Ableton cannot find samples that have barely moved?!

[alexjholland]

Hey, I'm finally moving over to my Dropbox-synced setup for both Macs.

First stage was moving all my Ableton project files and instruments into Dropbox.

I also moved all my sample folders into my 'documents' folder, whereas previously they were in an 'Ableton' folder - because they're too big to sync.

Ableton now tells me it cannot find any of the samples for any of my music, whether they're straight drum samples or recorded guitars.

They're all sitting there on the same hard-drive, just in a slightly different folder. Autosearch doesn't find them.. I can individually find each one (there are hundreds) but even the function that says 'should I find the rest on the basis of where this was found' doesn't work.

This is so simple - it just shouldn't be an issue.

Like others, I'm getting really tired of Ableton. Bitwig seems that it will have everything covered that Ableton doesn't in terms of filesharing and I look forward to moving across when it's released.

In the meantime, can anyone help me tell Ableton how to find my samples that have literally just moved a few folders away?!

Thanks

[pencilrocket]

Then wait until bitfag will be released. Problem solved.

[alexjholland]

No, I've spent hundreds on this software and expect it to work correctly.

Expecting Ableton to keep up with advances such as cloud-based syncing is one thing - but I did NOT spent £700 to be told it's going to collapse every time I move my sample folder!

[shuutobi]

Yeah, Ableton has always been quite horrible at finding missing files.

I can search for a file in explorer from "Location A," and it takes less than a second.
If I search for a the same file via Lives autofind, and start at the same directory, it may take 4 hours or something.

p.s. I have indexing on for that directory, and the files were just moved up one directory into a collect all "old" directory.

[timothyallan]

Then wait until bitfag will be released. Problem solved.

I love that there's already a slagging name for it... until it's out though, it's more like vaporwig.

[102455]

What would be far more usable /convenient is for Live to have an assignable storage folder (listed in prefs) where the location could easily be updated
and from which Live could create a database file, allowing for lightning fast searches.

Much more useful for DJing purposes too.

[alexjholland]

shuutobi, it's not just taking a while - after 40 minutes it announced it hadn't found anything! Now when I click to autosearch it takes around a minute, then tells me nothing was found.

Absolutely disgraceful. I'm seething!

[shuutobi]

shuutobi, it's not just taking a while - after 40 minutes it announced it hadn't found anything! Now when I click to autosearch it takes around a minute, then tells me nothing was found.

Absolutely disgraceful. I'm seething!

That as well... Most of the time it finds nothing, and I have to manually find it.

[3dot...]

in computers... there isn't such a thing as 'barely'...
it either moved or not ! proximity is not relevant..

point being ..it would be faster for you to just point out to live to where you've moved the files..
live does not keep indexes of all your hard drives

[LeifonMars]

in computers... there isn't such a thing as 'barely'...

My thoughts exactly.

[alexjholland]

Read my post. I have no problem with pointing Ableton in the new direction of my folder, which is all that should be required - but CAN'T.

It wants me to point to every single sample individually, and doing this once doesn't make it figure out where the rest are. I have 30 samples in the first project opened - and perhaps 100 projects.

[3dot...]

you have many files with the same name maybe?
otherwise..it does it automatically over here..
which version are you on?

btw I agree that lives search functions are less than ideal

[alexjholland]

My files have different names, are well organised - and NONE of them are found automatically!

Running the latest version of Live. I'll check, it's either that or a month or so old at most..

[3dot...]

this is how I do
go to the missing files list..
above.. automatic search
(exclude search in library..)
point it to the directory..
and if all the files are there and have unique names..
it's done..
just hit save at the bottom.

[cotdagoo]

this is how I do
go to the missing files list..
above.. automatic search
(exclude search in library..)
point it to the directory..
and if all the files are there and have unique names..
it's done..
just hit save at the bottom.

This usually works well for me too. Never had any issues finding samples unless they've been removed from the hard drive entirely.