What exactly does "Repair Library" do?

[BoddAH]

I looked in the manual and even on the Internet but I haven't found a clear explanation of what exactly "Repair Library" actually does and the Live in program help and manual is pretty vague.

I know it's supposed to "update the registry" in case you moved files in the Library from outside of Live or something, but I'm not sure if it does the following:

• Does it simply update the registry of the Library so it matches its current status or does it actually find missing factory files and reinstall them?
  
  If yes, does it only search and reinstall missing files or does it also revert modified files to the factory default settings? Let's say, if I modified a Factory Live Pack Instrument preset and saved it, will Repair Library bring it back to its normal status?
  
  Will it do all these things only with the actual default Packs of the library or with any installed Live Pack that appears in the Library list in Preferences?
  
  Where does Live fin the information to "repair" those files? I understand that some of it is stored in the Live installation folder (the default Live Packs) but what about the other installed packs downloaded on the internet?

[i3igTripplets]

I believe it does it's best to find files that you may have moved to another location on your HD that are needed for whatever project you are in.
I've never had it bail me out, I've tried it a few times, no bueno.

[3dot...]

I dread that button so...
really... I'd rather reinstall everything than press it !

[Tone Deft]

I dread that button so...
really... I'd rather reinstall everything than press it !

you big pussy, it's a good button.

I would love to hear from an Abe about this. we've talked about it on the forum, Angstrom added an idea that it could dig through a local file to sort stuff out, IIRC it calls home to Ableton to sort things out but we really don't know. I have seen in changelogs that they'll even do stuff like rename presets (make them shorter.)

[infiniteB]

Yes, advancement of Repair Library and a VISUAL (can click on what step backwards like Photoshop) undo are two MAJOR necessities for a professional studio/production environment that I would love to see in Live 9. If you agree, +1, bump, or sniff this.

[3dot...]

man listen..
it's very slow..
I did the mistake of trying to 'fix' the Library back in L7 I think..
bad idea...
took it 18 hrs. to complete (40Gb) ..
and it made more of a mess than anything..
samples went 'missing' when they were there...
many duplicate files ...
really silly..

[3dot...]

also ...the browser search-bar is one of the worst ever !

[icedsushi]

man listen..
it's very slow..
I did the mistake of trying to 'fix' the Library back in L7 I think..
bad idea...
took it 18 hrs. to complete (40Gb) ..
and it made more of a mess than anything..
samples went 'missing' when they were there...
many duplicate files ...
really silly..

That's the same thing that happened to me! I did it back in Live 7 too. Beforehand, there was nothing I knew of being "broken" but I thought, hey maybe it would do some good or fill in some missing stuff I didn't know I was missing "just in case".

I ended up having to delete my library, reinstall Live suite & then reinstalli all the packs one by one, all the Ableton & the 3rd party packs. It was a good thing I saved the installers from the 3rd party stuff.

I'm good to go since, but I'm dreading what if I click on that button again by accident!

[Tone Deft]

simple, don't mess with the Library to begin with.

you misuse Live and wonder why it breaks?

[BoddAH]

As far as I know (better put: think to know) 'repair library' goes over the livepacks located in "Resources\DefaultPackages" and then compares those with the current library contents. Anything which is included in one of the livepacks but not in your library will get re-included again. Nothing more, nothing else.

Alright seems about right but what about Live Packs that are present in the Library but have files that have accidentally been modified?

What about Live Packs other than the default ones? I saw it scanning and "repairing" some of those as well (EIC 2, Loopmasters, etc.).

[3dot...]

simple, don't mess with the Library to begin with.

you misuse Live and wonder why it breaks?

how am I misusing?
isn't the library supposed to be an easy path to stuff you reuse?
like presets and samples?
am I missing something?

[luddy]

simple, don't mess with the Library to begin with.

you misuse Live and wonder why it breaks?

how am I misusing?
isn't the library supposed to be an easy path to stuff you reuse?
like presets and samples?
am I missing something?

I think that what he meant is that 'repair library' should only be necessary if something odd is done to the library. Ordinarily there is no need to repair it because it isn't broken. I kind of suspect that the most common way to get a farkled library is to move stuff around, for example to put the library in another location but somehow end up installing other content or updates in the original location, something like that, so that links get broken that are internal to the library. I think that what repair library does above all is to re-link the library so that all the samples and extra files are referred to in their proper location.

-Luddy

[Pasha]

I had to press the Repair button only twice and in such occasion I had a failure during a package installation due to missed dependencies which I did not update before installing the new one. Repair brought all back to working state although it took 30 minutes for 36 GB Library!

My 2 cents
-Pasha

[perplex]

i think it repairs the library. im not sure.

[i3igTripplets]

also ...the browser search-bar is one of the worst ever !

Amen, it's slower than the second coming