an experienced KiCad user (after all a beginner will not write a good tutorial). The tutorials explain the best process i found.

And i got a lot of feedback by other users telling me that my tutorials are quite good (in person and also here on the forum). So while i acknowledge they are not perfect i would still argue you might be an exception here.
Also remember that the lecture is there to teach you how the library system works. It is not specifically written to solve your current problem! (A tutorial never is.) But if you understand the library system then you will be able to find a solution on your own.

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Edit: The thing about the lib manager confusion made me so angry i did not even notice that @qu1ck already answered. So i also missed everything below that

So here the answers for that

@Just_Me

By the way i did some library tests and figured out that i cannot simply add locations to the list, i need to add specific libraries.

Well is the below not enough to let you figure this out? (again from the lecture):

@Rene_Poschl

Every library that should be available must be added to so called library tables which are managed with library managers.

@Just_Me

This seems to be a pretty bad design. Easy i suppose. I also noted that if i add the contents of two, it creates duplicates in the table. I can see that leading to bad things ( data model corruption)

What to you mean by that?