media file paths lost during upgrades

[jhimm]

Hello all,

I've been using Live since... version 3 or 4. I just upgraded to version 8 from version 7 last week.

I have had the same problem happen during each major (4->5->6->7->8) upgrade of Ableton Live. It isn't a huge big deal, but I'm curious why this is happening.

Every time I upgrade, and then open a project previously saved in the older version, it opens with all the media files (audio samples) as "missing". This is easily fixed, albeit quite tedious. I don't always remember where all these samples live in my libraries and finding them again can take a lot of time. Especially tracking down each and every drum sample in an Impulse or something.

So why does this happen, can I prevent it from happening, and is there a tip/trick to resolving issues en masse rather than one at a time?

Btw, I'm on one of the (white) Intel Core 2 Duo MacBooks, but this also would happen on my previous PPC MacBook Pro.

[jok]

Hi Jhimm.

how exactly do you save your projects? I would recommend to avoid saving the projects itself into your Library folder, as this is meant as the place to store your factory- and user presets.

Create a new, dedicated folder for your Livesets outside of Live´s Library folder, save your new sets directly into this folder, a project folder each new project will be created automatically, all newly recorded audio files are automatically stored in these project folders, and missing media files should not be an issue.
Please refer to the user manual (chapter 5.6 / Live Projects) for further info regarding file management & projects.

Best,
Jörg

[jhimm]

Thank you for your response, Jörg.

I do not keep my Projects in the Library folder.

Also, to clarify, I have my own personal directory of samples that I use which I also keep separate from both the Live Library and from my Projects.

In Mac OS X it looks something like this, a bit over simplified

...[username]/Music/Live-projects/project_1/
...[username]/Music/Live-projects/project_2/
...[username]/Music/Live-projects/project_3/
etc.

...[username]/Music/sample-vault/

...[username]/Library/Application Support/Ableton/Library/

It is the items in sample-vault that tend to go missing, but some are Ableton Library items as well.

However, I just noticed that there is also this location:

/[drivename]/Applications/Live/Live 6.0.9 OS X/Library/

I suspect this may be the root of the problem and that I need to find a way to correctly merge these two into one Library so that the Library items do not go missing?

[jok]

Hi Jhimm,

it´s not really possible to merge 2 different Libraries, you can only update an existing Library from an older version of Live to the most recent one: the Library will get restructured and the new content will get added (note: only the standard content coming with the Live 8/Ableton Suite Download verisons, you´ll have to reinstall any pack which came originally on DVDs only such as the EIC2 or Session Drums).
If you´d like to do that, simply select your old Library with the "Library location" preference setting in preferences/library, you´ll get automatically asked whether you want to update your old Library into Live 8 format. I would recommend to move your Live 6 Library folder to another location, as it is a bit risky having it in the Live 6 application folder, if you one day decide to get rid of Live 6, you may accidentally delete your Library as well.

However, which media files are exactly missing? Maybe the issue is already solved by installing the Live 7 legacy pack from here: http://www.ableton.com/livepacks

Best,
Jörg

[jhimm]

Some of the missing files are my own personal samples which I used in a project. Some are aspects of various Impulse drum kits and other things which would be coming from inside the Live Library.

Just to be sure I understand your suggestion, I should move from the location here:

/[drivename]/Applications/Live/Live 6.0.9 OS X/Library/

to the location here:

...[username]/Library/Application Support/Ableton/Library/

and that I can do that within the Ableton product itself rather than manually relocating the files.

Yes?

[jok]

Hi Jhimm,

you´ll first manually move the Library folder, then point Live to the new location with the "Library location" setting.

Best,
Jörg

[jhimm]

OK, this repair is underway. However, I'm not sure how this will in any way impact Live's inability (it seems) to "remember" where a sample of mine is located after a product upgrade. If the path to that sample has nothing to do with the Library location, why do I have to "remind" Live where those items are located if they haven't moved?

Does Live "learn" the locations of these items relative to the executable and thus the paths break when the executable ends up in a new location?

[jhimm]

Although I am glad I re-built the Library and eliminated the confusion of having two libraries, this did not actually solve the problem. I opened a project that utilizes several drum samples taken from the Sample Hits directory that I'd created with Live v7 and it indicated all of those samples were missing in Live v8 even after the Library was re-built and Live v8 was pointed to that location.