Ableton Live in permanent installation | Autostart

[mp3museum]

Hello,

currently I am trying to run ableton in a permanent museum installation on windows 10.
The computer is booting with power on in the morning and is shut down in the evening by turning off power.

Now Ableton intro 10 asks on boot to recover unsaved changes after a bad shutdown

Is there any way to disable this?
startup parameters --> could not find any
options.txt --> not available in ableton 10 anymore
mouse scripting to click yes would be my least favourite solution ...

It surprises me that ableton does not seem to offer a solid unattended autostart.
All the video-mixing-mapping software I know has no problem with this task and I could imagine there are also some embedded audio installations using ableton.

Thanks & Greetings

[TLW]

Booting and shutting down a modern computer by killing its power rather than the proper shutdown procedure is a bit risky. Modern OSs don’t like it and it can result in all kinds of odd problems over time, including scrambled disk file systems if drives aren’t dismounted properly or if the power is cut while OS-related saves and other activity are going on. Using a sleep or, better, hibernate function instead of or before shutting down and powering off would be a safer idea and hopefully prevent the issue you’re having problems with.

Another way might be to create a script that shuts down Live properly then sends the shut down command to the operating system. The contents of the script would obviously depend on the operating system being used.

[mp3museum]

I know, but often it's the only way and even if a proper scheduled shutdown procedure exists you always want your installation to reboot reliable after a crash. Windows 10 does handle it surprisingly well if some settings are done.

Finally I found these very useful threads:
viewtopic.php?t=194945
viewtopic.php?t=161743
viewtopic.php?t=177825&start=45

I added an \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\Options.txt containing:

Code: Select all

DisableAutoBugReporting
DisableUpdateOverviews
DontLogExceptions

and my autostart.bat looks like this:

Code: Select all

@echo off

:: remove crash and undo related files
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\CrashDetection.cfg"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\CrashRecoveryInfo.cfg"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Log.txt"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Undo.cfg"

rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Crash"

:: remove logs
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Temp"
MD "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Temp"
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Usage"
MD "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Usage"

start "Ableton" "C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 10 Intro\Program\Ableton Live 10 Intro.exe" "C:\Users\***\Desktop\test Project\testproject.als"

So far it works great with Ableton Live Intro 10.1.14

Any improvements welcome.

[chapelier fou]

It can be done with max for live

[jestermgee]

You could leave your current power on/off solution in place for the case where you have a freeze and want it to completely reboot by the next day.

But have a script close Live and then shut down correctly is the best way then just add that to the scheduled task in windows so it shuts down before power is then switched off. You can easily do that with a batch script if you are already familiar with that

https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000321.htm

It may work fine as you are doing but one day it wont and trying to clean up after improper shutdown is kind of the backward way of fixing a leaking boat by drilling a second hole to let the water out.

[chapelier fou]

Already said it, but I would do a small max for live device. It has access to dialog boxes so target the right one and it’s done. Check my « do not save »device in maxforlive.com, it uses this method.

[chapelier fou]

When I think of it, I once made and installation using live where everything was shut down with just one button. I believe it was using an Arduino (but could be anything) and a max app turning the computer down. In the live set I placed a « do not save » device.

[selsiusx]

I know, but often it's the only way and even if a proper scheduled shutdown procedure exists you always want your installation to reboot reliable after a crash. Windows 10 does handle it surprisingly well if some settings are done.

Finally I found these very useful threads:
viewtopic.php?t=194945
viewtopic.php?t=161743
viewtopic.php?t=177825&start=45

I added an \Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live x.x.x\Preferences\Options.txt containing:

Code: Select all

DisableAutoBugReporting
DisableUpdateOverviews
DontLogExceptions

and my autostart.bat looks like this:

Code: Select all

@echo off

:: remove crash and undo related files
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\CrashDetection.cfg"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\CrashRecoveryInfo.cfg"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Log.txt"
DEL /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Undo.cfg"

rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live 10.1.14\Preferences\Crash"

:: remove logs
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Temp"
MD "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Temp"
rmdir /S /Q "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Usage"
MD "C:\Users\***\AppData\Roaming\Ableton\Live Reports\Usage"

start "Ableton" "C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 10 Intro\Program\Ableton Live 10 Intro.exe" "C:\Users\***\Desktop\test Project\testproject.als"

So far it works great with Ableton Live Intro 10.1.14

Any improvements welcome.

This looks exactly like what i need as well! thanks for sharing! Do you have any idea how to autostart transport too? I have Live Intro installed so a .amxd device is not really possible I guess...?

[selsiusx]

for future reference:
If you also want the playback to start automatically:

I used a virtual midi device (Loopmidi on windows) and this to send a midi CC change https://github.com/gbevin/SendMIDI
Then I mapped the start button in Ableton to that midi command and voila!

[chapelier fou]

Also super easy to do in Max for Live.

[selsiusx]

Also super easy to do in Max for Live.

sure, but not if you only have Live lite (like the ones bundled with an audio interface..)