Ableton Forum

hi guys is there any way of stopping ableton scanning plug ins at start up?
its taking around 12 to 15 minutes
ive got a good few
im having to wait for scan to finish or i end up getting the mac beach ball for ever
many thanks

Ok this is what I've done
In preferences I've disabled all vst3 and I'm on mac so now using
AU2 only.i had both switched to on.
I've rebooted iMac
All AU2 working.
Ableton 11 up and running in seconds not 12 to 15 minutes.
I've opened up multiple plug ins and all working fine
The beachball all but gone.
AU not on windows so hope Mac users with this problem benefit
Cheers guys
Ps:the scan is super quick no lag

The problem is shortcuts in your plugin folder. Do you have any U-he plugins? For example, if you install Diva, it will create a folder named Diva.data somewhere on your system drive. Then the installer creates a shortcut to Diva.data in the plugin folder. This shortcut is there for backwards compatibility (with older OS versions). I emailed U-he and they told me this was not needed for current OS's and it was safe to delete the shortcuts. Once I deleted the shortcuts, the plugin scan went from taking 5 minutes to taking just seconds. I emailed Ableton support about this in 2023. Initially they were reluctant to admit the problem was with their software, but the fact is other DAWs do not have this problem at all. Eventually, Ableton kinda reluctantly admitted the problem was with their plugin scanner, but two versions later (since Live 10) and they still have not fixed it. It's annoying because this one should be very easy to fix.

You can google "ableton plugin scan slow" and will find many threads about it.

I'm only using VST2/VST3 on my Macs and have no issues with plugin scanning so this doesn't seem to be an issue for all Mac users

cids wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 11:49 am

I'm only using VST2/VST3 on my Macs and have no issues with plugin scanning so this doesn't seem to be an issue for all Mac users

I can only speak for Windows. On windows, the issue only happens with plugins that put shortcuts in the VST folder. U-he plugins do that, or at leat used to. Regardless, this problem seems to affect many users and it should be a top priority to fix it. My modus operand is fix existing sh*t before implementing new features.

Ok, I understand, but the original poster is on Mac

cids wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 12:11 pm

Ok, I understand, but the original poster is on Mac

Yep. But I suspect it's the same problem. Windows isn't the culprit—the Ableton plugin scanner is. Both MacOS and Windows have file and folder shortcuts, so the VST3 scanning mechanism is bound to be the same. Disabling VST3 plugins merely hides the problem.

I have 14 U-He plugins installed on my 2 Macs (VST2 and VST3 versions) and don't have any scanning issues - of course there might be other plugins that create aliases in the macOS plugins folder or it can be that the user has done this that is causing these issues...

cids wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2025 3:28 pm

I have 14 U-He plugins installed on my 2 Macs (VST2 and VST3 versions) and don't have any scanning issues - of course there might be other plugins that create aliases in the macOS plugins folder or it can be that the user has done this that is causing these issues...

Cool, I guess then the Mac version of Live doesn't have this problem. On Windows it's confirmed because I shared my workaround on Reddit and a lot of users who went Googling for a solution found it useful. For me it's not a huge deal as I already have a working workaround but I think this is under-reported and a lot of users who've only ever used Ableton are just putting up with the slow scans, thinking it's their fault for having too many plugins installed. For me it was so bad that I would use a different DAW (FL Studio or Reaper) just to demo new plugins before buying. But anyway, glad you guys have it working on your Macs.

On Mac, presets are saved in a separate folder so they don't interfere with the plugin scan. The plugin folders don't have shortcuts to these preset folders.
I don't understand why shortcuts to preset folders are necessary within the plugin folders on Windows. I experienced significant delays during plugin scans on Windows, particularly with numerous u-he plugins with many presets.
The real issue is that Live Indexer scans all files instead of just the .dll and .vst files. It shouldn't be that hard to filter by extension. My file manager could do it quickly.
It's similar to checking for disk space when you install Live. This process takes forever when it should only take a second or two, especially if you check after selecting the installation folder. Then, there is no need to check other drives.
It would be great if Live finally received some attention in these specific Windows areas.