Ableton Forum

Pardon the explicit language you're about to read in advance.

So whenever I try to work on a song with a friend, I collect all and save before sending the project file. I see Ableton taking time to collect the files and everything. So why is it that EVERY FUCKING TIME I try to send a project to someone, they get the missing files error?! It's not even from me having 3rd party shit that they don't have. It's simply audio files that should have been saved. I tried some youtube/google searching and what I somewhat found is that it collects all the files, but puts them in the Imported/Recorded/Processed folders in my project folder, which is fucking pointless since I don't want to send my friend every single fucking god damn file I ever processed or imported. Yes, I guess I could go through and individually select each file and put it in a folder or something, but what's the point of that when you make a stupid fucking feature called collect all and save....THAT DOESN'T COLLECT ALL AND SAVE.

So now I'm stuck wondering what the fuck to do. Shit makes me not even feel like collaborating because it's such a fucking process just to get files to people. If someone knows the cause of this or a way to get all of my files together, it'd be greatly appreciated. I'm going crazy over here.

I'm sure there are people who know more, but it seems that Ableton doesnt see the project folder file locations as relative. It sees them as absolute.

In other words on your system the file location may be:

c://projects/song1/myfile.wav

Whereas on your friends system the file location may be:

c://myprojectsthatareinadifferentlocation/song1/myfile.wav

Ableton is looking for the absolute file location (c://projects/song1/myfile.wav)

The main benefit with collect all and save seems to be that the files are collected all in the same project folder - so you can do a "search in folder" when Ableton finds missing files.

Might be wrong tho - there might be a better way...

Have you considered splice.com if you're both using Live?

you don't necessarily have to do a Collect All and Save to your project folder...

create a new folder on your desktop.
in Live, go to File and choose Save As.
select the folder you just created.
save the .als file to that location.
close the set.
open the .als from the new folder on your desktop.
Collect All and Save to that directory.

you will then have the file with only the other files associated with it from the last revision of your (.als) set... in other words, the directory will be as clean as possible. from there, you can create a Live pack to email

xmonsta wrote:The main benefit with collect all and save seems to be that the files are collected all in the same project folder - so you can do a "search in folder" when Ableton finds missing files.

this.

Yes, that is annoying.

What I do is 'Save As' to a new location, like to your desktop. Then do a 'Collect All and Save'. That always works for me. My brother and I have had that same problem many times and it seems to always happen when I 'Collect All and Save' in the original project folder. Maybe it has something to do with the file hierarchy or something over my head frankly. This works for me.

But if you want to send files to a friend, you don't collect all and save

You make a Live Pack.

It's in the File management section of the menu.

myxomat0515 wrote:Yes, that is annoying.

What I do is 'Save As' to a new location, like to your desktop. Then do a 'Collect All and Save'. That always works for me. My brother and I have had that same problem many times and it seems to always happen when I 'Collect All and Save' in the original project folder. Maybe it has something to do with the file hierarchy or something over my head frankly. This works for me.

This works for me as well.. Never had any issue when I've told a friend to save to a new location, and then collect all & save after.

The 'Save As to new locations' behavior that people are reporting as working also works here -- pretty sure it's because when you Save As and change the location to something outside the current Project folder, Ableton automatically creates a new project folder; then you do the 'Collect All and Save' for the new session/folder, which gives the new Project Folder everything it needs to load independently. It's not clear why this doesn't work for the original folder after hitting Collect All and Save, but like others here, I assume it has to do with the file path hierarchy being some funky combo of Library files and Project files..

if anybody can explain EXACTLY why this happens, I'd be grateful. The method works, but I'd just like to know why!

-M

DavidStars wrote:Pardon the explicit language you're about to read in advance.
…
So now I'm stuck wondering what the fuck to do.
…
If someone knows the cause of this or a way to get all of my files together, it'd be greatly appreciated. I'm going crazy over here.

• You're not pardoned.
• It's Ableton Live, not "Ableton". That's the company.
• Read the manual
• I know what do to, as I read the manual
• You're not in your living room, so stop swearing like you are

re:dream wrote:But if you want to send files to a friend, you don't collect all and save

You make a Live Pack.

It's in the File management section of the menu.

You'd better collect and save what you need before creating a Live Pack.

To the OP; sorry to say that but the problem is not Live, it's you. File management is quite boring, but taking the time to understand how it works and being organized is fondamental if you don't want to constantly run into such problems. And your User library will be very much happy too.

To somewhat side with the OP and against the “you should know better” or workaround people, “collect all and save” should do just that, or name it “collect most and save”. The obvious reason anybody would ever want to use that feature is to share with somebody else or use on a different computer without having to worry about missing files except for possibly third party plugins. I really don’t get the point of collect all and save if “all” isn’t in the file.

beats me wrote:To somewhat side with the OP and against the “you should know better” or workaround people, “collect all and save” should do just that, or name it “collect most and save”. The obvious reason anybody would ever want to use that feature is to share with somebody else or use on a different computer without having to worry about missing files except for possibly third party plugins. I really don’t get the point of collect all and save if “all” isn’t in the file.

Yeah, I'm with you 100%. The entire point of "Collect All and Save", as far as I know it, is to be able to, well, collect everything and save. To not have it perform its completely reasonable expectation is an issue on Ableton's end. I realize that there are ways to do this, but to name something "Collect All and Save" should be with the entire purpose of pressing that button and doing what the OP wants.

In french the menu is not called "collect ALL and save" but "collect and save"; in this way it makes complete sense as the dialog box lets you choose what you want to collect.

In french the menu is not called "collect ALL and save" but "collect and save"; in this way it makes complete sense as the dialog box lets you choose what you want to collect.

SpeedKing wrote:

beats me wrote:To somewhat side with the OP and against the “you should know better” or workaround people, “collect all and save” should do just that, or name it “collect most and save”. The obvious reason anybody would ever want to use that feature is to share with somebody else or use on a different computer without having to worry about missing files except for possibly third party plugins. I really don’t get the point of collect all and save if “all” isn’t in the file.

Yeah, I'm with you 100%. The entire point of "Collect All and Save", as far as I know it, is to be able to, well, collect everything and save. To not have it perform its completely reasonable expectation is an issue on Ableton's end. I realize that there are ways to do this, but to name something "Collect All and Save" should be with the entire purpose of pressing that button and doing what the OP wants.

okay... but when i use Live i might record 12 bass takes, 50 guitar takes, and 36 vocal takes, along with MIDI instruments. i could save different revisions of the set along the way. all the files are located in a folder that i saved the original set to called... SongX.

so by your logic, when i Collect All & Save, i should stuff all the drum samples and such into this folder with all the audio i decided not to use so that i can mail this behemoth of a file to someone?

horses for courses i guess, but i prefer to email someone only what is being used in the current rev of the set.