Ableton Forum

So I tried to search for an answer to this question already will no success so here it goes.

1 laptop - 1 desktop

Would I run into issues if i saved the library + everything else related to my ableton projects on 1 external, and just swapped that external between the desktop and laptop?

My assumption is that as long as the filepath is maintained between the 2 computers pointing to the same library on the external, this should work. Anyone tried this?

As far as Ableton finding the files? I don't think you'd have a problem. However I wouldn't use an external hard drive for any of my projects. Ableton is slow enough retrieving samples from an internal hard drive. The latency and transfer rate on external hard drives are much worse due to the interface (USB or Firewire; ESATA would probably be okay).

If you're using your laptop with an external hard drive for live sets, this is especially precarious. I've had tracks drop out due to my external hard drive randomly disconnecting while DJing (was using other software, but this would cause the same problem in Live). You know that if something bad can happen, it's going to happen in the middle of an important live set. In my case it's always been at house parties with my friends - no big deal (I wouldn't even be using the external if I hadn't decided 5 mins before leaving for the party to bring my DJ stuff...).

Finally, I don't trust keeping my files long term on an external that gets moved around. Externals are easy to loose, drop, get busted, leave next super magnets, etc. If you want to loose all of your data, keeping everything on an external is a great way to do it.